You CAN Heal Yourself: Healing’s No Serious Business

So maybe you need to lighten up. There are many articles, books, and studies that prove that your body will heal itself faster and better if you are relaxed and happy. And laughter is still the best medicine. My hero is Dr. Norman Cousins, who published his landmark book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, in 1979. He was a professor at UCLA, where he studied the biochemistry of human emotions and their relationship to healing. When Cousins was hospitalized with a debilitating and supposedly irreversible collagen illness, he decided to take his health into his own hands. With the go-ahead from his doctor, he signed himself out of the hospital, went to a hotel, and watched funny movies until he healed himself, also taking vitamin C. Instead of drama, he chose healing so he could continue his work. I like this guy.

Pioneers in the mind-body-spirit field have done studies that prove that your mind can heal your body. Dr. Joe Dispenza attaches electrodes and watches brain waves of his workshop attendees. With elevated emotion added to intent, miracles happen. He’s documented them. Some people with cancer and other autoimmune diseases have healed themselves. He uses the quantum field, a void that quantum physicists like to talk about, to create many things, including health. He learned that without the elevated emotion (joy, love, peace, gratitude, for example), nothing happens. I think this guy’s onto something.

And years ago, I attended a Humor Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, led by Joel Goodman, founder of the Humor Project. I googled him and evidently he’s still out there making them laugh. The HUMOR Project, Inc. is the first organization in the world to focus full-time on the positive power of humor. They help people get more “smileage” out of their lives and jobs by applying the practical, positive power of humor and creativity. On his website, Goodman says, “Laughter enhances respiration and circulation, oxygenates the blood, suppresses the stress-related hormones in the brain, and activates the immune system. Indeed, laughter is the jest medicine!”

So you might want to program some laughter into your healing regime, take yourself more lightly, and find joy in the ever-present moment. Your life will improve. Guaranteed.