Friday, September 25, 2009

Turning a frown into a smile could be a cure

There's so much we have yet to learn about the relationship between mind and body - specifically, the ability of self-healing. Only recently have some doctors come forward to admit that they habitually treat some patients with placebos in certain circumstances, with positive results. So there seems to be at least some evidence that people can get well on their own in many situations - they just have to believe that there is some force helping the body heal.

I would like to take the discussion one step further. I have a belief that positive and negative emotion can manifest in the physical realm. I have not yet found such a study, but I am willing to wager that if unbiased medical researchers were to study the potential link between emotional state of mind and the body's capacity for healing and disease / ailment worsening, they would find that negative emotional states are like fertilizer for what ails us. Conversely, positive emotional states, both in our selves and in the friends and relatives that are close to us, have an impact on our ability to get better. I think this would be a significant thing to study for cancer patients alone.

Even if you aren't quite sure whether this concept is real, I believe you owe it to the people you care about to surround them with positive emotion and remove all possible types of negative emotion and thought. I think many people would be surprised to discover how effective this approach to the healing process can be. Let's face it, even if you don't believe in any of this stuff, focusing on the positive can't hurt.

That's my feel good thought for the day.

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