Laughter, a self experiment

Have you ever thought about the health benefits of simple laughter? Really it makes sense that laughter would improve your health. Think about it. Humor reduces tension, stress and anxiety. All of those negative emotions have been linked to chronic illness. OK you say, show me the research. I'd like to challenge you to take the laughter test yourself. You should believe what you experience in your own life even if it goes counter to some supposed research.

One of my pet peeves is Doctors ignoring a patient's correlation of the commencement of a negative health issue to just after they started taking some medication, a new job, or some other simple change in the patients life. The patient knows better but the Doctor just refuses to accept the correlation. Either the patient gets another Doctor or they begin to doubt themselves and they quite paying serious attention to their body's warning signals. I'll address this more fully in a future post. I'll give you some suggestions as to how to get your Doctor/primary care person to listen to you and how to be your own best patient advocate.

If you are having a bad day it may seem impossible to laugh. Norman Cousins claimed to use humorous movies and jokes to help him laugh when he didn't feel like it. There are a ton of websites and articles on the internet that gives reasons for why we should strive to laugh more.

So having said that, believe your own observations. Try adding a committed period of laughter to your day, say 5 to 15 minutes all at one time or just scattered throughout the day. Do whatever you resonate with. If you decide to commit to this, it would be great if you could make a comment about just what you observed about yourself. Did your days seem to flow better, worse, or was there no change? Did it change the way you handled stressful situations? Was there any affect on your pain/stiffness/blood sugar/blood pressure or any other health issues? There is research out there that does confirm that those that laugh and use humor to get through their day seem to have fewer health problem.

Would this be considered a scientific experiment? Probably not, but if you pay attention to details, how your feel both emotionally and physically, you might gain some very useful personal insightful information for yourself that you can use day in and day out but can also pass onto others.First hand experience is invaluable! Give it a try. Besides, it won't cost you even a penny. At most it will take a little commitment and time. Journal your experience and you will get more out of it. Sometimes things change in such subtle ways that we don't really see the change unless we have logged where we have been. This happens very often with EFT.(See my earlier post on this very effective form of self help)

Laugh a lot and love abundantly,

Till next time,
Healthbug

Baby steps

One of my favorite sayings is small changes = BIG results. One of the first and easiest things a person can do is talk kindly to ourselves. "What!" you say, "That's not healthcare, that's self-esteam issues." Bear with me for a moment.
Health is our well-being, that means every aspect of us, physical, spiritual, and yes mental. In fact, it is a well know fact that there is a mental component to 75 to 85% of every illness! Does that mean that your mind makes you sick? Maybe! The important thing is that we know it is a component, a very integral part of our health. If we do not address how we think and most especially our attitudes, we are missing a very important component that we can have some control over.

Thinking positive and having an attitude of gratitude can improve ones outlook on life. Happy people live longer and enjoy life more. It can be an easy first baby step to taking responsibility for those things that you can take charge of.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a very helpful tool to use to get over some of our more deeply intrenched negative thinking habits. Check out this website. http://www.emofree.com/ There is lots of free information there to ponder.

Until Later,
Healthbug