Optimism
and Health
“We
generally think of optimism and pessimism as just feelings and
emotions. But, they're the simple things that make a huge difference
in our health.”
Larry
Dossey, M.D.
Internist,
Larry Dossey, has written extensively about the power of “tender
loving care” to heal, about prayer's ability to affect outcome, and
about how words said to a patient positively or negatively influence
their experience of treatment. In his book, Reinventing Medicine, he
wrote, “I used to believe that we must choose between science and
reason, on one hand, and spirituality on the other, in how we lead
our lives. Now I consider this a false choice. We can recover the
sense of sacredness, not just in science, but in perhaps every area
of life.”
An
optimistic attitude is critical to healing, but sometimes hard to
pull off when you're sick or hurting. Optimism, though, doesn't have
to be an aggressive attitude that is constantly pronouncing one's
determination to overcome. It can be quietly holding in one's heart
the prayer and hope of recovery, and then doing the things that
support health—taking responsibility for one's own body/mind the
same way one takes care of a child's needs. Optimism can extend life
even when a cure is not possible. Best of all, in the absence of
disease, optimism fuels a healthy body, and promotes a robust immune
system, so that illnesses occur less often and are of shorter
duration.
Pessimism
does just the opposite. A negative outlook on life, and disbelief in
possibilities that life holds is poisonous to both body and soul. A
pessimistic attitude is anathema to good health. Our bodies cannot
generate negative energy and remain healthy. Pessimism suppresses our
immune system, as though we are starving it of nutrients it needs for
proper functioning. Further, when we generate negativity, we attract
to us the negative life events that we so fear.
There's
a lot of free floating pessimism in the world today. We need to
recover our attitude of optimism. We can do this by bringing a sense of the sacred to everything we say or do, to everything we
involve ourselves in, and to every person we meet. Life is sacred.
When we hold it so, we are far more likely to generate positive
energy. Our bodies and souls, and the world's body and soul, need
that right now.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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