THE MISSING LINK….HEALTH, HOPE, & HAPPINESS

                                    “More fun than Sweating and Spinach”

“Medical Science does not know how to quantify the healing effects of joy.” Nelsa Ciaponni, MD

Dusty had a double mastectomy 5 years ago, but the cancer had returned. She had lots of unsuccessful chemo, and her future looked

bleak. Doctors recommended a drug trial, but she knew that it would mean that she would not be able to have quality time with her daughter in the last summer before she left for college.

So Dusty made a radical decision. She stopped the chemo and decided to pack as much good times into that summer as she could. She joined hundreds of other women riding their motorcycles across the county to raise awareness and money for breast cancer. And she soaked up lots of her daughter’s company.  When the summer was over, she went in for a medical check up.  She was found to be CANCER FREE!

When I read this story in Tamela Rich’s book “Full Throttle,”“ I was thrilled for Dusty, but not surprised. Tamela too reclaimed her life by reconnecting with her own joy. There are many stories like these, but we sometimes think they only happen to someone else or are a fluke.

The quote from Dr. Ciaponni really said it all. What if there is much more to the healing effects of joy than we have been led to believe?

Daily we are bombarded with huge amounts of ever changing information about how to “fix” our bodies, most of which are of the “no gain, no pain”  mentality. Ugh – no wonder we don’t follow that advice.  We don’t hear very much about changing our emotions in order to change our health.

What happened to body, mind, and spirit? Somehow we have lost being whole humans and are only seen as parts.

Some years ago in England, a group launched a “Happiness Project “ in an effort to help reduce and prevent illness. Participants who enrolled in the project were subjected to thorough scientific tests to measure the results. They found that being happier actually changes your brain for the better in many powerful ways. Wow!

And since my brain can use all the help I can give it, I have nothing to lose and my mind to gain, or gain back, by being happier.

At Harvard, the most poplar course in the whole school is on the psychology of happiness. (And you thought going to Harvard was just  about how to be president!). The instructor, Dr.Tal Ben-Sharar,  wrote a book called “Happier,”  about what he had learned from the class. Now I’m not smart enough to get into Harvard, but I’m smart enough to learn from them, and you are too

What a radical idea   …being happier really makes us healthier and it is much more fun that sweating and spinach!

The more I learn about the connection between happiness and health, the more excited I am to find out more.  I’m not saying that I know a lot yet, but it makes so much sense to me that I am very excited to share what I have found out.  After all, we know a lot about how unhappy emotions can make us feel bad – why not learn more about what we can do easily to have more positive emotions?  And besides, being a very bossy woman, I like having more control over my health and my life.  Maybe you can relate?

The Health, Hope, & Happiness workshops coming up will provide a place to learn more about this mind/body connection and will be fun at the same time. What’s not to like?

As for my personal journey, I’m realizing that just adding a“Daily Dose of Delight” is becoming as important as taking my vitamins.

It is something to look forward to, and it’s free.

And when someone asks me what I‘m doing, I will just say,

 “I’m taking my medication,” and then I will laugh out loud!