Humor is an under rated aspect in the healing experience. Who hasn't had a thigh-slapping laugh fest, or a few minutes when the laughing was so deep in oneself, the body just shook with no sound coming out? How does one feel after? Like all of one's "pipes" have been cleared, a sense of release, often followed by the arrival of a deeply satisfying containment. Humor is healing; it lightens the load, shows us the other side of the tragic, breaks up the held tensions and provides the body with vibrational ease.
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. Yiddish proverb
In Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers on Audio Download, Audio ..., Candace Pert (The Research of Candace Pert, PhD | Healing Cancer) said the emotions are registered and stored in the body in the form of chemical messages (known as neuropeptides, or amino acids, the building blocks of protein) which is the healing connection between the mind and the body. These neuropeptides is the way all cells in the body communicate with each other, including brain-to-brain messages and brain-to-body messages. One's emotional state effects whether we get sick from a virus or not depending on the kind and number of emotion-linked neuropeptides available at receptor sites that a virus' might visit. The more humor and laughter in your life, the more chemical messages are working for you and your health.
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln
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| Robert releasing |
It's a bit ludicrous that humor would be a help when in ill health or spirit. When you are not feeling great, laughing is seemingly the last thing at one's disposal. However, if humor is cultivated in one's life as a matter of routine prior to illness, it is a resource to draw upon when illness arrives. A sense of humor is not a silver bullet, which will cure disease and illness. Rather, it creates internal conditions, which support the body's basic healing and health-maintaining mechanisms.
The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease. Voltaire
If you are a serious type, the question is how to bring more belly laughing, lightness and play into one's life; to rediscover what we knew as young children-- simple humor. Many of the stress management, humor related materials suggest 60 minutes a week of comedic entertainment (funny movies, videos, etc). Collecting cartoons and keeping a book of them is a helpful reference. It also is an exercise in finding out what is really funny for you. Humor is different for everyone. The Marx Brothers send some into fits of guffaws, whereas Stephen Colbert's ludicrous irony leaves others smiling for hours. It is interesting to locate your specific funny bone and then feed it. Maintaining relationships with those you laugh with a lot is smart. There is a QiGong exercise of healing sounds that ends in a belly laugh. Three full breaths of "Ho Ho Ho" in a deep register while shaking your dantien, hand over hand. When done in a group especially, there are generally peels of "real" laughter that follow. It's hilarious, ridiculous and effective.
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| I wish my identity weren't so wrapped up with who I am. |
Amazon.com: Healing and the Mind (9780385476874): Bill Moyers ...
Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers 1 - The Mystery of Chi - Part 6 ...
"Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine"
When it first came out on PBS, Moyer's multi-part series Healing and the Mind had a big impact on me, especially the program about Ch'i. In those days, such stuff was very cutting edge, very unusual. I followed up by reading Encounters with Qi, by David Eisenberg -- who himself followed up by forming a new division at the Harvard Medical School for studying Alternative Medicine, and I believe he's still the head honcho there. (Hey: shades of your previous post!). On their website they make little mention of Qi, despite his background and experiences; my "guess" it that they found it a hard thing to study and quantify by Western standards, but I don't know that that is so.
ReplyDeleteYou probably know all about those folks, but if you haven't read his book, I bet you'd find it of interest, if only as background. No, it's not funny, and won't make you laugh, but still ....
you'd be surprised (maybe) what makes me laugh. An experience of moving Qi can send me over the moon.
DeleteYour guess about quantifying Qi or finding an evidence base anything in relation to it is probably exactly right. Western medicine research methods can't begin to justify or affirm measures of Qi; it's apple and oranges. Even though meridian lines in the body have been ingeniously proven with our fancy technology. Which brings us back to the discussion of the Sustainability and Health post, alas. There is an inflexibility present when assessing healing. It's not even an inflexibility, more like an obtuseness at looking at the science (the way the body works) and (non-allopathic) efficacy. As one doctor pointed out to me lately, the System is incredibly mechanical. There is an attachment to its gears even when they fail to relate or even work as part of the whole. The reaction has been to get even more systemitized ("accountable"). There is little wisdom, "art", finesse or breath present when not only considering a way of healing, but how to navigate the workings of an institution or health-related center. The answer (for them) has been to become narrower instead of more expansive. More to do with old ways of economizing considerations, I'm sure. This will be another post no doubt, the economy of healthcare and why "expansive" approaches aren't necessarily more costly, but the predictable fiscal contraction-expand cycle promotes the ongoing ineffective dysfunction of our healthcare economy.
I will revisit Eisenberg's "honcho-ness" and see how he's fairing with that. Thanks for re-locating him for me.
As always, thank you for your broad perspective and attention.
ah, the BEK cartoon. Love that cartoonist! And your post.
ReplyDeleteHealing is a feeling process, as much as anything... my wife and I share a sense of humor that kicks even even at the darkest moments. It's what keeps us going when all else fails.
Spouses are best for getting the most pleasure and pain, aren't they. lol.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of feeling very often in the healing process. It's an equal opportunity process, involving all parts of us. Our state and attitude definitely impact our physiology's healing act. The "Oneness" factor makes this so; we weren't designed to be fragmented and compartmentalized. We were designed to be Whole/Holy. The more inclusive we are in our perspective, the more "right" (full, whole) is the healing.
Thank you for your humor (and BEKs!) and your sharing, Lee.