“Remove physiological stress from the body and the body does what it was designed to do. It heals itself.”
-Dr. Ben Johnson
I’ve been re-reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and came across this piece of wisdom about health.
According to the book, the state of your health reflects the state of your mind and no matter what illness or disease you have, you can literally think your way back to health.
I remember when I was a kid, I used to think myself sick when I was too lazy to go to school. I would imagine my body was feeling weak and hot like it would if I had a real fever. I would think that my head was spinning from dizziness and try to bring up some vomit. Of course, it always worked.
Back then, it was just a convenient little trick for me.
But later on, I realized just how powerful the mind can be.
Years ago, I experienced unexplainable stomach pains and weakness. I couldn’t get out of bed and I was throwing up everything I ate. It went on for days that my parents finally decided to take me to the hospital.
I was diagnosed with UTI. But the doctor said my sickness could have also been psychosomatic.
At that time, a friend died and I was under severe depression.
It occurred to me that I may not have been sick physically after all, I was just sick in the head.
I figured if your mind is filled with negative thoughts and sick thoughts, your body will eventually give in.
Try a little experiment. Suppose I inform you about a condition that commonly affects women called fibromyalgia and run you through a list of its symptoms:
- widespread body pains
- morning stiffness
- nausea
- difficulty sleeping
- chronic headache
- fatigue
- mood swings
- depression
- painful menstrual periods
After you’re done with this list, I wouldn’t be surprised if you might conclude that you could possibly have this condition.
Is it possible that you can acquire a disease just by thinking about it? Can you really get sick just because of negative thinking? I think so.
I know some people who are “always sick” and I think it’s no coincidence that they are extreme worry-warts, perfectionists and pessimists.
No matter how many meds they take they remain sick. If ever they do get well, they get sick again because even if they’ve cured their bodies, they haven’t really cured their minds — which IMHO maybe the source of their sickness.
The good thing is, a shift in thinking may help you change the state of your health and the state of your body.
Remember how I thought I may have had carpal tunnel syndrome because of the numbness in my left hand and the pain in my wrist? Well, I haven’t really changed much of my typing habits, in fact I work in front of the computer all the time now but the numbness is gone.
I didn’t take any meds or do any therapy, I simply stopped thinking about it and used my left hand as if it felt normal. And I think it worked. Bye-bye numbness.
(Now that I think about it, I guess I can do the same thing with my back aches. Now, why didn’t I think of that earlier?)
Positive thinking may not be an exact science but if it helps me to be healthy then I’m happy to be an optimist.
Think healthy thoughts! 
