Laughter The Best Medicine

There is an increasing awareness today of the relationship between Health and our Mindset. Medical science is discovering that bitterness, lack of forgiveness and other such mindsets can increase and even cause ailments such as arthritis and related problems.

We find the wisest man in the world (Solomon) declaring “A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Let’s face it can you stay in a negative frame of mind when you are laughing your head off?

Quite a few years ago I heard a testimony of someone who was diagnosed with cancer and given just weeks to live. This person made a decision: “if I am going to die soon, I may as well die laughing”. Not a TOTALLY positive decision in itself, but at least they are thinking in a positive direction.

So they set off to the local video store to rent a bunch of the old funnies with stars such as Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello. These movies were their favorites and so they spent days watching these old time comedies and laughing and laughing.

Good clean fun, those were the days. I certainly remember these movies. I used to love them (and still do). My favorite comedy team was Laurel and Hardy. I also enjoyed the Marx Brothers.

Interesting fact about the Marx Brothers: I recently learned from a TV documentary, that Harpo could actually speak. His voice was ridiculed by someone and so he responded by refusing to speak, this we know him as the non speaking member of the group.

Laurel and Hardy were crazy yet genius in comedy, a very unlikely pair (one from London and one from Georgia). I remember seeing many of their movies during my youth. Of course I am still in my youth

For our cancer patient there was of course no room for remorse, sadness or any negative thinking during those days of such mirth. What was result of this exercise? Instead of dying laughing, they LIVED, the cancer gone.

Yes mindset DOES affect our health.
I have already mentioned this, but it is so important it bears mentioning again. Even physicians now agree that things like arthritis and many other ailments can be greatly attributed to harboring bitterness, anger and unforgiveness in our hearts and minds. So a good laugh that helps clear the mind can certainly be

Is it possible that laughter could also help with weight loss?
A good twitter friend, Shileen Nixen, has an excellent testimony of how she was able to conquer her weight problem once she faced the fact that “it was the emotional and mindset part that needed major work”. We have already discussed how laughter can help turn mindsets to a positive direction. See her article: Weight Loss Weigh More Than a Diet

There is also an excellent three part series on Mindset and Weightloss to be found on www.transformedfitness.com

The state of our minds plays a VERY important role in every area of our lives, including health and weight loss. After all Solomon who was the wisest man who every lived did say “As he thinks in his heart, so is he” Ps 23:7.

Remember Solomon also knew that laughter is good when he said: “A merry heart does good like a medicine”. Proverbs 17:22

Now that’s one medicine I can take! How about you? Have you taken time to have a good laugh today?

Rewritten and submitted by Jill Rapley, http://www.mindsetforliving.com