Is it actually possible to LEARN how to feel better? You bet!
The body-mind-emotion connection is not only scientifically known but also quite apparent when you try out some simple steps. When your body feels uneasy, your mind can improve it. The influence of positive thought in healing is clearly evidenced from many sources. Norman Cousin, in his memoir “Anatomy of an Illness” describes relief from a very painful spine condition in watching comedies. He claims that watching 10 minutes of funny videos allowed him two hours of pain free sleep.
Are you ready to learn some simple steps?
1. Become your own best friend. Always, always be on your side, no matter what. Be quick to forgive mistakes and ready with a kind word to yourself. Imagine that you are talking to a vulnerable small child. If your habit is to scold yourself, berate yourself, judge yourself or otherwise put yourself down, watch for these tendencies and replace them with positive, uplifting, and encouraging words.
2. Don’t look down. Tightrope walkers and mountain climbers subscribe to this motto because they know that the body has a tendency to follow the eyes. In a literal sense, avoid looking down. If you find yourself depressed, raise your head and lift your eyes. Your stomach relaxes, your diaphragm unclench, you take deeper breaths, and your thoughts also follow an upward direction.
3. Practice gratitude. We often focus on what we don’t have or what is wrong. Each expression of how bad it is, how we lack this and that, increases these burdens. Each negative thought adds to the weight until it is so heavy that we cannot bear it. Make a list in your daily journal of all the things for which you are grateful.
4. Smile. Even if you don’t feel like smiling, smile anyway. Smile when you talk on the phone or type on the computer. Smiling filters different thoughts into your mind. If you smile long enough, you’ll find yourself smiling at yourself smiling!
5. Laugh. Read, watch, or listen to something funny at least once a day. Seek others with whom to share humor. The online community is a great source for funny jokes, audio, video clips and the like.
6. Share. Take steps 1-5, bundle them all up, and share them. Write them in a daily journal. As negative focus increases the weight of the burden, positive expression relieves it. Tell a joke to someone. Give an encouraging word. Share something for which you are grateful. Give or receive some helpful advice. Your example inspires others and rewards you all over again!
Do something NOW to make contact with friends. There is power in action!
It’s not easy to have sense of humor if we have to face so many problems everyday… However, one has to cultivate it exactly because we live in a crazy world full of mistakes that stress us continuously.
Humor can mean the indifference one has to the horrors of this world or one’s satisfaction with immoral fantasies, which are harmful because indifference is a psychic disease since the person is disconnected with the painful reality they observe and immorality has tragic consequences that provoke craziness, terror and despair.
Many people laugh when someone falls in the street or is in a horrible situation, but in this case, their reaction means that they are indifferent to other people’s pain. This cold and cruel reaction indicates psychic insensitivity.
However, humor has a positive meaning when it means indifference to bad situations and when it comes from funny images that have a cute aspect. When we see a baby trying to do something like an adult we can only laugh at the child’s attempts that are graceful even though it fails in doing what it wants.
Those that have to use their humor in order to face the bad side of everyone in our crazy world or to show patience in front of human problems need irony, the best tool for these cases. Instead of complaining about the rude way they are treated for example, they make fun of their aggressor’s “style,” thus showing their indifference to the aggression and putting an end to this story, instead of arguing about it and creating many more problems by causing a fight and much sadness.
Humor means having a good spirit when faced with problems provoked by others, since it means forgiveness and an attempt to give a positive spin to the sad situation.
However, depressed people are not able to develop their humor because their psychic problems prevent them from relaxing and having the desire to laugh. For them, it is impossible to see anything funny anywhere, because they are suffering and their constant pain is always hurting them.
They can find relief and psychotherapy in their dreams’ messages, that can cure their depression and help them develop their humor, so that they’ll be able to use this tool when facing several problems or simply as a way to relax and feel happy for a moment. Without psychotherapy their humor cannot function; nothing is funny for them.
Nevertheless, when they solve their basic psychic problems, instead of complaining for everything and hating their enemies, humor starts helping them add a color and shine to their simple daily moments of life, as well as having a philosophy of life that is always forgiving and always looking for peace and joy.
