As an esteemed colleague of mine once said of patients/clients: “laughter is a sign that healing has begun.” It’s so very true.

Norman Cousins is probably our best known example of this Truth. Norman Cousins (June 24, 1915 – November 30, 1990) was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate.

At age 11, he was misdiagnosed with tuberculosis and placed in a sanatorium. Despite this, he was an athletic young man, displaying early on the optimistic character that ultimately gave him years of life, long past the “expiration date” given
to him by his doctors.

It was as a professor at UCLA, where he did research on the biochemistry of human emotions, that led him to his belief that positive emotions held the key to healing.

He wrote a collection of best-selling non-fiction books on illness and healing, as well as a 1980 autobiographical memoir, Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook.

Late in life Cousins the diagnosis was changed to ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a form of crippling arthritis. Though it was later speculated that he actually had reactive arthritis instead, but the result was the same: chronic debilitating pain and disability.

His struggle with this illness is detailed in the book and movie “Anatomy of an Illness,” about illness as perceived by the patient: reflections on healing and regeneration.

Told that he had little chance of surviving Cousins developed his own recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers

It was this belief that allowed him to fight the ravages of his illnesses, even his later diagnosed heart disease. He fought both by taking massive doses of Vitamin C and,
according to him, by training himself to laugh.

Taking his own advice, he prescribed for himself a program of laughter daily: “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep,” he reported.

“When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

He died of heart failure on November of 1990, having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: 10 years after his first heart attack, 26 years after his collagen illness, and 36 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease.

He proved his theory by being his own best doctor, leaving us a legacy that proves that “laughter really is our best medicine.”

Medical science has come a long way since then, proving more and more completely that our bodies follow the pictures, attitudes and emotions in our minds. Of course, there is no better way to utilize these ideas than with hypnotherapy.

If you’re struggling with illness in any form, hypnosis provides a sturdy vehicle for wellness.

Here’s to your success…

Susan French

http://www.hypno4success.com