Monday, December 5, 2016

Healthy Humour

Dr. Patch Adams changed the despair of his patients with his cheerful clowning! Convinced of the powerful connection between environment and health, he employed innovative ways in using humour to bring hope and healing to his patients... by dressing up like a clown and decorating the patient’s bed with colourfull balloons. Along with friends, Patch founded a model ‘happy’ hospital – the Gesundheit Institute – where the pain of patients is treated with a patch of humour.

Humour helps because smiling and laughing triggers the secretions of morphine-like chemicals known as endorphins. Endorphins strengthen the immune system (responsible for fighting disease and enhancing recovery), reduce pain, and relax the body. Humour is an excellent aid for treatment of a defeated mind.

Humour works because it distracts people from their worries and pain and it restores perspective. It does not alter the situation, but it helps you to cope with the pain. It reduces fear and worries that seem larger than they actually may be. It makes us look at the brighter side to dark things by focussing on hope and positive thoughts.

We need to face every feeling of despair with a genuine display of care and humour. We should choose to spread cheer and hope by lifting the spirits of those who seem to have succumbed to the situation. And of course, we must start with our own selves by seeing the positives in every problem that seizes us!

Take every depressing ailment head-on…
choose to sing the healthy humour song!


- Pravin K. Sabnis

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