Humor was once defined as “distance that approaches”. It is one of the best existing relieves for our tortured and overwhelmed left brain (it is like a delicious short circuit for him, like saying “don’t take everything to heart, there are more things”). Although there can be an excess of it just like anything, its versatility knows no limits. It is really healthy (there is nothing better than laughing, with the likely exception of its Siamese twin hugging), and it has a huge social power (nothing is more cohesive for a group than laughing together at the same thing).
What I propose here is a sort of game to face illness. The importance of good mood in any healing process will never be remarked enough. This practice is useful not for very complicated diseases, but for those tiny nuisances that we are bound to when we feel depressed (or in reverse: those tiny nuisances that, without being serious, can take us to depression with thoughts of the “I’m getting old” kind and the like, zzz).
Here is the thing: do not resist your worst premonitions. Make them real. Don’t be narrow minded: that sharp pain in your throat is not the preamble of influenza. Be more ambitious: today is your last day on Earth. The worst possible scenario has come true. You are going to die.
And then, having that in mind, you start to speak to yourself. Aloud, it is important. Tell yourself what do you regret not having done, what will you miss the most, how do you think you’ll be remembered. Use a theatrical, woeful tone. It’s a game, so let’s be serious! And don’t be rude to yourself. You are in a privileged situation now.
By doing this, we are taking advantage of a bad situation, turning weakness into strength. It is very usual to advise that one must remind that one’s time is limited, etc. When we are ill, we have the chance to “grab” that feeling, it is not just an abstract visualization anymore (and once the pain goes away, just the same as with tears, there works a nice mechanism of relief, too).
It is a game, and a very healthy one. In the case of subtle uneasiness, for example (that kind of things that you cannot define enough to tell a doctor about them), it conjures the spirit of disaster: to name is to have. A funny paradox is that, by “mocking” disease, you very often defeat it (it is also a terrific way to make long term plans…). Having a playful stance, you will be able to taste your pain better, and many times, feeling itself considered, it could even disappear. Many times, it is our fears which stand in the way of your healing. Our body, our organic functions, know better than the conscious mind. Well, the don’t know, they just do.
This is not a tool for everyone: it requires a playful stance and being a bit theatrical (having good imagination skills helps, too). But I guess if you’ve reached this far in this post I guess you fit the profile.
Other healthy games, roles, mockeries you like?