Health Benefits of Family, Gratitude and Laughter

We all know the basics: eat right, drink water, sleep eight hours and exercise. All of these are important to long term health and vitality. What we often forget is the benefit of less tangible practices. Medical professionals have begun to recognize the impact of family support on recovery from heart attack and the importance of laughter in beating cancer. Many doctors are even beginning to look at distance healing through prayer or the impact of gratitude and positivity on healing in general. I must admit that if I were dealing with cancer I'm not sure I would choose "I Love Lucy" reruns as my sole treatment plan but you can bet I would include them!

Reports indicate that children laugh 300 times per day on average. Adults average around 20 times. This seemed profound to me. It really made sense when my young son began to communicate and laugh with me. I recognized him as the wonderful reminder and teacher he is. I found myself laughing with him, at him, and at myself many times a day. I began to watch what he found funny to try to understand the development of humor and laughter in a new person. What I realized was that humor is everywhere waiting for us to touch it. Sometimes he'll be acting up and I'll be tired and frustrated. We'll be fussing at each other and I'll just stop, look at him for a second and start to giggle. Every single time he giggles right along with me and we move into a brand new space together. I just choose to let go and so does he. Laughter oxygenates the body, increases brain function, reduces the effects of chronic stress and releases some of the best chemicals the body can produce. It seems to me that laughter really may be the best medicine.

Technology is a wonderful thing that has relieved much toil and drudgery but unfortunately it has also allowed us to believe that we don't need other people as we once did. There was a time that family and community were the keys to survival. Today's society fosters independence instead of interdependence and creates a false sense of separateness. Emotional and spiritual separateness have been associated with depression, emptiness, lowered immune response and even heart disease. This makes family and friends seem like a worthwhile investment in health!

Gratitude has had a little more good press in popular culture lately (partial thanks to Oprah!). It sounds easy to find things to be grateful for, at least for most people in this country. I'm grateful that I have a car that runs and that I can actually afford to put gas in it. I'm grateful that my family is healthy and we want for no necessities. Although I wonder how many of us understand the depth of Healing Gratitude or finding gratitude in the low points of life. I have experienced times when I held fast to the gratitude that God hadn't let me sink yet so I had no reason to believe he would then, even though I couldn't see the way out at that point. The woman with breast cancer who sees it as an opportunity to reevaluate her life and reconnect with what's really important to her is practicing Healing Gratitude. The man who loses the job he's had since college recognizes his desire to change careers and takes the opportunity to create the life he really wants is practicing Healing Gratitude. I certainly don't mean to trivialize life's challenges but I do mean to say that deep, healing gratitude is found in the moments that require us to look for it.

Are these the answers to the rising national and individual cost of health care? Who knows. What I do know is that the practices of family, gratitude and laughter are monetarily free, emotionally and spiritually strengthening, and quite clearly of great benefit to our well being.