All life is sacred, All thoughts are prayers, Everything is interconnected
Everything may seem out of your control right now. And maybe it is. I certainly felt out of control. But when there is nothing you can do to change anything, the only control you have is over your attitude. It will either drag you down or buoy you up. I do believe that despair, anger, hopelessness, anxiety and fear all drag your body, psyche and soul down. Research is showing more and more that it affects your immune system in very negative ways. (Here’s a quick read if you want more info: http://healthpsychology.org/the-relationship-between-cancer-and-the-immune-system/.) And the opposite is equally true. Joy, happiness, love, companionship, friendship, laughter, all of these should boost your immune system.
In this section, I write about the different ways I looked at my life. I was down, and I realized I couldn’t afford to be down. Not if I wanted to live as long as possible; it can stress your immune system and I didn’t want any of that. Of course, there are physical reasons to feel blue and there are treatments to help but I didn’t want that either. I felt I had the choice before me to change my point of view, to change how I looked at things. I knew I could do that and I should get on with it. I loved this pony story when I first heard it, and I was reminded of it at this time. So I dragged it out of my memory, wrote it down and asked that those guardians wiser than I, would help me remember it, understand it, live it. Hung a stuffed pony from my rear view mirror.
I’m sure you’ve heard this story, but for those of you who haven’t:
There are two little boys in a psychology experiment. They are separately placed in a room with a big pile of horse manure in one corner.
The first little boy cries, gags, holds his nose and begs to be let out of the room.
The second little boy seems delighted. The psychologists ask the little boy why he is so happy. And he says “where there’s horse poop, there has to be a pony.”
Wishing you lots of ponies.
