Timothy Giral
“A person who believes that they can be truly healthy but not happy isn’t truly happy.”(Timothy Giral)
With all this medicine out there people rely on them solely to feel better when getting sick. Is medicine the only thing that can better the way you feel? I feel that a person’s happiness level can play an important role in someone’s health. I am not the only person who seems to believe that when a person has a cold and are exposed to laughter can make a person feel better than someone who has no reason to laugh. Also how laughter can make you feel better and forget about your personal problems. Also, how fun and laughter can help you cope with being scared of something that is about to happen like getting a shot. And making someone with cancer happier can help them feel better. Being happy has a lot to do with allowing yourself to feel better about certain things. Laughter is a major thing that can make a person happier. If a person can exclude certain things that has a negative effect on their lives, and focus on something that will allow them to either feel better or forget the current problems.
If a person has a cold or isn’t feeling good it is always good to try to get there mind off their sickness. Let’s say you have a cold or even a fever if you decide to stay in your house all the time it may feel depressing. By doing something that will put a smile on your face can make you feel better. I myself even tested this out. It was so ironic that when I had to read the laughing guru I got sick. I remembered what James Walsh (An American physician) believed that “laughter has a favorable impact on the mind influences various functions of the body and makes them healthier” (T.P.O.H 84) And I did exactly what he suggested. I watch my favorite comedy movie of all times “The Hangover” and it didn’t cure my cold but I defiantly felt much better. Also if you are going through hard or emotional time laughter can be a big help in getting through it.
Hard times such as, not being able to pay your bills or when your job lets you go. Or when you are having problems with your girlfriend is getting to the point where it is affecting the way you feel. If you just simply apply all that negative thoughts and energy to something positive you will feel much better. For instants “laughing yoga’’ as described in the laughing guru. It is a form of yoga that you force yourself to laugh and eventually it will turn to a natural laugh. This will make you feel better. Also let’s say you bring your child to a doctor’s office to get a shot and they know what’s about to happen. Do think the comfort level of your child would be good if they were just sitting there waiting for the shots. Or being able to play with toys will allow them to cope with the intensity of getting a shot by getting their mind off of it? In the pathologies of hope article by Barbara Ehrenreich states that it is better to have a positive outlook on things so it can go by better. Also I can have to do with the environment you are in.
Let’s say you were a cancer patient and you have no reason to believe that you still have a chance to live. And you are in a very depressing area why would you want to live. Imagine being really sick in a hospital with people dying around you every day. And each day that passes you slowly give up hope because you don’t know when you will be next. Wouldn’t you want to be in a place where you would want to wake up in everyday? In the movie Patch Adams, an ex-mental patient realizes that a person if happy is able to overcome a lot of issues while sick. He secretly opens up his own hospital not only to help them medically but to offer them hope and happiness while doing so. And this movie is a great source to make people believe that being happier can make you healthier.
I stand strong in the idea that happiness and laughter can help a person become healthier. I never really thought about how the impact of a person’s happiness can either make or break a person’s health until I had to research it. From seeing my friends and from personal experiences I notice that when you are depressed or unhappy you can become very sick. Two years ago my best friend for16 years past died in a car accident. She was killed by a drunk driver. I never knew how life without her could be. I notice now that depression was taking over my body and mind. I was rapidly losing weight and not wanting to do anything with myself. Every day I woke to the thought of the night my friend died. I just seen her before she left to go home that’s the crazy part. But I’ll leave that for another paper. My point is that I was doing really badly. Until I realized that I’m still living and I can’t destroy my life by being depressed I slowly did more positive things to make me happy like finishing school etc. Now I can say that I am the happiest I’ve ever been.
A person’s happiness can play a major role in a person’s health. By laughing and thinking positive it can get you by easier and healthier. Also how doing things to get your mind of off problems can help you get by. I feel that everyone has the power to make them happier and healthier. Everything I argued isn’t able to cure anything it will only help. The reason I feel happiness is a big deal in someone’s health is because if a person is already fighting a certain sickness off. Then it would be easier to do so if you were depressed and worried about that other than being sick.
