invincible summer

In The Art of the Possible, Alexandra Stoddard writes about proactive, non-drug-pushing health:
------------- {excerpt}: Taking care of our physical body is not enough for radiant good health. Our thoughts have a tremendous effect on our bodies and our emotional health, too. Each thought, emotion, and mood releases chemicals from the brain that in turn affect our body and our spirit. In recent years there have been many books, articles, and television shows that explore this powerful mind / body connection. Doctors like Bernie S. Siegel, the author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles; scientists and healers like Joan Borysenko, the author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind; and thinkers like writer and television producer Bill Moyers have revealed powerful evidence of the mind's ability to heal the body. The stories they share about the lives of people who have overcome terminal illnesses, people who had been given six months to live but who went on to live for years, or people who have slowed the deterioration process, are an inspiration to us all.

Feelings are chemical. When you get scared, for example, your fear sends a chemical message from your brain to your body telling it to sweat, tremble, flee, or feel faint. Persistent negative thoughts affect the immune system perhaps because they tax the system too much and weaken it so that we become vulnerable to illness. Often chronically depressed people become chronically ill with colds, ulcers, viruses, pain, and a host of unexplainable physical complaints. Few of us can be perpetually cheerful or optimistic; that's not where the problem lies. The problem comes from a pattern of attitudes, of constantly thinking and judging yourself weak, sick, helpless, fearful, and incompetent, or always feeling angry and irritated. Illness can also come from demanding too much of yourself, insisting that you always be perfect, happy, and on top of everything. These attitudes can put a strain on your system. Mind-sets determine whether we approach life with a sunny disposition or a bleak one, and that in turn affects our health. Henry David Thoreau seemed to have understood this when he wrote: "Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring."

Our capacity to adapt to life's challenges is key to our health and well-being. We become vulnerable when we fail to meet our problems in a balanced way. According to Dr. Richard Totman, author of Mind, Stress, and Health, whenever we become stuck -- which he calls a "blocked action" -- an overwhelming sense of hopelessness takes over. When we are unable to initiate and carry through activities that express our aliveness, it causes stress. This stress then upsets our chemical balance, weakening the immune system. It is not how much life stress we have, but how we manage it that determines our health.
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[The Art of the Possible, by Alexandra Stoddard. Copyright 1995. William Morrow, New York.]

Also excerpted from Stoddard's book, the following quotations from the "Health and Healing" chapter --

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
-- Albert Camus

"Know how sublime a thing it is / To suffer and be strong."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(On that one I feel like I would like the even More "sublime" feeling of Not Suffering -- and being strong...! I'm with Woody Allen, who said, "I'd like to achieve immortality by -- not dying.")

"There is no education like adversity."
-- Walt Disney

And --
"Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question."
-- Lao-Tzu.

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