A few years ago I read an article on how your state of mind affects your health. It wasn't talking about diseases like cancer, or MS, or any other life
long debilitating disease, although it did mention that your mental state when you have something like that, greatly affects your recovery and ability to
function. It was more focused on the every day ailments such as colds, f lues, infections....exct, and how your mood and outlook on life, affects your
body's ability to fight them off.
At first I just dismissed most of it as a "whatever", because I caught everything that came along. I was sick several times a year, and wasn't willing to admit that I was miserably unhappy. Last year, the local news did a story on this very subject, and I realized I had not been sick with anything so much as even a fever, since early 2004, and to this day I still haven't.
It started me thinking about my life before that point, and how I was sick constantly with one thing after another, and yes, I was horribly unhappy. It wasn't until I made some major changes, that things turned around. Of course Barry entering my life, also played a major role. I realized back then that I was unhappy, or I never would have sought changes to begin with.......but I didn't realize just how bad it was until I was out of it, and experiencing happiness like never before. I think the real term for it would be joy. Happiness is superficial, it's on the surface, and affected by the environment around you, and all of the stresses of life. Joy is deep inside, and determines how you handle what life throws at you.
So yes, the article I dismissed a few years ago, has a lot of merit to it. Your mood and outlook on life, affects your health. It also affects your body's ability to heal from injury. There is nothing in this world like the feeling of being truly deep down happy, with who you are, what you're doing, where your life is headed, and who you're with. When you have that type of joy in your life, and you hit a bump in the road, instead of feeling like you're trying to climb over a mountain, you just simply step right over it, and go on.
