Smilin and Laughin’

A very special person loved Radical Remission by Kelly A Turner and so I read it.  Although it’s primarily for people with cancer there’s a chapter that everyone can hugely benefit from so, from me and perhaps – hopefully – from you too, enormous thanks for such a great recommendation!

That chapter tells the story of Saranne Rothberg who was diagnosed with stage four cancer and spent the weekend she found out crying – as you would….  Then she remembered hearing about Norman Cousins who used laughter to treat himself when he was seriously ill.  Saranne made an appointment with her 5 year old daughter to make one another laugh for one minute every morning and one minute every evening.  Then she thought of lots of other laughter based things to do…  One of those you could do – starting now. 

Each morning when you wake up, even before you get out of bed – before you open your eyes even… SMILE… It doesn’t matter how contrived it feels (and it may – at first ) just s-t-r-e-t-c-h your cheeks – and SMILE.  and it will – magically – become a real smile.  And it will feel smiley inside.  And inside, your wonderful miraculous body will start to produce seratonin and endorphins (the happy drugs).  Then think of five things you feel grateful for.  We all, by default, have lots of those and you have your own in addition.

Be inspired by Saranne who did this in her situation. She went on through two years of major treatment and founded the Comedy Cures Foundation which continues to take humour to people with cancer and depression and everything in between. And she’s fine now!

Read more in the books mentioned above or on  www.comedycures.org and  www.radicalremission.com/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins. For depression treatment London, smiling is often a common recommendation.

I hope you enjoy doing this.  Let me know and let me know your news.

Wishing you lots of smiles and laughs this October.

Suzanne