The Humor of Healing
‘Healing is Fun!’
Umm……???? Fun? Some may feel this way, but tis’ a small percentage of the population of anyone working on their sh*t; mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual. More likely I’d expect to hear, ‘Healing is hard! Healing is work! Healing is a full time job!’.
The reality is that Healing is all these things. For many, healing is challenging; or at least navigating the healing process is a challenge.
Talking with a friend over brunch we got on the subject of the challenges many face when striving to overcome chronic ailments. Well, all ailments, really! There can be so many! Access to medication and beneficial therapies, the disconnect between practitioners and insurance, lack of finances, time, and understanding of proper nutrition, and difficulty maintaining a healing work/lifestyle. As well as the more spiritual and emotional when living with a pain/ailment for so long that it becomes part of our identity and one simply does not know what life looks like without that condition. The diagnosis, the prognosis, the second opinions; the steps forward only to experience twice as many steps back in ones process. And the seriousness of it all! I mean, it’s all SO SERIOUS SOMETIMES!
Every day those moving thru the traditional medical system are ushered in and out of offices. Often patients have more time with a nurse taking vitals and notating the reason for the visit, than actual time with the doctor. If one is lucky the doctor with take a few moments to talk about the diagnosis, actions for care, the prognosis; but that’s only when its serious. For one with something as basic as a fever and stomach ache, a prescription will be delivered and you’ll be sent on your way. It can all feel so…dismal…and automated.
People want connection! We want answers! We want a plan! I often hear in my own clinic gratitude for having been listened to. Gratitude for an open ear and for holding space as the patient verbally processes what they are working thru. And gratitude for bringing a light heart and some playfulness to the healing process; indeed that is how I most enjoy connecting with people.
Do you remember Patch Adams; the humourous doctor who dressed as a clown to touch the hearts of his young (and old) patients, often facing terminal conditions? Robin Williams did a wonderful job playing this role (if you have not seen the movie I recommend it!..It’s based on an actual doctor who found humor as a way to connect, inspire, and ease the pains of his patients). The irony is that years later, Williams, would face his own demise as he lost his humor. Many believe he held so much humor because of how much pain he actually felt, and that humor was his best medicine. Similarly, many believe he simply lost his humor at the end.
And even on the deathbed Dr Adams would ‘…never given tranquillisers or psychiatric medicine.’ Instead he’d deliver ‘love and fun and creativity and passion and hope, and these things ease suffering.’
Dr Adams had it right when he said, “Humor is an antidote to all ills.”
What insight!
We’ve all been sick and yes, absolutely the soup our mother feeds us, the stories our families read us, the antibiotics our doctors prescribe and over the counter antipyretics we take to reduce a fever and pain; all help us feel better! But if your think on all the times you’ve been sick, what feels the best? Laughing with a loved one. Watching a funny movie. And even, finding humor in the condition we find ourselves at that moment.
The later of these, I believe, is the key to all healing of the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
Life is not for the weak hearted. And we often hear that laughter heals the heart. There have been numerous books on this from self help to articles published in various medical journals. This is no new concept but simply one I’d like to remind you of. One I’d like to remind myself of!
Turns out the humor affects healing. Humor and laughter have been researched and evaluated across multiple modalities for a few decades. Some research points to the benefits of activating the midbrain and amygdala which promotes happy emotions. This region of the brain houses the hypocanthus, amygdala, and pituitary glands, which are key to the bodies major hormones produced including growth hormones, thyroid hormones, sex hormones, and happy hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. This beautiful region of the brain is held by a butterfly shaped bone called the sphenoid; and from here our being has the ability to transform under the healing function of this arthropod like midbrain.
I always love linking our own natural processes to that of the world we live in. I have a firm belief that each of us is a microcosm reflective of ecosystems, the planetary being, and even the cosmos. And when I think on how the universe moves thru the process the creation and destruction I find much humor in the pathways. A weed may be cut down only to come back again and again. A fire may destroy a forest only to use the ash as fertilizer for future growth. And even humans may destroy the world for the global dominance of cockroaches!
So please, when moving thru your own healing process, or assisting others with their own, have light heart. Hold space for humor and compassion. Enjoy the moment and laugh at the irony in the healing process.