 |
James L. Holly, M.D. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| James L. Holly,M.D. |
| November 23, 2000 |
| Your Life Your Health - The Examiner |
|
The relationship between the mind and the body is well known, but not so
well understood. Medical science knows that It is possible to "make
yourself sick" with worry, anger, bitterness or hate. It is, also, possible
to "make yourself well" with forgiveness, joy, thanksgiving and gratitude.
One of the loveliest women that I have ever know was bedridden and severely
crippled from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Yet, for almost forty years, though
virtually incapacitated, she kept a positive outlook, a joyful countenance
and had a kind work to say to everyone who visited her.
There have been numerous studies which demonstrate that "people of faith"
are healthier, particularly in how they respond to negative events in their
lives. This positive influence of faith goes beyond the fatalism which
accepts everything as the will of Providence and has more to do with an
optimism and a hopefulness about the future. Faith is most beneficial in
the mental and physical health of people when faith motivates them to
service for others. Few things help a person as selflessly serving others.
Few things are as destructive of the human mind as self-centeredness and
selfishness.
Except in extreme circumstances, mental health is a choice each person makes
each day. Few things reflect our values as much as the choices which we
make in regard to what we are going to allow to affect our emotional state.
These positive choices are reflected in St. Francis of Assisi's well known
prayer:
LORD, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and
Where there is sadness, joy.
Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
As we celebrate a day of thanksgiving, we can make a choice about out past
and our future. We can be a part of the solution to our future or we can
perpetuate the problems of our past.
One of the things which I have observed in children through the years in a
clinical setting is the incredible filter children have for what happens to
them. I have seen children who are abused remain deeply committed to their
abusive parents. I have seen children who have great sadness focus on
occasional happiness. While this can be attributed to a "denial" mechanism,
which we all employ from time to time in order to ignore the unthinkable, it
is really more than that.
We are all flawed individuals. There was only One Who was and is Perfect
Who lived on this earth. But, the miracle of the human condition is that at
the core of our human hearts is a huge capacity for forgiveness and even for
forgetting abuses or offenses. Unless we make an effort to the contrary,
amazingly, when our mind retraces the images of our youth, it selectively
stops on experiences which are positive. Oh, there is no doubt that the bad
can be dredged up. It is possible to recall negative experiences, but the
"default" position to which my mind automatically goes is to the good. That
is one of the miracles of the human mind. That is one of the miracles of
how God created us.
Beside forgiveness and a choice to do good for others, the greatest
motivator of mental health for others is "gratitude." Recently, my brother
sent me a picture of my father's hands. These hands protected us, provided
for us, punished us, and petted us. They saddled horses, loaded shotguns,
paddled boats, fixed windows, cooked fish and held us when we were hurt.
When my brother had appendicitis -- I was glad they didn't treat me the way
they did when he had tonsillitis; he got sick and they took my tonsils out
-- those hands carried my brother from the hallway where he collapsed to the
bed, and then to the car to the doctor. Those hands bought little Golden
Books for us and labored to support us.
I love those hands, yet, as I reflect on the Psalmist's confession, "When
thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will
I seek," (Psalm 27:8) I realized that these hands are only an extension of
the face of the powerful man who is our father. And, that sun-burnt face is
only a reflection of the character of the man who is known as Billy Holly.
The Psalmist also said, "Behold, as the eyes of the servants look unto the
hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her
mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy
upon us." (Psalm 123:2) To please the master, the servant watched
attentively so as to anticipate the desire of the one who he/she served. In
some ways, but not in as many as I would have liked, we were like that with
our father, wanting to please him.
My brother's picture has made "hands" much more meaningful to me. At this
thanksgiving season, we have so much to be thankful for. As we forgive
those who have hurt us, as we serve those who need us, and as we are
thankful to those who have blessed us, we take the best medicine which we
can. We take tablets of faith, as manifested in these "acts of faith" --
forgiveness, service, thanksgiving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
