Age and Illness

Talking with friends my age is a reminder that there needs to be an acknowledgment of darkness as well as light in   these pages.

You know the old joke:  when older people get together, what you hear is a long organ recital--what's wrong with this organ or that organ.  Although nowadays it's more often a recital of who has had a hip or knee replacement.  I suppose it's a sign that we're living longer, that more parts are giving out.

I'm as guilty as the next person.  Stefan Klein, in his book The Science of Happiness, comments that we are programmed to focus on bad things more than good.  As he says succinctly, "Once burned, twice shy."  That's survival mode.

He also forcefully encourages us to move beyond survival by training our minds to focus more on good memories and thoughts, however small, and in that way grasp happiness more firmly.  This becomes especially important when we're hit by serious illness.

I have a friend here in the East who spent several of the past few years dealing with cancer.   She talks glowingly about the cancer center where she received chemotherapy, because the staff there includes a reiki massage practitioner, a musician, a counselor who does visualizations, someone who plays Tibetan singing bowls, as well as the more traditional medical staff.  Whenever she had to go for her chemo treatment, she'd go first to get a massage while listening to live music.  She could carry that experience with her when she had the chemo itself.  Even now she smiles when she remembers that aspect of her recovery.  And this was made possible by donations to establish the center and is available to everyone.

Another friend, who has heart disease, had a similar experience at a major university medical center in the Midwest.  The center offered her and other heart patients a weekend retreat where they learned meditation, listened to meditative music, and practiced relaxation techniques.  She went into the weekend sceptically and came away surprised at how refreshed she felt. 

It's heartening to hear these and other stories about places where the whole person is seen and attended to when ill.   It's significant to me that these are occurring even in mainstream medical centers. There are creative forces at work here that we can draw on to help us respond to illness differently by putting us in touch with the power of our own inner peace.