Can talking about sickness be bad for your health? A busy Mum of four I know, believes the answer is yes. She says that she used to spend a lot of time thinking and discussing the latest disease, the current “bug” going around, or which family member was suffering with what. She found that talking about illness didn’t make her, or her family, healthy. Quite the reverse. It had often increased the fear of these ailments and the frequency of sickness in the household.
This whole scenario changed when she learned of a connection between what you think and talk about, and what you experience. Because of this, she no longer makes illness a topic of thought or conversation. As a result, she’s finding that she’s less fearful about getting sick and that overall, there’s better health in the family.
Does this kind of approach to good health really work? Shakespeare had a take on the answer to this question in his play Hamlet. He writes, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” From this, perhaps we can surmise that the Bard is suggesting that our thought and conversation determines whether we get a good or bad health outcome. I suspect that this could be one interpretation of his famous statement. And it’s one that I had a close encounter with.
One morning a neighbour telephoned me. During our conversation, she described at some length and in graphic detail the symptoms of flu, and the suffering she was experiencing. I was alarmed and distressed by what I heard. Shortly after hanging up the phone, I began displaying the same signs – even though I hadn’t been in physical contact with her or any other sick person. At first I couldn’t figure out why I was suddenly feeling ill. Then it dawned on me. I’d allowed myself to be mentally influenced by my neighbour’s tale of woe. This had brought the “I-hope-I-don’t- get-sick-like-her” fear of the particular illness. Now, that state of mind was being outlined on my body.
To counter the fear of being sick, I used a drug-free approach that I’d been practising for several years. I prayerfully affirmed that my thinking couldn’t be influenced in an unhealthy direction. I had mental freedom and dominion. My thinking was imbued with the holy consciousness of divine Love. The symptoms of flu evaporated. This highlighted for me that sickness has its origin in thought. It’s the same when we hear about a particular sickness going around and believe we are likely to catch it. This expectation, together with the mental image of sickness, is then manifested on the body.
In her blog for Psychology Today, Lissa Rankin, MD includes what Dr Deepak Chopra has written regarding the positive effect on the body of reducing conversation about illness.
It has always been part of a doctor’s kit bag to tell patients to keep their spirits up. Until a few decades ago, it was standard not to acquaint a dying patient with the gravity of his condition, which implies an unspoken agreement that hearing bad news isn’t good for patients.
At the same time, doctors want to protect their profession, so few want to cross the line and support the notion that how you think can work as powerfully as “real” medicine.
Dr Chopra continues:
Let’s see if some of this confusion can be cleared up.
First of all, thinking is “real” medicine, as proven by the placebo effect. When given a sugar pill in place of a prescription drug, an average of 30% of subjects will show a positive response. What causes this response isn’t a physical substance but the activity of the mind-body connection. Expectations are powerful. If you think you’ve been given a drug that will make you better, often that is enough to make you better.
…The upshot is that medicine cannot be definitive on how mood affects wellness. But if I wanted to enhance a state of wellness before symptoms of illness appeared, there is much to be gained and no risks involved in trying to reach the best state of mind possible.
Dr Chopra’s thoughts encourage us to explore further the concept that thinking is “real” medicine. Also, to perhaps reach deeper into the connection between spiritualty and good health. After all, watching carefully what we think or say about our health, isn’t a new idea. There’s ancient Scripture that suggests there’s no need for us to discuss sickness, describe bodily ills, or even talk about what food we should or should not consume. It seems practical then, and do-able, for us to speak less about sickness, and more about the best way to keep ourselves and our families well.
I’m a professional Christian Science Practitioner and Teacher. Through my prayer-based practice, I help people find happiness, health and healing.
Hi Beverley,
I had an experience like this a little while back:- one late autumn morning I was late for work, and had to run the couple of miles or so to get there. When I got there, I was red in the face and my nose was running from the fresh cold air. After sitting down at my desk for a few minutes, I noticed my nearby co-workers had thought I’d caught the flu, then started sniffing too, in the same way as if they had caught the flu from me! This made me laugh inside, as I knew there was no way (to my knowledge 🙂 ) my co-workers could “catch” being late for work!! As I laughed inside to myself at the absurdity of this, the sniffing stopped in the whole office and everyone returned to how they’d been just before. This has been a lesson to me, and I’ve only once in 10 years had a minor occasion of flu-symptoms, even though interacting very closely with others who had these.
I also have a question though – are you saying in the above article that we can be well through mind over matter? Or (because you’re referring to scriptures at the bottom) more something about God?
thanks for
Thanks Ben for sharing your experience. It goes to show how much we can be influenced by others – in this case how people were influenced just by your sniffing. Thanks too for your question. I’ve found that good health is achieved by thinking that is more than just the exercise of the human mind over matter. Thinking that starts from a spiritual basis includes taking time to affirm that there is a divine Presence that keeps us all healthy and well. This has produced positive results in my life. As I have ceased to discuss sickness and thought more about my spiritual nature, I have continued to reap the benefits health-wise.
Another helpful blog Beverly. How important to “stand porter at tha door of thought …” as Mary Baker Eddy writes in her book ‘Science and Health’. I do go over your responses to the past blogs and continue to gain help from them too. Thank you. Yvonne
Thanks Yvonne for your comment. Good to know that you are finding ideas on the blog helpful. Watching what we think and say is certainly an effective way to stay healthy. The idea of standing watch at the door of consciousness – keeping out unheathly thoughts and fears, and letting in only health-giving spiritual ideas about our wellbeing, certainly leads to improved health outcomes. And it’s something we can all do for ourselves.
Thank you again Beverly for your helpful ideas that enable us to have optimum health. It came to my thought recently how we sometimes get confused and approach things from the wrong end. We think we are sick, so need drugs,exercise,diet or whatever to become healthy. We think we are poor so we need money, jobs, investments to become rich. We think we are vulnerable, so we put all sorts of safety nets in place to protect us.
Thank Goodness we can reverse all this “wrong end” thinking and come at it from a “right beginning” placing all our care with God, knowing that we already have everything we need, as the Bible tells us ‘God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good’.
Hello Anne. So good to have your comment. I love your concept of ‘wrong end thinking’ versus coming at health issues from a ‘right beginning place’ – the spiritually true. When this is done, we get better health and wellbeing. There is a divine Source of wellness, and keeping that fact uppermost in thinking brings good results.