“Anatomy of An Illness” written by Norman Cousins, is a book based on his own life and how he treated his own painful illness, with the assistance of laughter. Cousins had a theory that the old saying, “Laughter is the best medicine”, was more factual than many people realize.

In modern times, society has come to understand that stress has a negative impact on both physical and
mental health. What is not as commonly understood is that laughter has many positive health benefits, which
can counteract the negative affects of the stress response.

Laughter increases the functioning of the immune system, helping the body to fight off illness and
disease. Studies have demonstrated that laughter causes the increased production of catecholamines and
endorphins. These chemicals, when released by the brain into the blood stream during laughter, increase
feelings of happiness and well-being.

Laughter also decreases the secretion of cortisol as well as the sedimentation rate, and therefore is
beneficial in stimulating the body’s immune system.

During laughter, the flow of Oxygen in the blood increases. Arteries relax, heart rate and blood
temperature are lowered, circulation increases and the skin temperature rises. All of these physical
responses have a beneficial effect on both cardiovascular and respiratory health.

Laughter has the potential to help speed healing, and increase overall health and well-being, when it’s
benefits are fully realized as a part of a stress management plan.

While the average human laughs approximately 8 to 10 times daily, a stress management plan which
includes laughter as a part of the daily program would include rigorous “laughing” as an exercise to be
performed several times throughout the day.

Full belly laughter is an involuntary response of the human brain. Full belly laughter can be triggered by watching comedies, listening to comedians, telling jokes or just allowing oneself to participate in fun and silly activities.

You must be determined to improve your self esteem, to achieve great things in life. Low self esteem can ruin a person’s life. It all boils down to ‘what’ and ‘how’ you have trained your mind to think.

The way you think about yourself determines how you interact with others. It can also affect how others think about you. When you show others that you lack confidence in what you do or say, it raises questions within their minds. I mean, why should they trust what you do or say, when you obviously don’t trust yourself.

People can have low self esteem for many reasons. Here are some of the common reasons or should I say ‘thoughts’ that encourage and create low self esteem:

1. Nothing you do seems to go right

2. You believe that most people do not like you.

3. You believe that you are not attractive.

4. You choose something and it turns out to be the worst choice you could have made.

5. You are afraid to converse with others for fear that what you say might not make sense.

6. You feel swallowed up in a whirlpool of frustration.

What’s wrong with you, you might ask yourself? The answer to that question is quite easily answered - Your thoughts.

Stop thinking that the world is closing in on you or out to get you. Get determined instead, to achieve what you desire. Stop blaming other people for your misfortunes. The world is not your problem, you are your own problem.

From this moment on, begin the process of self esteem improvement. Think the right way and be determined to win, and win you will. Just remember that success never comes easily and that is why determination is its counterpart.

Oftentimes, one gets to the brink of success and with just a little disappointment or setback, they lose heart and give up too easily and too soon. A surefire candidate to low self esteem improvement. Who knows what great things might have been achieved if only they had persevered.

Without a high self esteem, your life could be rather boring. Change your thinking and begin to see yourself on top of the world. Make a very special effort to be what you really want to be.

You have to seriously decide either to remain in a miserable state of low self esteem, or acquire self esteem improvement and develop a high self esteem with good character and self image.

The origin of low self esteem.

A low self esteem could begin way back in childhood when children are made to believe that they are worthless. Their self confidence is eroded and they succumb to the idea that they can never achieve success in anything that they do. They were picked on, laughed at, pushed around, called ugly names, and treated with disdain. No wonder they grew up to be full of resentment.

If that was your experience, it is time you cut yourself loose from that mindset and do self esteem improvement. Start reading about the life of successful persons and you will soon discover that many of them had such low self esteem that they could not even complete an elementary education.

Many decided to override their low self esteem and improve their attitude, whatever it took. They became some of the greatest men and women that ever lived.

Low self esteem has never helped anyone else and it sure will not help you. It can only drive you into depression, anger, grudge, fear and all the other evils that it generates.

Re-program your thinking and control your state of mind. You must believe that you are worth much more than you think or you will remain at the foot of the ladder and never make an attempt to climb it.

Do not waste your life away with feelings of inadequacies. Instead, think of ways to go about self esteem improvement. Success is yours, just reach out and grasp it.

There’s a lot of discussion about the B complex vitamin and how it is essential for the body to perform a multitude of functions. However, the B complex vitamin is not simply one very complicated vitamin, as the name might suggest. There are actually eight B vitamins that are in the B complex vitamin as well as a few other related substances.

The eight vitamins that make up the B complex vitamin are thiamine or vitamin B1, riboflavin or vitamin B2, niacin or vitamin B3, pyridoxine or vitamin B6, cobalamine or vitamin B12, folic acid, pantothenic acid and biotin.  The other related substances that are also in the B complex vitamin include choline, inositol and para-aminobenzoic acid.

Every part of the B complex vitamin performs its own individual function within the body but it is when they work together as the B complex vitamin that they provide essential maintenance for the body to remain healthy.

The B vitamin complex comprises B vitamins which are water soluble and it is essential that enough of these vitamins are consumed on a daily basis. The body cannot store water soluble vitamins such as the B complex vitamin and this leads to a regular intake being required.

The B complex vitamins are extremely beneficial for a number of conditions and may be needed in additional quantities at certain times in a person’s life. Of course, there is a recommended daily allowance for the B complex vitamins that varies according to the sex and age of a person. However, doctors and other health professionals have discovered the benefits of increasing the intake of the B complex vitamin to help overcome certain illnesses.

Many people suffer from anxiety and stress at one time or another and research has found that the B complex vitamin can be beneficial in helping alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and stress. If a person has been unwell the B complex vitamin can be extremely valuable in aiding the recovery process. Fatigue can be a symptom of a multitude of illnesses as well as simply overdoing things but the B complex vitamin can help alleviate general tiredness and lethargy.

Interestingly, some skin conditions, such as dermatitis, can also benefit from addition B complex vitamin intake. In fact, a number of creams and other skin preparations contain added vitamin B complex that can be absorbed by the skin to alleviate the condition. The condition of a person’s hair will also be greatly improved with sufficient B complex vitamin intake.

Being a women over 40 myself, I found once again, Andy Rooney’s thoughts are right on the money. I felt this was well worth posting - enjoy:

There are days when it seems like everything goes wrong, despite your best efforts. Days like that are enough to make you give up and resign yourself to the mentality of “why should I even try.” What might have started out as a great day can wind up in the toilet in the blink of an eye.  And, most of the time you will find yourself bouncing back to your usual ‘happy’ self.

But, for some people, repeated events over time can drain one of their energy, cause self doubt and in the most drastic circumstances - depression and despondence. A smaller group might find themselves pulled into a deep depression and lose their lust for life - hopefully for only a very short period of time.

Common sense tells us that by preparing and planning for future events we can avoid complications and lessen the effects in some situations. We plan vacations, weddings, dinner dates and everything right down to daily routines. Overlooking alternate planning or plain failing to plan for the unexpected can really throw a monkey wrench into the best laid plans. Depending on the importance of the circumstance, you could find yourself crying or even lashing out in uncontrollable anger. Neither of which is going to improve your mental state.

Unfortunately, we fail to plan counter attacks to minimize potential future events. I like to call it the ‘band aid’ effect. We become complacent as we go through the daily routines, assuming good days will be followed by more good days.

Then … BAM! We get blindsided and knocked on our butt. Always waiting until ‘after’ something goes wrong. Now we attempt to piece things back together or undo what has been done with half-hearted patch-ups. Ergo, the band aid effect.

Now, I know we can’t plan for every potential event that might ‘possibly’ happen; but we can use our common sense and plan with foresight when it comes to the more important things. The things that hold our day together, or hold us together mentally.

Here’s some real food for thought: Remember the old saying “when it rains, it pours?” How about “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Well, I’m of the mindset that an ounce of prevention is worth Ten pounds of cure!

Those days when it pours will appear at some point or another and if you are already stressed, depressed, or feeling defeated, the chances of handling the situation effectively are next to none. This can create a downhill spiral with a ’snowball’ effect.

Instead of passing by that nail that somehow worked its way out of the wood, stop and fix it. Then go one step further, take measures to prevent the nail working loose again. Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. This applies to every area of life, but most importantly good mental health and loved ones.

Forethought is great medicine for the mind, body, and soul. It only takes a few seconds to destroy what it can take a lifetime to create. So protect what you value by planning for the unexpected, expecting the unplanned and focus on being positive.

And, when the bad stuff comes at you, look for the silver lining or lesson to be learned. If nothing else you will have walked away from the situation with less mental anguish and better coping skills for the future.