Laughter as Medicine

Years ago while working in a hospital's pain management facility as a massage therapist, a woman came to see me whom I'll refer to as PJ. 

The moment I began to work with PJ I knew there was something amiss, due to the presence of tears and unusually high anxiety.  Not easy to miss. 

So began an unusual relationship.  Within a few minutes it was obvious that PJ was very disturbed and unhappy.  Relationships.  What else?  She considered herself too old to do anything about her situation (late 60's, early 70's).  Doomed and Scrooged. 

I reminded her of Scrooge who thought he was too old to change.  She didn't get the anology.  I could tell she was borderline indifferent, a state of mind one may move into at any time that is the opposite of love, letting nothing in that is positive and closing the heart forever, thereby entering into a state of mind that is extremely difficult to get out of.  I knew I had to do something.

I remembered words of wisdom from Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha during my time with her.  She always said, "As a medicine person you will have to do anything it takes to bring balance to a situation.  If you don't know what to do, call on me and just get out of the way."

I called out to Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha and all the Grandmothers and Grandfathers to help this woman.  Then I just got out of the way.

I found myself saying something shocking to PJ.  I couldn't believe that I'd said it, but I did.  I only know it was way dirty and it even shocked me but I can't remember what it was.  Anyway, PJ's reaction, being totally shocked, was to laugh.  So I said something even more shocking.  Honestly, now, I don't even remember what I had said to her.  The whole conversation was a blur and I couldn't tell you later what it was that I'd said to her, not even minutes after I'd said it.  That is how spirit works when you get out of the way.

I was on a roll.  Shocking epithets issuing forth as though someone had turned on a faucet.  Within moments, PJ was transformed.  She was roaring with laughter!  For the next 45 minutes, PJ rocked and rolled on my table with laughter.  It never occurred to me that people may be in the outer office wondering what was going on inside my room.  PJ and I were having a ball.  She was now crying tears of joy whereas she came in all miserable and sad. 

Laughter heals the soul.  It had been a long while since PJ had laughed.  The sadness and the weight of the world, she carried.  The joy and the longing for love, she missed.  Her heart was heavy with dread because she kept looking back at what life had been.  Instead of looking forward to what life can be.  Many people look backward and it never is a benefit to do so.  You can drive yourself crazy looking back.  It is always better to look ahead.

I gave PJ the name of a counselor and her card to make sure she wouldn't forget.  PJ said she'd definitely go to see her and she made another appointment with me because she loved the whole session and also the massage.  She said she felt better than she had in years but she knew she had a long way to go.  Each time PJ came in she would laugh and laugh.  She came back for awhile and then I didn't see her again.

Later, I spoke to her counselor, there at the hospital.  I asked how PJ was doing and the counselor said she was coming along but she always cried.  "Hard Case".  I told her of my time with PJ and how I could get her laughing.  She just looked at me, incredulous.  "YOU GET HER LAUGHING???  How do you do that?"

All I could say was, "I don't know.....I just call on spirit and get out of the way."

Walking the Wheel of Medicine

Since becoming involved in the healing arts way back when I was knee high to a grasshopper (the first time I healed myself was of anxiety attacks when I was 8) life has been rather interesting.

These days, people from all over the world and from all walks of life write me about helping them get well naturally.  They find me on the web, usually at my website Wind In Her Hair.com. 

Why would anyone use that name for a healing web site? 

Wind is a reminder to me of Spirit, which is one of the four quadrants of the Native American Medicine Wheel.  In this case, "Medicine" means "balance".  Walking the Medicine Wheel relates to walking in Balance all through and with all Life.  Spirit is a powerful force within the circle of life.  As Grandmother PaRisHa says, "The wind is most powerful when it is whirling in a circle".

All of us here on the Great Mother, Earth, daily walk a balance of mind (East), body (South), spirit (West), and emotion (North).  Each moment of each day, we circle around the wheel using our mind and intellect in our thought processes, we consume ourselves with exercise, diet, clothes, and spas because we want to take care of our physical bodies.  We have emotions whether we want to have emotions or not and, at times, we have highs and lows and don't understand why so we run to various doctors for help in whatever way they are trained to give it. 

So, while we are aware and always plugged into how to take care of our bodies, emotions and mind, how many people do you know that go to Spirit doctors?  How many people do you know who tend to their spirit in ways other than listening to a Reverend or Minister or Priest who profess to be 'keepers of the spirit"?

How do you keep your 'spirit' in tune?  How do you nurture your spirit?  Your church Minister may uplift you weekly with wonderful sermons that remind you of how much Jesus loves you, but how much do you love yourself? 

Working in emotions with Nuwati for emotional healing I have found that many people don't even know what love is or even how it feels.  They hear the WORD love, but never truly having the experience of it in this life, they can't relate.  This causes them to run headlong through life looking for something that should relate to love.  There is an easy self-test that one may do to discover if one knows what love actually feels like.  The ebook I'm writing on this self-test is just being finished.

If you know that love is a feeling you have not really had the experience of, then there is something that can help in an instant.  It is called Nuwati. Nuwati healing is a powerful force for healing.  If you think you've never really known how 'love' feels, then you may want to experience what is called a Heart Reconstruction healing which takes about 8 minutes and may change your outlook on what love really feels like, forever.

Working in the field of spiritual healing has many surprises.

Many years ago a woman I know who works in spirit healing called and asked me to 'go in' to look at a house.  I had no idea why she wanted me to do this and did not ask.  I got some info from her and 'went in' to spirit to have a look-see.  The house had a grayish, sticky-ness all around it which reminded me of glue.  That was all I saw, just this gray glue surrounding the house.

I reported back to her and she said:  "This woman has to sell her house because she has just gone through a divorce, but the house won't sell.  It's been on the market for over a year.  She loves this house."  I realized that what I had 'seen' that looked like glue was this woman's attachment to her home, which she loved.  The spirit healer knew what to do.  She told the woman to go through each of the rooms with a candle or fire and/or sage and cedar and release her attachment to her home.  The woman did this and the house sold in 2 days.

The Spirit world often shows what is really going on in the physical world and often shows how to fix it.  How often do we walk through life ignoring the quadrant of the medicine wheel that deals with our spirit?  If we ignore even one quadrant of the Medicine Wheel of life, we are not fully living and may feel as though something is missing from our lives.  Once we begin to fully live the Wheel, life becomes full, balanced, and the wonder it truly is.