A cheerful heart is a good medicine (Prov 17:22)
Every comedian knows that there is power in laughter. Every doctor knows this too. This is not a new discovery. Proverbs 17 says “A cheerful heart is a good medicine.” And I say that it is a medicine that is in short supply today. In my office, or out of my office, I rarely hear laughter. As an experiment, just sit and listen in a restaurant. If you can hear anything above the TVs on the wall, it will likely not be a lot of laughter. Too bad. What can be done to inject back into society a good, old fashioned dose of frivolity?
For starters, we can begin to look for the good around us. There is plenty of bad but we have some control over where we focus. There is a power in positive thinking. Even when life seems to be falling apart, there is usually at least something hopeful on which to concentrate. If not, then go looking! Or decide to provide the good and hopeful yourself! If nothing good seems to be happening, then go do a random act of kindness for someone else. It doesn’t need to cost you anything other than time and effort. A smile is not expensive. Yet a smile, medically speaking, leads to a release of helpful endorphins that will lead to your own better health.
Ah yes…..A cheerful heart doeth good like medicine. Be that dose of drug for someone today. You may end up cheering yourself up in the process.
