When all else fails

People used to go to the old medicine woman at the edge of the woods, give her a chicken and she would give them something for whatever ailed them.  They did the same with shamans, witch doctors, and old Doc Martin.

Sometimes it worked.  Sometimes it didn't.  What none of them realized was that given enough time, or if they believed, an awful lot of these cures could have occurred if they had run around the house three times and shouted, "Abracadabra!"

Our bodies are designed to heal themselves. And when that doesn't happen, making a change in life styles can bring about near miraculous cures.

I know people who believe depression is an integral part of life.  People who believe they cannot avoid the high blood pressure because it runs in their families. People who feel hopeless because the pills don't work for them. They are willing to change pills, change doctors, change almost everything -- except their lifestyles.

I know because it is hard for me to change my lifestyle. Eating the food I am accustomed to, intermingling with the people I am accustomed to, doing the things I am accustomed to, are difficult enough when I feel good, but when I feel bad?  It's almost impossible to deny myself the comfort of known things over unknown ones.

Yet, it has been proved to me time after time that life can be immeasurably better when I make certain changes.

I can't take a pill to erase great aunt Martha, or make an ice cream sundaes fifty calories. I can't swallow anything that will exercise for me, or bring more money into the house, but I can change the way I allot my time with all of the above!

Then when all else fails, I try the pills.