What is something that is free, that almost anyone can do and that enhances the immune system? Answer: Laughter! A physician in India, Dr. Madan Kataria, has been promoting laughter to heal and to promote health in a variety of populations and communities of people. He refers to it as laughter yoga. Enjoy the video on his work; however, I must caution you. Laughter is contagious; as you will see in the video.
Atul Gawande’s new book, The CheckList Manifesto, is a checklist for surgeons to save lives of patients. Used in other areas of hospital it also saved lives. Simplicity is the most elegant and surest way to do no harm. Important work.
Watch his interview on The Daily Show.
An Associated Press (AP) article written by Martha Mendoza and Margie Mason “Solution to Killer Superbug found in Norway” describes a solution so simple it boggles the mind. Aker University Hospital in Oslo, Norway has virtually stopped MRSA spread. How they did it? Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs. They cut back on the use of antibiotics.
MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) causes 19,000 unnecessary deaths a year in the U.S., more deaths than from AIDs. It is an antibiotic resistant bacteria. The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet.
Simplicity trumps complexity. Let us return to the least invasive, the simple foundations of restoring health and treat manufactured drugs and invasive treatments with respect and use only an exception basis.
The Nightingale Declaration campaign has several noble goals with the ultimate objective of creating healthy communities around the world through nursing practices that reflect the principles and practices of Florence Nightingale. The Declaration is quoted below from the web site sponsoring it. I signed the declaration in support of nurses dedicated to creating health for humanity and the planet. You can sign it by going to their web site.
The Nightingale Declaration for Our Healthy World
“We, the nurses and concerned citizens of the global community, hereby dedicate ourselves to the accomplishment of a healthy world by the year 2020.
We declare our willingness to unite in a program of action, sharing information and solutions to resolve problems and improve conditions — locally, nationally and globally — in order to achieve health for all humanity.
We further resolve to adopt personal practices and to implement public policies in our communities and nations, making this goal for the year 2020 achievable and inevitable, beginning today in our own lives, in the life of our nations and in the world at large.”
The Million Nurse Global Caring Field Project promotes a caring relationship between nurses, their patients and the planet. Below is a description of it taken from the Watson Caring Science Institute web site. Meditating on the virtues of the heart heals self and others. Imagine the healing power of a million nurses meditating at once on the virtues of the heart! You can join them on New Year’s Day.
“Million Nurse Global Caring Field Project: Radiating a field of Worldwide Energetic Caring Consciousness for Global Healing and Health for all.
Goal: Connect simultaneously with a million nurses (or more) around the globe: to create and radiate an energetic Caring Field of Heart-Centered Love for Self, Others, and the Planet Earth. This intentional focused experience honors and extends the human caring vibration of nurses into the universal energy field of humanity facilitating healing and health for all.
Launch Date:
The formal launch of the Million Nurse Global Caring Field Project is planned for January 1, 2010 at 12 pm / Noon – Eastern Standard Time (EST/ UTC -0500). A series of heart-centered meditations and events led by Dr. Jean Watson and other dignitaries will be scheduled and broadcast around the world. Visit the Watson Caring Science Institute or our FaceBook profile and event page regularly for the most up-to-date information, links to scheduled events and emerging opportunities to be a part of this special global healing experience.
This latest evidenced based science of the heart confirms that humans meditating on Heart-centered feelings of Love, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Compassion, and Caring (higher vibration positive emotions associated with the heart) radiate an electromagnetic field several feet beyond themselves. When working from a heart centered loving –caring consciousness, there is more ‘coherence’ in the human electromagnetic field radiating from the heart.
Nurses around the world bring this loving heart-centered caring energy of Love and Caring to their individual work every day. However, nurses may be silently unaware of their actual energetic linkage and connection they have with others in their environment, and their natural capability of unlimited expansive potential to affect the universal consciousness field of humanity.”