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The Little Things STORY BY

Drs. Blair & Rita Justice

Pain and illness contract the world. The fullness of life condenses to the essentials for survival and healing: lab results, doctor visits, medications that regulate organs and life systems.

After Oliver Sacks, M.D., the famed neurologist and author of Awakenings, shattered his leg hiking in Norway, he spent several months after surgery in a "Convalescent Home" in the English countryside. When he was asked to speak at the funeral in Westminster Abbey of his close friend, W.H. Auden, Sacks declined, saying "I'm terribly sorry. Of course I would come if it were physically possible... I so wish I could come, but it's not to be thought of."

A physiotherapist, who knew how close these two men were, was shocked that he hadn't attended and asked why. "Unthinkable!" she exploded. "'Not to be thought of'? Of course, you could have gone. Why shouldn't you go out?"

Sacks writes in A Leg to Stand On, "The moment she spoke and said 'Why not?' a great barrier disappeared—though I had not thought of it as a barrier, just 'not to be thought of.' Was I 'prohibited'—or was the imagination subdued? Whatever it was, I was liberated by her words. Swiftly, unthinkingly, I strode out the gate and up the hill to Highgate. Until this walk, this moment, going outside had been unthinkable—I had felt an inmate and an invalid, and couldn't imagine it otherwise. Stepping outside into the wide world needed her 'Why not?'"

"How happy a person is depends upon the depth of his gratitude."

— John Miller

Paying Attention to Life

How do people who are emerging from major illness or are living with chronic pain keep their worlds expanding and their connections to life vibrant? Gratitude, as both science and religion affirm, is a touchstone for happiness.

Violet T. Gilbert, who was Blair Justice's mother's best friend, died at 103 as full of life and joy as she had been before life left her without her husband, her 11 siblings, and mobility in her body. In Visits With Violet: How to Be Happy 100 Years, Blair recounts the lessons he learned from Violet on how to keep our worlds expanding. When asked what the source of her abiding passion for life was Violet explained, "Just start with appreciating the things people take for granted. Like breathing. Every morning when I wake up, I thank the Lord for my breath."

Researchers have found that when we think about someone or something we truly appreciate and experience the feeling that goes with the thought, we trigger the parasympathetic or calming branch of the autonomic nervous system. With repetition, this pattern bestows a protective effect on the heart. The electromagnetic heart patterns of volunteers became more coherent and ordered when they activated feelings of appreciation.

There is evidence that when we practice bringing attention to what we appreciate in our lives, more positive emotions emerge, leading to beneficial alterations in heart rate variability. This may relieve hypertension and also reduce the risk of sudden death from coronary heart disease. When our hearts are in an "internal coherence state," studies suggest that we enjoy the capacity to be peaceful and calm and yet retain the ability to respond appropriately to stressful circumstances. (From A Different Kind of Health, by Blair Justice, pp. 100-101).

Sacks clearly experienced an "internal coherence state" when he arrived at the teashop in Highgate. "I ordered almost everything on the menu—from anchovy toast to rum-balls and meringues—and everything was marvelous. Not only marvelous, but holy."

Saks wrote of eating slowly and reverently after having been "starved of the world" by his self-styled exile during his convalescence."  The substance, the sensuousness, was spiritual as well. The food and drink were blessed—a sacramental feast." (pp. 154-155)

So, in the month of our national day of giving thanks, whether recovering from illness or in the fullness of health, we would do well to practice gratitude for the simplest of life's gifts-breath, movement, beauty, love. The following "gratitude practice" offered by Carol Wilson, a Buddhist meditation teacher at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, offers a guide on how we might keep our lives and gratitude flowing:

"Sometimes we shut down in the face of suffering. We don't feel anything, nor are we inclined to do anything about it. This is a form of shrinking away into passivity. Gratitude practice is one powerful tool that serves as an antidote and allows us to move forward.

"By recalling any fortunate circumstance of our life, or a person who has helped us in whatever major or minor way, we can transform our world view from one of helplessness and contraction to one of ease and quiet connectedness. From [our] place of balanced clarity, the actions we take in our daily lives have a greater potential to affect positive change, both in ourselves and in the world." (from Insight Newsletter, Fall/Winter, 2004/2005)

Last Updated: 11-23-2004