Is positive thinking a medical miracle? We all have heard the saying mind over matter, but how effective is it really? Positive thoughts can activate the healing mechanism of your body’s immune system. No one really understands how or why a positive way of thinking helps people manage better with their illnesses. There have been many studies proving that your overall attitude in life affects the outcome of your well being. 

The source of motivation and your will to feel better depends on how you program your mind. Let me share with you one amazing story that will make you believe in the healing powers of positivity.

My mother’s strong positive outlook in life helped her manage her condition a lot better through the power of her thoughts. 

My mother battled Emphysema and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease for 14 years. In the summer of 2005, my girlfriend and I rushed my mother to Bellevue Hospital in the Kips Bay neighborhood in Manhattan. My mother weighed 80 lbs so I was able to carry her in my arms into the Emergency Room. I laid her on a stretcher where they wheeled her right through an area all covered with white curtains. It was chaotic. With my mother’s condition, we didn’t have to wait. 

As soon as the doctor saw my mother gasping for air, they immediately placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. I looked at my mother and thought to myself that this might be it! I started apologizing to her for all my shortcomings as a daughter and she did the same. Tears ran through my cheeks and felt that I was quickly running out of time. 

My mother’s oxygen level was at fifty percent. After minutes of the nurses and doctors working on her, they were able to stabilize her and brought her oxygen level up to eighty percent. She was suddenly breathing much better than when we first walked in those dreadful emergency glass doors. My mother was confined for a week and had to see a pulmonary specialist as her primary doctor since then. 

My mother’s condition required nebulizing three to four times a day. She also carried a rescue inhaler at all times. And last but not the least, she was required to use oxygen at all times to help with her breathing. If you have not experienced asthma in your life, you wouldn’t understand how difficult it is to inhale and just be able to make a simple breath in. You’d  feel light headed if you don’t get the right amount of oxygen to your brain. So, she was ordered to be hooked onto a portable concentrator which converts air to oxygen.

I was devastated. My mother walked around and dragged it everywhere she went. It was an awful feeling. I know she felt regret. 

Regret that she didn’t stop smoking sooner. I remember fighting with my mom, begging her to quit smoking. My mom would tell me stories on how she started smoking in her late thirties.

She already had children then. She said she smoked, simply because it was something most men and women did when at the clubs and social gatherings. 

One stick of cigarette led to two. And two led to a pack. And a pack led to three packs of cigarettes a day! Then she added, 

“I am not proud to say this, but I was addicted to it. It was very hard to stop. I smoked around my grandchildren and I’m not proud of it.

I have learned my lesson the hard way. I’ve decided, I’m going to go cold turkey. I realized I want to live longer and see my grandchildren grow up and get married.

I was going to fight this one and I am going to do this with what I know best, my will and positive attitude towards life!” 

My mother decided that she was not going to join any pity party. She will look good to feel good. She was always at her best. Always dolled up. She wore high heels and this made her feel good. She said….

“I don’t care what people say or think of me. I do what I do based on what will make me feel better.

I pray a lot. It is my form of cleansing. Positive attitude begins with being grateful for what you have. Because if you are grateful then you will find that there is nothing else to complain about.” My mother was full of wisdom! 

The key to improve health is to avoid negative thinking. It is toxic. The power of positive thinking and your own perseverance in loving life is what will get you through. 

My mother’s pulmonologist was so impressed with my mom. He cannot believe how she was able to last for 14 years with the irreversible disease she was battling. 

My mother joined our Heavenly Father, March 5, 2019 ✝️ 

Thank you Mom!