Hope

There's a new meaning for HOPE. Now, I've heard a lot of explanations:

How Everything Probably Ends,
Hold on with Prayer Every Day,
Hang On with Positive Enthusiasm,
Hold On Pain Ends
How Offended People Endure, and
How Often Praise Endures.

This one is new.

Health Outcomes of Positive Experiences.

What a shift! We have all plumbed the depths of the health outcomes of negative experiences, before and including the massive ACEs study, but who talks about HOPE?

One letter over is HOOE, a cry heard as people end their day or complete an arduous task. Sometimes it has a W on the left.

And then there's HOPE. We all hear about hope--but not in this sense. Not, perhaps for the first time, looking at how positive experiences help our health. In 2017, in Academic Pediatrics Journal, Robert D. Sege, MD wrote: "The child's direct experiences (ACEs and HOPE) mediate brain growth and contribute to lifelong health status."

I think we will find that positive experiences influence health outcomes not only in childhood but across the lifespan. I think we can begin to "stack" choices on top of each other, one by one, to create better health beginning at any time.

Even the simple act of complimenting yourself influences your life. Be kind to you, as kind as you wish others were. Do kind things for yourself and others. Spend three days starting every interaction with "thank you." More by more, these positive experiences add up and help you heal in many many ways.