Joy, even when sick? YES!

As the story goes, I bought a horse. It was my dream come true, and I have no regrets. If you are a horse lover, you know how the sweetness of these beings can melt the heart in a nanosecond.

Ready for a lovely afternoon

Then, on a Sunday three weeks ago, I joyfully haltered our new baby, Sammy Rose, and as we traversed the dusty ranch path to a spot that he could roll around and enjoy his life a bit more, he spooked.

The spook is not the problem. It's where he landed: on my foot.

What followed was a foot that puffed up, then turned so many "new colors," and finally, after x-rays and ice packs, went ahead with a full-blown infection. Still on medications that will take "time" to work and feeling sick, I knew what I needed: a Joy Point or two . . . maybe more.

A Joy Point anytime, anywhere

I didn't need that dopamine surge just for the fun of it, but because that surge deactivates the stress chemical and inflammatory cascade, so it was part of my overall plan for "medicine."

What follow are my top three EBT tools for creating a healing dopamine surge when you really need one, and any sensible person not trained in EBT would say, "Are you kidding me?" Here are the ones I've used during the last 24 hours:

Strategy #1. Comfort Time

Always an option is to surrender to the sickness, which for me means going directly to bed, covering myself with the warmest blankets, using the softest pillows, and doing virtually anything that makes me feel better. Just the awareness that there are "zero limits" on ways to comfort myself and that the whole world disappears for this "surrender to healing" time makes me smile. Check that one off!

Strategy #2. Ask for Help

Second in line was asking my husband for help. It wasn't so much that he did things for me that I needed but that I could ask, and he would make it his first priority to help me out and also put up with me being a bit on the grumpy side. Walt went to the drugstore for bandages, salve, wraps, and more . . . but what touched me the most was that he put everything aside and lent a hand to my admittedly compromised self. Well done!

Strategy #3. See Yourself in the Moment

The last is the best in my book because it feels to me as if the heavens have opened up, some fairy godmother has waved her wand, and all of a sudden, I'm relieved of any of my various miseries, if only for a flash.

This is our genetic wealth, as the brain can do this, so here we go: Take a deep breath and get to Brain State 1 any way you can (use the app or your recollection of using it), then rise above. See yourself in this exact situation without any layer of ugliness scraped off, the nausea, the body aches, all of it. Then, notice something magical. Just by seeing your beautiful self in the present moment, your mouth will smile.

It's all-natural

This is involuntary, as love and compassion are woven into our genetic code. All we need to do is stop thinking, rise above, and see ourselves, and amusement, compassion, humor, love, and acceptance flow.

Our emotional brain has our backs even when we are sick, and that's enough to put a smile on anyone's face! I hope it did yours.