One time, I had a friend visiting from Europe. I was so harassed and exhausted cleaning my pad, turning a small room full of dust and junk collected through the years into a decent guestroom. I had very little sleep so I knew I would be a complete mess when I’d meet him at the airport early dawn. I took a brisk warm shower, brushed my teeth, gargled mint-flavored mouthwash, pinched my cheeks, slapped on my favorite cologne, and tried to look good.
When my friend saw me, he greeted me, saying, "Hey, you look great! You’ve lost some weight, huh? You look younger, too!"
There was magic in those words. And because he said them so sincerely, I believed what he said even though I felt dead tired and was about to fall apart. I straightened my posture, felt better, and had the stamina to drive him around town all afternoon, got him settled in his room, and even had spare energy to join our other friends for a late welcome dinner that stretched till early morning.
My mom was not a vain woman, but she believed that how she looked (especially to herself) had so much effect on how she felt. She once told me, "Just because you are sick doesn’t mean you have to look sick."
Now that I am much older, I understand what she wanted to tell me. It is necessary for us to have a good, healthy self-image because how we perceive ourselves determines how we feel. You have to look like a million dollars to feel like a million dollars.
When you are feeling down or sick, and you look in the mirror and see this wonderful, healthy image of yourself, your mind will compensate for the incongruity by making you feel better. And when you feel better, it would be easier for your body to revitalize itself and get healthier. Simply a "mind over matter" thing.
When you fix yourself up to look healthy and well, you are actually giving yourself an autosuggestion that you are well, especially every time you look in the mirror. Your self-image would be that of wellness and your body would respond by granting that wellness. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to look desperate and sick, that will be the image imbedded in your mind’s eye, and your subconscious mind would affirm that belief by making you truly sick.
I learned later from another aunt that she had a terminal illness. My jaw dropped. How could someone be so sick and yet be so very, very alive?
Tita Andring, as we lovingly called her, didn’t allow her disease to depress her, and the last thing she wanted was to depress others and elicit their pity. Armed with an unstoppable enthusiasm for life, her infectious sense of humor, and highly positive mental attitude, she braved her remaining days with amazing joie de vivre and profound gratitude for all the blessings that came her way. When she finally went, her loved ones and everyone she met were left with an indelible image of a remarkable woman – alive with so much joy and passion for life.