Like an exiled king without his kingdom, we hang onto the images of the past to desperately believe in our own glory. Eventually illness becomes our prop to help us see ourselves as helpless victims, unjustly banished from the kingdom, rejected in spite of our deep self-worth, the bastions of abused righteousness. Cheerful consciousness breaks the spell of mind necessary to maintain symptoms and also to maintain our interpretation of them. This is the reason why there have been reports recently of people being cured from terminal illnesses by using laughter as a therapy. This is also the reason why so many Buddha statues portray him with a smile that breaks through the illusion.
Health is a natural state.
Illness requires struggle and effort. Health is effortless and spontaneous. The good news is that we do not have to do anything to get well. Rather, all we need do is to stop the sustaining effort we put into keeping the images of illness alive, and health will come through of its own accord. Awake to reality, we become subject to the light of truth and not the falsehood of hypnotic images.