If you can work on feeling relaxed, keeping good and positive thoughts alive, and filling your life with a sense of well-being, you have a fighting chance against pain. Negative thoughts, worry and anxiety only help to fuel the pain. It is like the old example of cutting your finger and not feeling the pain until you happen to look down and see the blood. Stressing and worrying about the pain only makes you feel the pain more. Try to add more humor into your life.
Studies show that laughter releases endorphins and makes our body feel good.
Awaken the child in you and have some fun. See a movie, go to a comedy club or just rent a video and laugh. He watched hours of Candid Camera episodes as well as classic Marx Brother's movies. Nurses read to him excerpts from various comedy books. While a whole program of vitamins, nutrition and other alternative treatments were part of his recovery, Cousins realized that humor played a big role in healing and in his dealing with pain.