My interest in hope sent me to the library in a quest for information. I found a book called "The Anatomy of Hope - How People Prevail in the Face of Illness." It's written by Dr. Jerome Groopman who details his journey to understand hope and how it affects the human body. On his quest he discovered that there is an "authentic biology of hope." He explains that "belief and expectation - the key elements of hope - can block pain by releasing the brain's endorphins mimicking the effects of morphine. In some cases, hope can also have important effects on fundamental physiological processes like respiration, circulation, and motor function. During the course of an illness, then, hope can be imagined as a domino effect, a chain reaction in which each link makes improvement more likely. It changes us profoundly in spirit and in body."
I think Dr. Groopman's findings are wonderfully amazing! I like that he included "spirit" as well as body. I believe emotional health and physical health are intertwined. But I'm wondering how we find that "belief and expectation." How do we find hope, plant it in our hearts and cultivate it? This is my quest.
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