Okay – so I am a motivational speaker NOW – but I used to be a professional actress, performing on stages in lots of plays where the characters were VERY colorful and the costumes were straight from periods of long ago. I remember rehearsing for weeks learning all the nuances of my character, but it wasn’t until we started rehearsing in costumes – that the magic really began to happen. I remember playing the role of Celia in As You Like It and what happened when I first put on the costume. From the moment I put them on, there was something about that dress, and that lovely little hair piece that made me FEEL like the character. I moved differently, I started THINKING differently, and I actually FELT different.
So today, after one full week of hacking, coughing, wheezing and feeling pretty darned miserable, I saw this (I use the term loosely) hat – in the back of my closet. And without thinking, I put it on. I looked at myself in the mirror and proceeded to laugh out loud. What first struck me was that this was the first time I had laughed in a week!
Wondering what would happen if I kept the hat (okay, okay, crown) on for a while, I casually strolled into the room where my husband was working. When he looked up and saw my silly looking self, he also burst out laughing. And that, of course, made me laugh again.
Here’s the moral of the story. The next time you get sick, put on any part of a happy, funny or silly costume. Just do it. You’ll feel ridiculous at first, but then when you see yourself in the mirror, you’ll feel better. Even if it’s only for a few minutes, you will force your body to produce some of those healing hormones that will help you get better faster.
Now if I could just find that clown nose I used once in a children’s show…
