[gregl515]

I have been thinking about this for some time. It may be pretty obvious to some, but not so obvious to others. I have come to the conclusion that you can program yourself for illness and failure through your thoughts.
I am not a scientist and will not quote research or statistics. I am only a man who has experience and observations. When my wife became ill, I became blindingly angry. I asked God why he would do this to my wife, a good woman who constantly helped others, when I, a man who was by no means a particularly virtuous person, remained healthy. I asked this repeatedly every day of her illness and recovery. I carried this anger around the whole time as well. My anger led me to rack up traffic tickets, to do impulsive things and to explode at friends and colleagues irrationally. Strangely, I was an excellent trial lawyer during that process because I could channel my anger and aggressiveness on behalf of client. I held my anger like a treasure and became attached to my despair.
I programmed my mind to become ill. My impulsiveness and health habits slipped and I regained weight I had lost through hard work and discarded good habits for bad. Mostly, I kept asking that damn question, why afflict Ali when I deserved it so much more. When Ali got well, I was very happy for her, but kept my anger for God and the world. When I got sick, it was almost a relief. When I lost my leg, I lost my anger because I no longer had time for the foolishness of anger. I had to get well.
When the anger disipated, I could concentrate on good habits and getting stronger each day.
I fell back a little when my marriage dissolved, but I have righted myself and am moving forward. I am frightened because I need to get a job and I need to get strong enough to live my life without so many limits. Still, I know I can do those things.
The point of this is, no matter what we believe in or what we don't believe in, we can program ourselves for failure and for illness if we attach onto thoughts that foster failure and illness. We need to constantly work to program our minds to succeed and move forward. I have become convinced that, if we do this, we have a much better chance to be happy and healthy.
I am not saying that we can prevent illness and misfortune. I am just saying that we don't have to work so hard to make our minds and bodies ready to accept it as our destiny.