Make a wish...

If you had one wish, what would it be? Mine would be for continued health, happiness, and gentle success for the those I love.

Before you blow out your birthday candles... as a shooting star arcs across the sky... when your coin touches water... pause. And make a wish.

Dr. Paul Pearsall, in his book Wishing Well: Making Your Every Wish Come True (2001), explained how the power of wishing cured him of terminal cancer. Following a ten-year study of over 2,000 wishers, Pearsall concluded that there are six beneficial side effects to wishing someone well:

1. Wishing makes you feel good and produces "positive changes in our physiology that last for hours."

2. Altruistic wishes strengthen the body's system and produce "the helper's high."

3. Wishing helps surrender illusions of control. "It's a way we stop trying too hard and enter a state of being rather than doing," Pearsall explained.

4. A wish helps bad feelings disappear and is an excellent anger management tool that leads to forgiveness. "Wishing someone well is an immediate spiritual sedative."

5. Wishing offers a sixth sense, an "out" when things are overwhelming. Wishes offer "another way of coping."

6. Wishes help you stay connected in your mind and heart with others.

“Even if the exact wishes we make never come true,” said Pearsall, “the very act of wishing itself holds the power to heal—and even save—our life.”

“Relax, be patient, and wish from the heart...”