At this point, you may be wondering whether you must lead an exemplary life, be good and go to church to stay free of colds and flu. And anyway, aren’t you getting into a lot more than you may have bargained for? Is it worth the trouble of screening out negative beliefs and thoughts just to get over a cold more quickly? Wouldn’t it be easier to put up with the cold and soothe the symptoms by popping a few cold-remedy pills available at the comer drugstore?

The answer, of course, is that while adopting Positivism might seem a rather large order merely to get over a single cold, its long term benefits are far more expansive.

If you’ve been averaging three or four prolonged colds each winter, Positivism can reduce your exposure to cold symptoms to a maximum of three or four days each year. It can dramatically cut the risk of developing a complication such as bronchitis or pneumonia. And it can minimize your susceptibility to cancer and to every variety of viral or bacterial infection.

Positivism is easily learned while relaxing in bed with a cold or flu. It requires no physical effort. Nor does it require that you lead an exemplary life, be good or go to church. Yet it is interesting to note that several recent studies have revealed that individuals with strong spiritual faith live longer, healthier lives and experience fewer diseases and infections. For years it was thought that the vegetarian diet of the Seventh-day Adventists was the prime factor in contributing to their freedom from heart disease and cancer. But new evidence is showing that their unflagging spiritual faith and positivism may be an even stronger influence in boosting their health.

The existence of what is being called the faith factor in enhancing immunocompetence is currently being confirmed by a variety of studies. For example, further proof of the power of Positivism in overcoming cancer was recently revealed in a report give by Dr. Lydia Temoshek of the University of California, San Francisco, at a meeting of the American Cancer Society’s writers’ seminar. Dr. Temoshek made a twenty-eight-month follow-up study of forty patients with medically-confirmed malignant melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer. When half the patients had died, emotional profiles revealed that those who succumbed had twice the levels of anger, hostility, depression, dejection, tension-anxiety, fatigue, inertia and confusion as those who survived.

Dr. Temoshek concluded that upbeat emotions determine a cancer patient’s chances for recovery. Commenting on the Temoshek studies, Dr. Wallace Clark, Jr., of the University of Pennsylvania reportedly said that it offered the strongest evidence in favor of Positivism yet.

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Widley used in Hindu Ayurvedic medicine to relieve nasal congestion and post-nasal drip are three herbs which provide a similar effect to antihistamine. They are: Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Anise (Pimpinella anisum) and Ginger (Zingiber officinale).

Among efficient natural bronchodilators is black tea (Thea sinensis) which contains theophylline, the favorite medical drug for asthma relief. While black tea contains only a mild amount of theophylline, its caffeine content will also help to open up congested sinuses. Black tea also makes a good expectorant and a fairly strong cup containing a teaspoon of lemon juice will give you a lift that makes cold symptoms feel better under almost any circumstances.

Among other effective natural bronchodilators are Ma Huang (Ephedra sinica). You may take it as a tea or in tablet form, available in most health food stores, it is also a popular hayfever remedy. Because Ma Huang is a stimulant that raises blood pressure and pulse rate, it should not be taken continuously.

Natural chest rubs help stimulate circulation in the chest and lung area while their vapors also help relieve nasal congestion. You can make a good chest rub by mixing together equal amounts of thymol, menthol, Eucalyptus oil, myristica oil, turpentine oil and Cedarleaf oil.

Another chest rub formula is to mix two to three drops each of Peppermint and Eucalyptus plus essential oil of either Lavender or Rosemary (or both) into one-fourth cup of olive oil. Rub the mixture well into the chest and cover with a warm cloth. Inhale the vapors.

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As a result, the only successful way to overcome a cold or flu in a minimum of time is to use a Whole Person approach. Known also as holistic healing, this means that we ourselves must intervene on the emotional, physical and nutritional levels simultaneously.

After absorbing this chapter, you should now be familiar with the entire disease process of upper respiratory tract viral infections. This know-how can give you a tremendous feeling of power over any case of cold or flu you may catch. You can easily recognize the few danger signals that may indicate a medical emergency. You should also be able to confidently handle your own home treatment. And you can speed up recovery by using natural, alternative-healing techniques based on mental, physical and emotional approaches. All of these healing therapies are things we can easily do for ourselves at nominal cost.

Described the Whole Person approach to shortening the duration of a cold or flu and to minimizing and soothing the severity of the symptoms. Using this methodology, you can avoid most of the misery and discomfort and, in the case of a cold, continue to go to work with undiminished energy. Included in the chapters which follow are dozens of natural, do-it-yourself remedies for soothing away the pain and discomfort of cold and flu symptoms. Most of these are less dangerous and more successful than the majority of commercial cough and cold remedies. Everything you need to know to successfully treat an upper respiratory tract infection at home is described in the next articles.

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This traditional herbal remedy is available in most health food stores.

Step fives. Try to drink half a glass of water or other non-alcoholic fluid every half hour throughout the day. This is needed to replace fluids lost during the healing process and by fever, is

Hot drinks and soups also act as expectorants by helping loosen secretions from the chest. The one best cold-fighting beverage is considered to be onion soup liberally flavored with garlic and cayenne pepper. Miso broth is also excellent as are unsweetened fruit and vegetable juices, especially orange, grapefruit, apple or grape, and carrot or tomato juice. Ideally, they should be freshly squeezed; fruit juices may be cut with an equal amount of water. Carob drinks and herb teas, especially chamomile, are also recommended. Lemon tea is particularly soothing.

Equally good is this lemon beverage; cut up two lemons and steep in a pot of boiling water for twelve to fifteen minutes. Serve in a cup with a tablespoon of honey and sip slowly.

Alternatively, you can squeeze the juice from a large lemon and mix into a glass of warm water. Sip it slowly. Each of these lemon-based drinks increases the acid level of mucosa in the throat, a condition that helps soothe throat discomfort and also destroys invading viruses.

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It’s not easy to change a strong negative feeling like that once it has begun. But it would have been extremely easy to slide that first thought off your mind when you began comparing yourself with someone else and to replace it with a scene of a beautiful beach. In the process, you could have prevented the unpleasant feeling of envy and continued to feel calm and relaxed.

You must never forget that, at any time, you can personally choose to feel any way you want to feel by placing an appropriate thought on your inner movie screen. Granted, you may have to slide an unwanted thought out of your mind half a dozen times in a row. But by doing so, the mind soon gets the message that negative thoughts are unwelcome. Within a short while, you will find yourselves free of the unwanted thought. And you will also find yourselves free of the headache that the unwanted thought might have triggered.

Learning to control our thoughts isn’t really as difficult as most of us believe. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and other university medical schools have completely reversed tens of thousands of cases of severe depression by teaching patients to think positively. Called cognitive therapy, this method is based on the discovery that many cases of depression are caused not by some complex biological process deep within the body or by the subconscious mind, but by ten easily-recognizable ways in which we distort our thinking by using a negative approach.

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