Yes, of course I have been sick, and I do succumb at times to bouts of illness (usually I suffer from headaches and that sort of thing). If I do get really ill, it is almost invariably something like a strep infection or something throat related.

The other day, on the morning I was going to Trondheim for the dental appointments, I started to feel a tickle in my throat like, after years of not having a cold, I might actually be coming down with this pesky illness that has been plaguing everyone around me. However, I willed it away. I just decided that no, it was not possible and it would not happen. And though I had a lingering discomfort all day, by the next morning, the sore throat was gone and has not returned.

Perhaps it was not my insistent will that it not happen that kept the sore throat at bay. Still, I like to think that the mind can be powerful enough to exert a certain influence over our bodies when we need it to behave itself. I am going to try this more often. Of course, it just means that I will be attempting to control something that maybe should sometimes be out of control. Given the choice, though, I would rather be fully in control than flailing around wondering what comes next.