Who are they? Euphrosyne (left) is the Goddess of good cheer and Morpheus (right) is the God of sleep and dreams. Why are we invoking them? They are being called because they work on the parasympathetic system of our brain.

It is easier said than done. When one knows that one’s loved one is ill with a terminal disease and one does not know when the end will come. One sees the suffering and one tries to be falsely cheerful and to think that this too will pass. But it is not like that. One wishes that it does not happen and the patient wishes for a cure or the end. There is no answer. There are ways of overcoming the finality but is one ready to handle it. Optimism and fatalism are the two which rule us.

Because of the nature of my work, I have seen many versions of hope. When the patient battles the illness, it gives her/him strength as the treatment takes away the focus from the end. There are different therapies and people try them. It is the hope which keeps them going. They do not mind the side effects because they have had a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. My take is that if the patient can smile and sleep, then one is able to overcome their fears.

Sleep is the most powerful restorative for a terminally ill person. It means that they have slept dreamlessly and their brain is also asleep. Laughter is also a powerful potion. When one laughs, one’s parasympathetic system takes over and the fight-flight-response is subdued. One feels in control and looks at life, not from one’s point of view but as a whole. Happy thoughts come.

Wonderful sadhana

Swami Chinmayananda said that if one did not allow oneself to get upset or disappointed, and became aware, then when one faced a tragedy, one would accept it. He has said that if we laugh at all experiences, then we will remain unperturbed. I found fault with this and could not justify it to myself. Now I have understood the power of his words. If we allow our parasympathetic system take over, we will be fine. Hence making a terminally ill person smile would be a wonderful sadhana.

We address two points, sleep and smile. Both work on the right hemisphere of the brain. Give a happy meditation (a memory of a joyous occasion), and then give a simple sadhana like breath awareness, without counting will put the dear one to sleep. I have used both methods and have found them effective. A meditation of a happy memory like a football match is very powerful for a teenage boy who loves football and has suffered a leg amputation. Sleep sadhana is easier as they are so tired that even a shot nap is beneficial.

Invoking Euphrosyne (goddess of good cheer) and Morpheus (God of sleep and dreams) without the dreams would help the persons terminally ill.

Lastly with Smile and Sleep, they are freed of fear.

Aim Hrim Klim

Left image: No machine-readable author provided. Makthorpe assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). 13 February 2006 (original upload date), CC BY-SA 2.5

Right image: Unknown author – Hermitage, Public Domain