When it comes to medical procedures, I’m a complete wimp. Spoiled by pristine good health, I view hospital stays of even one night as terrifying and rare. So this past week, when I had some surgery that required a night’s stay, I eagerly volunteered to work with a pre-surgery coach, visualizing comfort and a great outcome, and recruiting friends to do the same.

What surprised me was how willing the hospital was to go along with the process, which is outlined in a book called “Prepare For Surgery – Heal Faster.” The “Prepare…” routine involved taking an IPod loaded with meditation prompts into surgery and taping several “healing statements” to the front of my hospital gown for the doctor and the anesthesiologist to read.

The thought occurred to me that maybe their attention should be on something other than reading meditation statements, but apparently they are good at multi-tasking.

The fact that I’m home and writing this blog post just 48 hours after leaving the recovery room is the best recommendation for positive visualization that I know. Now I just have to behave myself for at least two weeks. No overdoing. And that will be the hardest part of all.