Got symptoms?
Welcome to the club.
I talk to a lot of ill people and many of them only ever speak of their experience in terms of its negative aspects. They’re stuck in the pain of their physical problem.
Remember the saying, every cloud has a silver lining? Well I’m a great believer that bad health isn’t all bad news. In fact, illness can be a gift, albeit in unusual wrapping!
I personally have spent ten years rebuilding from serious illness and my health crisis was a wake-up call. A do or die, last chance saloon that led to radical transformation in my life and propelled me into a far more rewarding career.
I learned to listen to, and understand, the messages my body was giving me through my symptoms. I discovered how to unravel the cellular imbalance I had created and restore vitality, and while I’m not trying to sell illness, I can promise you that if you re-frame it as an opportunity, your load lightens.
So it may sound crazy but I’m inviting you to entertain the idea that there’s a greater purpose at play here. I’m giving you a gift, of sorts!
Take a moment to consider your symptoms…think you don’t have any? Try again. We all have something going on, from pain, stiffness and niggles we brush off, to allergies, intolerances and full blown disease conditions. We all have something.
Think about the health labels you have given yourself, or been given, the meds you take, and answer the following questions:
What behaviour have you changed as a result of what’s going on with your body?
What have your symptoms forced you to change or learn?
What does your illness allow you to do or not do? (stay in bed, not work?)
Which relationships have begun or ended as a result of your health experiences?
Does being ill mean you get support, or are listened to?
How have your symptoms changed the nature of your job or work?
What life changes for the better have you undertaken?
What changes are you still resisting?
Why do these changes create fear for you?
Who would you have to be if you were healthy and strong?
What would you have to face if you were healthy and strong?
And breathe…
There’s a gift in there, if you’re prepared to open it.
Surrender to the Gift
Whatever you fight you fuel, what you resist persists.
We all know people doing battle against their bodies. Trying to win the war against their symptoms, instead of surrendering to the gift and allowing healing.
Illness gives us a chance to evolve. Sure it ain’t always pretty, and sometimes the change is too late to save our physical bodies, but by examining what illness forces us to alter, we can find the change life requires us to make.
Surrendering to the gift of our condition allows us to take the learning and move towards health. Surrendering is the first step. It allows us to finally listen and encourages us into informed action. Surrendering is the entry ticket to our journey of self-actualisation and, while I would not wish my ill-health experience on my worst enemy, I wish on everyone the inner peace I have found as a result. What I believed to be a curse turned out to be the biggest blessing and I am eternally grateful for the gift.
The full version of this process is available in the book, Rebuild Your Health Reclaim Your Life, available on Amazon.