Constant Reminder

The alarm clock goes off and if you’re like me you try and figure out how many times you can hit the snooze button before you actually need to get out of bed.  There are many things that people do the moment they wake up; some pray, some write down the dreams they had throughout the night and some face the day and the reality of their health challenge.  No matter what we do; escaping the reality of the illness, unless we’re in denial, is virtually impossible.

This is the thing that those who don’t have a health challenge don’t understand, every day starts with a reminder of compromised health.  This is one of those life experiences that gets lost in translation.  It’s difficult for those not health challenge to understand what the big deal is about taking medication every day.  Obviously it’s not a challenge they’ve experienced and it’s a judgment that creates a chasm between those who are healthy and those with a health challenge.

It’s not just a physical experience; it’s an emotional and spiritual experience.  The idea that the physical body has betrayed you in some way can be disconcerting.  The truth is that it wasn’ t intentional.  Your body didn’t declare war on you as a means of punishing you…it just happens.  The question is “Just because the physical body has a challenge, does your emotional and spiritual being need to be challenged?”  This is a huge question because splitting the physical experience of the illness from the other aspects of the self can instill hope. 

I don’t want to deny the fact that there will be a learning curve adjusting to new daily regimens.  How will you create a helpful perspective about the daily reminder of your health challenge?  Can you reframe it as empowering yourself to aid in your own health and healing?  It provides you with a sense of control over your own life.  You get to decide how you’ll experience the challenge and if you’re being active in the healing process you’ll be turning up the volume on your healing process.

You have a choice to make every time you open your eyes in the morning.  You can either wake up and say to yourself, “I’ve got another day of battle”, or you can wake up and say to yourself, “I have one more day to work toward my own wellness and see what new treatments are coming down the pipeline”.  This isn’t about freezing yourself till the day when the medical community comes up with a cure; it’s about creating a safe space for you to acknowledge the daily reminder and move on and find a way to have as many positive experiences as possible.  It may take some practice, but hang in there…you’ll get it!