When you fight the troubles that come with life, you can drown in them. How many times have you heard not to fight the person rescuing you when you are drowning? There is no possible way that anyone can have a perfectly happy life all of the time. There will be troubles, I can promise that one. Learning how to relax into these troubles make them easier to bear. So bob your nose above water, stop fighting, and relax into it.
This sweet dog has the right idea, just keep its head above water and slowly move through the situation. The more we fight it, the lower we dip back under the water. Stop fighting so much of life. Ride it like a wave instead of fighting it like a drowning person.
People with chronic illness and pain have got to conquer this concept. When we fight it, we get more stressed and our already stressed out ill bodies react more strongly than a healthy person’s body. This sounds counter-intuitive when you are fighting for your life to get out of illness. No doubt, activate your brain and fight for health. Activate your soul and fight for your precious life. Fight for it in a smart way, be as calm as possible. It is the reaction to stress, adding more stress to your body and soul, that allows you to dip under the surface, which creates you to panic, fighting the lifeguard trying to save you.
Relaxing when you are chronically ill and in tremendous pain is the absolute last thing that comes to mind yet it is the most necessary thing that will help you get to shore for safety. Making incredibly slow progress towards health is a grand plan in comparison to drowning. Just simply bob your nose above water every moment you think about it. Then when you have accomplished that, bob a little higher and get your mouth out of the water for a moment. Each step you take to relax with chronic illness and pain, you can bob a little higher and eventually you can walk right out of the ocean on your own two feet.
Relaxing into your illness is not the only thing that helps you get out of it. Diet and lifestyle have a profound impact on your health which also need to be accomplished for better health. It all works together. Understanding some of the details of your particular illness can lead you to specific insight. What I am saying is that relaxing into your illness will help you deal with all of the complexities of getting out of it.
I will give you a visual to remind you to relax instead of drowning. As silly as it is, I bet you remember it.
Did you laugh? Did you take a deeper breath when you laughed? Did you feel yourself have a brief moment of relaxing? Keep laughing at life and yourself and relax. No drowning allowed! Get a rubber duck and go take a relaxing bath, keeping your nose above water.
Maribeth Baxter, MBEC
Donations accepted to serve others on their chronic illness journey. Maribeth Baxter, MBEC provides voluntary certified health coaching services to the financially limited during their time of crisis.
