A Month of Mays: May We Learn from Our Illnesses
When I started writing my last post about anger, I didn’t intend to chronicle my life with eczema. But for me, my anger and eczema are so intertwined that it felt natural to bring it up as a way to explain why embracing your anger is so important. The correlation between illnesses and your emotions is a topic that deserves a lot more attention, though, so let’s go into it a little more today.
But First, Another Warning
Before I do so, however, I’m going to place a warning here again. This is a topic that can stir up a lot of emotions. If your self-esteem is already low, it may make you feel worse about yourself. You might end up feeling guilty, inferior, or very angry. It’s not what I want for you AT ALL. As I mentioned in the first A Month of Mays post, we need a certain amount of self-esteem in order to explore the parts of yourself that you’ve hidden away. I highly encourage you to cultivate the ability to say “But that’s OK” to yourself first and foremost. We all arrive in this world under different circumstances and face different challenges. We all have a different path to follow and our own pace of growth. There is no superior or inferior, better or worse. You’re OK, just as you are.
Also, I’m not saying that there’s a correlation between all illnesses and emotions. Conditions that you are born with, as I’ll explain in another post, are in a different category. The ones that I want to focus on are the chronic illnesses that are stress-related or the ones that the doctors can’t quite explain after doing multiple tests. I’m writing for the people who’ve tried everything, only to be disappointed each time. For someone like that, there’s a chance that your suppressed emotions are playing a role in your health.
Seeing Our Illnesses From A Different Perspective
We need to change the way we see our illnesses. When we don’t feel well, we see it as something bad, something that hinder us from having a normal day. It’s inconvenient at the least, and if it’s chronic, it can feel like your enemy. I know I hated my skin and felt betrayed by my own body. But what I’ve learned is that your body is doing the job it’s supposed to. My body, which felt so unhealthy to me, was actually just having a very healthy reaction to my stressors. The body is only trying to communicate with you by sending you signals.
When symptoms show up in your body, here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Am I doing something that I really don’t want to do?
- Am I holding onto anger and resentments?
- Is there something that I’m afraid of?
- Am I taking on too many responsibilities and pushing myself too hard?
- Is there something I really want to say to someone?
- Am I treating myself with respect?
Let yourself answer these questions freely. Don’t pick and choose your answers to match your ideal self. Everything that comes up is a part of you. Accept them because there isn’t a right or wrong answer here. If tears flow, let them flow. If you can talk to someone about it, do so. When that’s not possible, write it down. You can read more about journaling here.
The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. Your body is sending you signals because it’s your friend. It wants you to be happy and well. It wants you to love yourself. I feel like people who have chronic illnesses like this often has a deep love for others, but at the expense of themselves. It’s OK to listen to your body and make yourself a priority once in a while! When you do, you’ll realize that your illnesses are very helpful.