During the last few days I’ve been a little bit under the weather. I have my first cold in three years, and with all the associated symptoms added to what I feel normally, I certainly don’t feel great. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that I’ve taken a step backwards in my recovery.
Yet there is significant reason to believe that the situation continues to improve. Here are just a few reasons:
1) This “cold” period follows a stretch of 8-9 days during which I had more energy than I knew what to do with.
2) Despite more fatigue and muscle pain (and today, a headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, and chest pain), I have continued to work out three times a week at minimum.
3) Thanks in large part to working out, I’ve gained 10 pounds in the last couple months to finally reach a “normal” weight of about 141.
4) Also partly thanks to working out, my spine is going out of place less easily, which means that my reliance on chiropractic care is slowly, slowly diminishing.
5) I’ve begun volunteering at the local elementary school with a Mexican kid who doesn’t speak any English -- a perfect opportunity for me since I speak Spanish, have an ESL certification, and have been in dire need of something substantial to keep me busy.
6) Feeling crappy, whether physically or psychologically, means that there exists an even greater potential for growth. When I had a major seizure in April this year, for example, I was told that it was serious, and the overarching theme was “this is bad.” I chose to eschew that outlook and instead decided it was a catalyst for change. And it was. It was around that time that I began to see steady improvement in the state of my health. (This is a major subject, so I’ll discuss it more in a future post.) I see no reason why this period can’t be in some way the same kind of indicator.
This is all to say one thing: a situation and its future potential are defined entirely by the story you give to it. It seems that the silver lining of feeling crappy is that you can create your own silver lining. That's what you do if you want to heal.
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