Sickness is a funny thing. Well, not funny exactly, but an interesting concept to ponder. When we have a cold, we're told "get well, soon!" When we have an infection, we're prescribed medicine to get rid of it. When we have more aggressive illnesses like cancer, we have a whole team of medical professionals coming up with a plan to blast it out of our bodies.
When we are sick, we feel defeated. We are pitied. We are seen as "tarnished" - something is not quite right. We unconsciously (or consciously) chastise our bodies, saying "hey, come on, why aren't you good enough to fight this off?"
We may view ourselves as "less than", because we have been taught that healthy bodies are not only the norm, but something we must constantly try to maintain, otherwise we just don't quite measure up to how we "should be". How our bodies "should be" operating. When we're sick, the message we receive is loud and clear: something is wrong with us!!!
Sometimes we spiral. Sometimes we wreak havoc on our bodies more than our sickness.
Can that really be true? That our minds can cause more harm than a physical illness?
The fact is, our mind is a powerful thing. We can literally make ourselves sick by either stress, continuous negative thoughts, or simply just the mere thoughts of thinking we're ill.
You've heard the stories of those who were sick, but refused to succumb to those sickening thoughts, thus gaining their health back. What we may tend to forget is that mindset is everything. The mind controls the body in more ways than we think.
If we believe we are sick, and those negative thoughts continuously take up our mental space, we will continue to be sick. Even if we are not physically sick, but our brain says we are, we can grow to be sick. And conversely, if we are sick and think thoughts of healing, we are more likely to heal.
Our body responds to our thoughts. What we think, we believe, and what we believe, gets transmitted to every cell in our body. It is what we become.
While no human on this earth welcomes sickness, I feel as though it would be beneficial to reframe our thoughts around it. While we pity the sick, are we further prolonging their healing? Are we encouraging the notion that there's something wrong with their bodies?
It may be a funny thing to think about, but the fact is, we as a society may contribute to sickness in this way. What if we still celebrated a sick body? What if all stigmas were removed? Would we heal faster? Would we have sickness at all?
Maybe. But, maybe we would all feel just a little less bad about ourselves when we get a cold or a scary diagnosis, and say "hey body, I still love you. I'm sending all my healing thoughts your way. You are still celebrated."
So, the next time you feel like you're coming down with something, take a minute and thank your body. It's fighting for you, and the more that you feed it with good thoughts, the more you are contributing to ending the sickness stigmas.
Stay healthy, and even when you're not, continue to celebrate!
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