I realize it has been a bit longer since I wrote about my ME Day and this post today.  While I plan on writing here at least once a week at minimum, I got distracted over the last ten days with the Holidays and then illness.  K and I spent a lovely white Christmas with K’s family in Detroit, MI.  It was a festive couple of days, and for me nothing is more pleasing than to see the happiness the holidays bring.

Unfortunately, as I stated above, I was afflicted with a minor stomach flu when we returned home.  It’s this illness that I wanted to talk about today.  You see, I used to be very sickly when my life was out of balance.  I still went to work, don’t get me wrong (I made them all suffer as much, perhaps more, than I was suffering).  It was my standing policy that unless you were on your death bed, you should be at work…you know spreading the misery, infecting you co-workers, and then complaining about their weak wills when they called in sick the next day.  Very positive times indeed!

These days I don’t really get sick.  I may catch a cold, or have my sinuses rise up on me from time to time, but I do not really get ill.  This is primarily attributed to my living in balance.  Healthy living, healthy mind, and healthy spirit are often the best preventatives in my opinion.  So this week while I was ill, it was a harsh blow.  I used to love the times when I was sick as a young person, because it meant that I could skip school, or in my later days at Games Workshop, it was an excuse to call in sick to work.  Sickness meant a day of “Getting away from it all!”.  A sort of demented holiday if you will.

The irony is that I found myself sick, unable to concentrate and having a hard time keeping focused and positive when I really, REALLY wanted to get some work done.  I have recordings that I wanted to accomplish, some writings (including this blog) I wanted to write, some clients I wanted to talk with, and finally some books I wanted to read.  The more I tried to do any of these, and I apologize to a couple of you out there for my distracted phone calls, the more frustrated I became with my ineffectiveness.  Frustration led to negativity, negativity led to worry, and worry led to doubt.  OH THESE WERE DARK DAYS!

I realize that when your body and mind are not responding to you due to pain or illness, these are times of potential weakness and self doubt.  Where your circle of sameness can overwhelm you, and instead of moving forward with your life, you can spin it backwards.  This is where I was…for all of about 45 minutes.

It took me 45 minutes to realize what I was doing.  I was attacking that powerful and successful inner self that I have with the old me who doubted everything.  The key was identifying the attack (don’t misunderstand it was an ATTACK), identify the source (the illness and general icky feeling), and then systematically overcoming it with the powerful new self.  I looked in the mirror and said to myself, “Dan, it’s ok to be sick.  You are still a MONEY MACHINE! Your systems are still up and running!  You have a GREAT TEAM, a GREAT WIFE, and GREAT FRIENDS out there to support YOU!  So now go and get some fluids and go back to bed and rest.”  And that’s what I did.

The hardest thing to do is realize that sometimes when you are physically weakened due to pain, illness, or stress it will affect your mental strength.  If you can harness that inner resolve to feel better about yourself and defeat those inner demons, you will begin to feel better.  While you might not be physically feeling better, you will at least feel mentally stronger.  In simpler terms, I am saying that if you aren’t feeling well, take a moment to reflect on the greatness that is YOU.  Then you will begin to feel just a little bit better than you did a moment before.

It still amazes me the power of the human psyche and what it can do for the human body.  As soon as I flipped that switch, I began to feel better mentally.  With stronger mental thinking, my body began to improve.  While I am not at 100% yet, I felt well enough to actually take advantage of the beautiful day with a short bike ride today.   It was nothing to really write home about, yet it was one of the best rides of the year because it was the first ride since being sick and it was incredible to be out amongst the living again!

In the next few days, I will be sharing with you my view on balance in more detail.  This is something that I have been working on for some time and plan on publishing soon.  The first article will be covering the question that plagues many people, “What is balance and how do I achieve it?”

Until then, have a safe and Happy New Year Celebration!

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