Ever felt this way?

Imagine for a minute that you are sick… very sick. There is something wrong and you are feeling the worst you have ever felt.

The problem is that that you don’t know what the problem is – you just see the symptoms (pain, exhaustion, low energy, wheezing) come up over and over again.  Well, my sick friend, looks like you have 3 options to figure out what’s happening:

Option 1 – Avoidance (ie. Do Nothing)

This is the classic ‘hope scenario’ – that if I avoid or stop thinking about a problem it will magically go away.  Has this ever worked for you?  It has for me… but only in delaying dealing with the issue so that I can do something else instead.

In medical terms, not consulting with the properly trained doctor when you are sick could actually kill you.  Or cause you to deal with a lot of completely unnecessary pain and suffering. 

Option 2 – Self-Medicate to Deal with the Pain

I see this as medicating without proper diagnosis.  It would be like grabbing a few aspirin or pain killers, hoping that this will take away the pain.   

In life, this could be a book, seminar, car, woman man, food, drug, drink, or other external source/substance will help dull the pain he is feeling. 

Has this ever worked for you?  It has for me… temporarily.  But quickly after the ‘newness’ dwindles, the pain will come back.  Imagine going your whole life jumping from one quick fix to another without actually addressing the true cause of the pain?  This is tragic.

The bottom line is this: For most of us, when a ’negative’ or unwanted feeling comes up (pain, exhaustion, sadness, etc.) we generally try to avoid it or reach for something to quickly fix it. Instead, what about asking ‘Why am I feeling this?‘ and sit quietly with that for a while.  Although very difficult, this might be the most helpful thing we could do to understand better what is happening.     

There is another option - Option 3 - ’Go to the Doctor.’  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.