Can we participate in our sickness? Yes. By: Not asking for help. Trying to control everything. And not forgiving, ourselves or others or creation.
And we make ourselves sick when we make our life focus on what we DO NOT want: We do not want pain; we do not want to lack; we do not want inconvenience; we do not want insufficiency.
Remember the Dalai Lama said: “A state of happiness is an attitude of moving toward rather than away, an attitude of embracing life rather than rejecting it. This underlying sense of moving toward happiness can have a very profound effect; it makes us more receptive, more open to the joy of living.” (From: The Art of Happiness).
If needed, begin to release ideas of moving away from things in life, and imagine how you can begin to move toward what you love. Begin this today, by doing what you love.
You are out of control; you need to get yourself under control; the world is out of control. So we try to control everything, and this can make us sick.
Some things are good to control, such as our healthy habits: brushing our teeth, bathe, eat.
Yet when we find our world full of anxiety, we try to control thing, try to gain control. We are human. It isn’t a problem trying to gain some control. The problem is trying to gain control over everything and every part of our day. This makes us hypervigilant, agitated, and thinking in the extremes full of bias. We stop dialoguing and sink into doctrine as we loose our sense of wonder about the world.
So we know what to do now, and we throw out the third chair, then the second chair, because we know what to do. We have to get control of everything. Now we have no humility, thus no wisdom. Control has now constricted our lives.
What can we do? Bring that second chair back in. Ask for help, get support for positive change, and re-envision your future with hope, humility, and wisdom. Then bring in the third chair. Community. Look at the vast resources that are available to you. Forgive. Reclaim your dreams or find them for the first time.
Because we are all connected, because we all are kin, everything we do and say is held here within. Be wise, don’t hold lies. Grow within the seeds of faith, where forgiveness leaves its trace and opens the leaves of the tree of life. Not forgiving yourself, others or life will only bring you strife. Choose life. Choose forgiveness.
“The past is never lost to us. We carry it within us everywhere we go. It is in every cell of our body and soul. It is where we have been. It is where we learn to love. It is where we made our mistakes and where we can consign them. The gift is knowing that the present will soon pass. And that the way we embrace it has the power to change everything.”
From the television series Call The Midwife! Words spoken by Vanessa Redgrave.