When you feel crappy

I once gave a talk where I asked the audience what it means to them to feel healthy. Many people said that feeling healthy meant not having physical pain or symptoms. We’ll go into what actually being healthy really means on another blog. But no matter how healthy we are, some days are just not fun. We may be in pain physically or emotionally, and its hard to get our butts out of bed to face the day. What do you do when you feel like that? 

If every day is a bad day, it becomes difficult to function from minute to minute. It drags you down having daily physical pain and discomfort. Fatigue and depression set in. How do you make the best of life when you can hardly function? If you have a physical illness you need to take care of the illness. Rest when you need to, find the best treatment possible to help you heal, and get the support of people who love you. On an inner level, there are 3 things you can do to help yourself gain the most from your healing. Surrender/acceptance, trust, and love.

As you begin the process of healing let yourself understand and feel the situation you are in at the moment. Its hard to do that because often we just ask “how did I get here?” “why am I sick?” If you’re sick for the third time this year, you feel frustrated because you can’t stand to spend the time feeling ill. Rather than asking all those questions, just let yourself be where you are. Try not to judge your situation. Let yourself feel it and really surrender to how you feel. Have you ever noticed that when a baby is upset, she just cries. She surrenders completely to the sensation that’s going on at the moment. Five minutes later, she might feel better and its like nothing ever happened. You might get angry at the idea of surrender thinking that it means you’re giving up. It is not about giving up at all, in fact, it requires great strength to let yourself be where you are. When you can do that, it allows you to begin to find the way out.

I know its never fun to feel bad, so its hard to trust that there’s something good about it in the moment. If you can find a way to deepen your trust that it will all work out for the best some how, you will again find it easier to deal with your situation.

Can you think of anything that love doesn’t make better? I always tell people to “pour some love” on anytime they’re having a hard time. Think of it as a soothing balm that you can pour over any situation. If you’re in emotional pain, pouring love on yourself will help you feel better. If you’re in physical pain, love will help it heal. My dear friend and TV show co-host Sivan Garr is an amazing spiritual teacher. Her question to help you look at your life is “What would love do?”