I can’t get sick!

Today, I met with a client who was ill. I could tell. Her eyes were half closed and her energy was lower than normal. She was not as articulate as she normally is and had self-professed brain fog. Clearly, her body was in repair and it was affecting her.

What struck me, though, was that her expectations were unchanged. She had no modifications for her goals, she was frustrated with her slower pace, and there was simply no time for her to be sick. Life keeps marching on!

At some level, my job is to meet the client where they’re at. If this is where they are but they want to keep the pace up, my job is to keep it up, help them through that, work on removing barriers, etc. So I matched her intentions and kept holding onto her dreams. But, can I tell you? I couldn’t stop thinking about her. My gut said there was something to be addressed. 

And then it dawned on me: this illness was simply underlining a belief she held that was holding her back in many areas: she had unrealistic expectations about how much she could accomplish persistently. Her passing illness was simply shining a spotlight on this.

One truth we all know is that everyone poops. 💩 Also, everyone gets sick. 🤕 There’s no avoiding that. When you’re sick, you’re not your best self. You may even be a shell of a person. Hey, maybe your body is trying to tell you something (like, say, that you’re imbalanced and taking on too much). My advice?

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.

Sickness is nature’s way to slow us down and allow us to heal.

Before I go further, I think it’s relevant for you to hear my perspective on illness for myself.

Honestly, for me, when I get sick, I’m like YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! I enjoy getting sick! 

You’re probably like 🧐. Let me add some qualifiers here.

I do not enjoy how my body feels when I get sick. It suuuuuuuucks feeling bad. And when I’m sick, I’m often very eager to feel better. The part for me that I enjoy is the c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker.

It’s the “slam on the brakes'' moment that life occasionally provides that allows you to step back and get perspective (whether you like it or not).

It’s the forced vacation that is required so that you can heal.

It’s a time when others have to serve you. You are not able to serve others as you normally would and that’s okay.

It allows you a pause so that you can check in and see if you’re doing what you want to be doing.

In these senses, getting sick ROCKS!!!! 😂😂😂😂

But one thing I am realizing that I hold space in a way that many others haven’t. 

I have room in my life to be sick.

If I’m sick, the world doesn’t end. No one is depending on me so heavily that if I’m sick, their vehicle is going to crash and burn. I don’t hold expectations of myself so high that I’m the lynchpin in what is going to make most things successful. This is not to say that things might not slow down or be delayed or that others may be bothered. It’s different levels of inconvenience we’re acknowledging here. But the outcome isn’t disaster and that’s the point.

So let me ask: have you allowed space in your life to be sick? Cuz it’s going to happen. What would you need to change on the macro so that, if you were to check out tomorrow, things would be okay?

Of course, you cannot predict when you’ll be sick. No one can. But what you can do is be 80% busy all of the time instead of 120% busy. If you’re so overloaded that there’s no space for air, then how on earth will you be able to breathe when the room is being packed even further because you’re not able to process what you have?

It sounds like it may be time to reassess.

You’re going to get sick.

That’s okay.

Be ready.