I feel like I almost need to completely reintroduce myself because this post requires me to let you guys into a side of my life that I don’t really talk about on the blog let alone in real life very much. But for those of you who don’t know I have been struggling with chronic illness for over 11 years now, and along that journey have learned a thing of two. One of the biggest most important lessons I have learned is the importance of meditation. I am not exaggerating when I say meditation save my life.
You see I was in high school when I fIrst got sick. I remember it like it was yesterday. I went from being a normal relatively healthy teen, to being on a first name basis with my local hospital staff. I remember missing more school than any other student, constantly having to explain why I had so many doctors appointments, and why I was on so many medications. You see people have a problem when you are young and sick, they think oh you are too young for this. Well believe me I know. I am still too young to be this sick, but there is nothing I can do about that. See one of the biggest problem in my journey with chronic illness and diseases in general is that I am in pain everyday. I have been in pain everyday since high school, despite medication. And that is meditation comes into the picture.
You see my Dad is a trained martial artist, having competed, trained SWAT teams, and all sorts of other groups in various styles of fighting. What you may not know if that part of his training involved intense meditation and mindfulness. So one day my Dad sat me down, after a recommendation from my doctor, and said that we were going to try meditation for pain management. I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical, you see when you are in constant pain for an extended period of time you start to believe that that is just how you have to live your life, and that nothing will every help. But I was wrong. I spent my nights sitting in a dark quiet room with my Dad as he trained me in meditation, trained me to focus on everything but my pain, and I can honestly say it saved my life. To this day I meditate almost everyday in some capacity, as a way to focus on what my body is feeling, to focus on everything but what my body is feeling, and to focus on the world around me. You see meditation saved me. It saved me from having to take dozens more medications (because believe I still take some), and gave me a chance to learn how to control my mind despite what my body was putting it through, and that is crucial.
The point I am trying to make is that meditation is life changing, and it doesn’t have to be just for those like me with pain and chronic illness. It is perfect for anyone wanting to discover more about their mind, body, and the world around them. So if you are struggling to reconnect with yourself, boost your overall health or sanity (believe me it helped my sanity too), or just try something new and mindful I highly encourage you to try meditation, and feel free to let me know how it goes for you. Because here is the thing meditation doesn’t have to be perfect. I have been doing it for years, and still don’t do it perfectly, so just practice it.
