Friday night, I didn't get much sleep. Saturday night, I was starting to notice a slight sore throat. Hoping it would go away, I went to a party anyway and got drunk. Sunday, the sore throat had developed into an outright cold. I decided to go to bed early to let my body rest and heal. But then, I discovered I couldn't get to sleep. The cold had decimated my willpower and I had spent several hours listening to addictive music, despite my goal of uprooting music addiction from my life. Since it'd been so long since I'd listened in that much depth, the songs were hopelessly stuck in my head on infinite loop, preventing any sleep.
At length, it occurred to me that I really wanted to be well again. It wasn't just the usual sense of wanting to escape the pain of a congested sinus, but a deeper sense of urgency, that I didn't want to sit on the side while the world was being so awesome all around me.
I got up and made a conscious decision to be healthy. I went so far as to commit it to paper, recording dozens of resolutions in my beautiful, PhD student handwriting: "I choose to be well and full of energy." "I choose to be healthy and strong." And so on.
Then I went back to bed, and still I couldn't sleep. But, something happened then which I hadn't expected. My mouth became dry, and I suddenly had a great urge to drink water. Stumbling out of bed, I went and drank an enormous amount of water. Then I returned to bed. A few minutes later, the urge returned again, and I went and drank an enormous amount again, and relieved myself in the bathroom. This process repeated itself over and over for what seemed like hours. I was like a river, water flowing through me without stopping. My thirst was insatiable.
And, I began to feel better. I noticed the phlegm that had accumulated in my throat and sinuses was thinner, and a burning fever gradually subsided.
Finally, I drifted off into an uneasy slumber. This would last several hours, interrupted by brief fits of coughing, and then finally ended by one particularly violent fit of coughing. While this may sound bad, it was actually good, because my body was ejecting all that phlegm from my system. Although I was coughing pretty bad, I felt like I no longer had the cold: my energy and spirits had returned, and the cough was just my body's way of ejecting all the leftover crap from my system.
I napped most the morning away, finally in a more blissful, peaceful, healthy sleep. And then I took it pretty easy the rest of the day. Yes, I still went to the gym, as I'm currently on Day 23 of a 30-day challenge to exercise every day. I was surprised at how easily I was able to lift the weights. I was expecting the recent illness would have left me feeble and weak, but I was able to do a normal lift almost completely in line with where I should've been if I'd never had the cold.
As I type this, it's close to 7pm on Monday. I still have some leftover phlegm in my throat and sinuses, and I have to carry a tissue around with me to deal with it, but I mostly feel completely well.
HOW THE RECOVERY WORKED
The subconscious mind is powerful and works in ways the conscious mind cannot grasp. By consciously resolving to be healthy, I had sent a message to my subconscious mind, telling it to devote itself to my recovery. It responded with the urges to drink water.
I should point out that, intellectually, I understand the importance of drinking lots of fluids while sick. But, knowing and doing are different things. When I have a cold, water tastes like sulphur and swallowing it feels like swallowing acid. Normally, it takes tremendous willpower to force myself to choke down even a cup of water while I'm sick. Willpower which I don't even have, because hey, I have a cold!
But when the full power of my subconscious mind got behind the effort, it would have taken more effort not to drink the water. I had such a fervent desire for the water that I almost had to drink it, even though it was difficult.
Again, the coughing. When a cold has run its course, coughing is the body's way of cleansing the leftover ruins from the battlefield. I'm sure you already know this, but when you cough while coming off a cold, it's your body trying to eject phlegm from your throat. A common mistake is to swallow the phlegm back down. That's why coughs can sometimes last for days at a time. With me, I was careful with each cough to spit as much phlegm out into my tissue as possible. Again, the was a difficult, trying process, and it might normally take a lot of willpower (did I mention that coughing itself felt like getting kicked in the throat by a wild stallion?) But with my subconscious devoted to the healing process, I naturally did what it took. Now, as I type this, the cough is almost entirely gone.
Another phenomenon I noticed was that I had an urge to wash my face repeatedly throughout the day today. I normally give my face a quick rinse after using the bathroom, but today I must have washed my face dozens and dozens of times. I'm not sure what the significance of this is, but I'm sure my subconscious mind knew what it was doing by giving me those urges.
We naturally tend to form a certain image of our current condition. It's called our self-image. When reality is out of alignment with our self-image, our subconscious mind will go to any length to bring reality back into alignment with the self-image. By consciously choosing health, and committing the resolution to paper, I made health and wellness an important aspect of my self-image. That set my subconscious mind frantic trying to figure out ways to pull reality toward the image.
Is there anything that you want in life right now, but which conflicts with your inner self-image? It can take some careful self-inspection to really get a clear idea of what your self-image is, since it's decided subconsciously. But if you can identify your self-image, you can see what conscious goals it is conflicting with. When there is hidden conflict between goals and self-image, the self-image will always win, because the subconscious mind always overpowers the conscious mind. Work on the self-image first, then sit back and watch as the goals become reality effortlessly.
Here are a few other articles I've written:
Metabolism As An Example Of Accepting What Is
Training Self-Discipline
What Is Karma? Is There Really Any Karmic Justice?
At length, it occurred to me that I really wanted to be well again. It wasn't just the usual sense of wanting to escape the pain of a congested sinus, but a deeper sense of urgency, that I didn't want to sit on the side while the world was being so awesome all around me.
I got up and made a conscious decision to be healthy. I went so far as to commit it to paper, recording dozens of resolutions in my beautiful, PhD student handwriting: "I choose to be well and full of energy." "I choose to be healthy and strong." And so on.
Then I went back to bed, and still I couldn't sleep. But, something happened then which I hadn't expected. My mouth became dry, and I suddenly had a great urge to drink water. Stumbling out of bed, I went and drank an enormous amount of water. Then I returned to bed. A few minutes later, the urge returned again, and I went and drank an enormous amount again, and relieved myself in the bathroom. This process repeated itself over and over for what seemed like hours. I was like a river, water flowing through me without stopping. My thirst was insatiable.
And, I began to feel better. I noticed the phlegm that had accumulated in my throat and sinuses was thinner, and a burning fever gradually subsided.
Finally, I drifted off into an uneasy slumber. This would last several hours, interrupted by brief fits of coughing, and then finally ended by one particularly violent fit of coughing. While this may sound bad, it was actually good, because my body was ejecting all that phlegm from my system. Although I was coughing pretty bad, I felt like I no longer had the cold: my energy and spirits had returned, and the cough was just my body's way of ejecting all the leftover crap from my system.
I napped most the morning away, finally in a more blissful, peaceful, healthy sleep. And then I took it pretty easy the rest of the day. Yes, I still went to the gym, as I'm currently on Day 23 of a 30-day challenge to exercise every day. I was surprised at how easily I was able to lift the weights. I was expecting the recent illness would have left me feeble and weak, but I was able to do a normal lift almost completely in line with where I should've been if I'd never had the cold.
As I type this, it's close to 7pm on Monday. I still have some leftover phlegm in my throat and sinuses, and I have to carry a tissue around with me to deal with it, but I mostly feel completely well.
HOW THE RECOVERY WORKED
The subconscious mind is powerful and works in ways the conscious mind cannot grasp. By consciously resolving to be healthy, I had sent a message to my subconscious mind, telling it to devote itself to my recovery. It responded with the urges to drink water.
I should point out that, intellectually, I understand the importance of drinking lots of fluids while sick. But, knowing and doing are different things. When I have a cold, water tastes like sulphur and swallowing it feels like swallowing acid. Normally, it takes tremendous willpower to force myself to choke down even a cup of water while I'm sick. Willpower which I don't even have, because hey, I have a cold!
But when the full power of my subconscious mind got behind the effort, it would have taken more effort not to drink the water. I had such a fervent desire for the water that I almost had to drink it, even though it was difficult.
Again, the coughing. When a cold has run its course, coughing is the body's way of cleansing the leftover ruins from the battlefield. I'm sure you already know this, but when you cough while coming off a cold, it's your body trying to eject phlegm from your throat. A common mistake is to swallow the phlegm back down. That's why coughs can sometimes last for days at a time. With me, I was careful with each cough to spit as much phlegm out into my tissue as possible. Again, the was a difficult, trying process, and it might normally take a lot of willpower (did I mention that coughing itself felt like getting kicked in the throat by a wild stallion?) But with my subconscious devoted to the healing process, I naturally did what it took. Now, as I type this, the cough is almost entirely gone.
Another phenomenon I noticed was that I had an urge to wash my face repeatedly throughout the day today. I normally give my face a quick rinse after using the bathroom, but today I must have washed my face dozens and dozens of times. I'm not sure what the significance of this is, but I'm sure my subconscious mind knew what it was doing by giving me those urges.
We naturally tend to form a certain image of our current condition. It's called our self-image. When reality is out of alignment with our self-image, our subconscious mind will go to any length to bring reality back into alignment with the self-image. By consciously choosing health, and committing the resolution to paper, I made health and wellness an important aspect of my self-image. That set my subconscious mind frantic trying to figure out ways to pull reality toward the image.
Is there anything that you want in life right now, but which conflicts with your inner self-image? It can take some careful self-inspection to really get a clear idea of what your self-image is, since it's decided subconsciously. But if you can identify your self-image, you can see what conscious goals it is conflicting with. When there is hidden conflict between goals and self-image, the self-image will always win, because the subconscious mind always overpowers the conscious mind. Work on the self-image first, then sit back and watch as the goals become reality effortlessly.
Here are a few other articles I've written:
Metabolism As An Example Of Accepting What Is
Training Self-Discipline
What Is Karma? Is There Really Any Karmic Justice?
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1 comments:
A wonderful example of the power of the subconscious mind and the law of attraction. I can only agree with everything you say!
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