We are a society conditioned to fight – we fight fevers, colds, the flu, illness, disease….we are supposed to be at peace, and yet we battle every day! We try all sorts of drugs to fight pain, we want the sickness out of us, and take steps to fight and resist it every moment it’s with us and evacuate it from our bodies (often to replace it with a reaction to the medicine we’re taking.) Fight, fight, fight. And what do we end up? Tired, and still sick.

On my recent trip to Sedona, Arizona, I had a very bizarre experience that caused me to doubt this whole body fighting thing. I ventured out in the early morning hours to see a beautiful sunrise over the mountains (but I was a wee bit early for it). It was 23 degrees Fahrenheit and windy. I persevered, “I’ll wait, dammit, I’m going to see this sun rise!” I waited and waited. About 25 minutes later, chilled, literally, to the bone, I gave up and went inside. Unfortunately, even after covering myself in blankets, and a hot shower, I still felt the cold in me, and I began to feel ill. I went to eat some breakfast, feeling the cold’s impact on my body, and tried everything I could to fight it off. I felt so bad I thought I was coming down with the flu, which I didn’t have time for, and didn’t want. Getting the flu is often one of the most annoying things as it can completely ruin your mood for the next week. I know that the symptoms that we experience are just the immune system trying to fight the virus off, but the symptoms can start to get annoying. One of my friends recommended that I look into getting some immune system supplements to try and help it during the fight. Your immune system is so important when it comes to flu season, so it could be beneficial to try and strengthen the system. However, I had this weird thought;

“What if, instead of fighting the cold, I accept that it’s in my body, and I welcome it, and I make it feel at home?”

Even I was weird-ed out by the weirdness of this weird thought! But there it was. And so, I mentally accepted the cold in my body, and could feel exactly where it was. Then I gave the cold a mental welcome party. And then, weirder still, I couldn’t feel the cold anymore, and I simply felt better – perfectly wonderful! No more cold or flu symptoms, just me.

I’ve heard of sayings like, “the more you resist, the more it persists,” but the clarity of the fight causing me more distress was never so clear. It was like a battle I gave up – I made peace with myself, rather than war, and in that peace, came healing.

So, I have to wonder, what would it be like if, when we become sick, rather than fighting the symptoms, we accept that we have them, and make peace instead? Will the simple allowing of the integration of the illness, in turn, allow us to heal ourselves? Taking this thought further, what about the fighting and struggling we do in our lives and businesses? What if we instead accept circumstances, rather than fight them, and use road blocks to make different choices – what outcomes then become possible? If you try it, let me know! 🙂