Posted by HyperFocus on July 21, 2009, at 18:53:08
I think that we (being people with chronic illness) often have problems with self-esteem and we compare ourselves with other people as if they are the yardstick to measure our lives by. We might say things like "If I wasn't sick I'd have X.' or 'Other people have Y, I wish I was like them."
I think this is bad because it invalidates our own experiences - our own lives. It's like we would rather be living somebody else's life and hate our own. But our life is our own. We are totally unique - no one in the Universe is like us (pretty amazing when you think about it.) Doesn't matter what other people have or don't have at your age. Don't surrender to your illness but at the same time don't think that somehow your life is not as good as somebody else's.
Not sure I'm communicating this properly - I don't mean accept your illness or don't keep trying to get better- I mean accept your life and put that first and see your problems as part of it and don't devalue your life because other people seem to have it so much easier and have more things than you do. You are spinning your own tale in the Universe and one day, perhaps when you are gone, people will look at your life and think how rich and beautiful it was.
It's interesting how many good people I've met here - compared to life in general. Karma is a very old human notion and so, for that reason alone, I think one days things will be better for all of us.
poster:HyperFocus
thread:907816
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20090714/msgs/907816.html