Erasing Illness

I am sick. I caught some sort of virus and it has resulted in body aches, lethargy and a mild fever. The worst part is when I had chills (imagine wanting to wrap up in a blanket when it’s 110 degrees outside.) Thankfully, that part of my malady only lasted one day.

Other than migraines, I rarely get sick. I have an upbeat attitude, a good immune system and bugs and viruses generally avoid me. But this time I was not so lucky. Worse yet, I know why it happened and I only have myself to blame. I was a crab. Germs like crabby people. Some germs even look like crabs and I bet they like hanging out with their own ilk.

This is more than a passing thought. There is a lot of evidence about how people who are optimistic and full of gratitude are healthier and happier. I’m too sick to look up all the statistics, but it’s pretty much common knowledge about the happy and healthy connection. It was even a topic of discussion on one of the radio blogs I was on (Gab With The Gurus) a few weeks ago.

So how did this happen to me? How did the author of Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within fall victim to illness? Well, for one, I was exposed to a sick kid, my great nephew. I knew he was sick and I probably wasn’t as careful as I should have been. But I think the real reason is my immune was suppressed because I had been crabby.

A couple days prior to this, we thought my purse was stolen. My spouse and I were camping and on the day I was to fly home for a week (CB was continuing on) my purse disappeared. This resulted in a whirlwind of activity to learn what hoops I was going to have to jump through to get through airport security. It also involved filing a police report, canceling credit cards, reporting the info to the credit bureaus, getting a new driver’s license, passport etc. etc. etc.

In addition to the stress, I had a real bad taste in my mouth about the schmucks who stole my purse. I was careful about locking the truck, hiding the purse or carrying it with me. And since I was gone for two months, I had everything I needed in the bag (prescription sunglasses, regular glasses, a flash drive with a lot of my documents in it, Costco card, insurance card and the list goes on.)
Whoever stole my purse had to have been watching closely and been VERY clever.

I returned to Arizona, went through the process of recreating everything in my missing wallet. Four days later I get a call from CB that the vagabond purse was found wedged between the wheel well of the camper and a small hanging bag that we used to stuff flashlights and other small objects.

Of course I was happy the bag was found. Unfortunately I couldn’t help but wish it had been discovered before I shelled out the pesos to get new glasses, the aggravation of hanging out at the DMV all morning and the future hassle and expense I will endure when I replace the passport (and no, they will not let me use the old that I reported stolen even when I explained what happened.) However, the worst part was the voluntary descent into hell I endured during this whole process. I was mad at myself, the theoretical burglar, and CB for insisting the purse was stolen in the first place.

Rather than go through a litany of my negative process, let’s just suffice it to say that I was angry and not getting over it very well. It’s not a place I usually dwell, but I’m human and I rented space in the grouchy kingdom for a while.
Then I flew to Denver, met with CB’s relatives (including the sick great nephew) and on to a couple more days of camping.

Finally, I was back home. Then I got sick.

This is not surprising, because even though my purse and all its contents were found, my brain was still stuck in aggravation mode. It’s as if all the negativity that I had experienced was poring out of my body. It’s no wonder I was sick.

I’m getting through the day taking Tylenol, drinking lots of fluids and getting plenty of rest. I’m sure I’ll be better in a day or two. The lesson I learned is that mind and body are more connected than we think. If a short, but intense bout of negativity can have deleterious effects on a normally optimistic person, just imagine what years of negativity can do?

So, in conclusion, don’t fall victim to negativity. No good comes from it. If you want to learn some useful tips, get out your credit card, go to smashwords and buy a copy of the ebook (the physical copy should be ready in two weeks!) But be sure to keep you wallet in a safe place. It’s good to be optimistic, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Tylenol.