Showing posts with label mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mind. Show all posts

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Positively February: Day 5


"The soul always knows what to do to heal itself.  The challenge is to silence the mind." - Caroline Myss

I had to look up who Caroline Myss is, unlike Helen Keller who didn't need an introduction.  Caroline  Myss is an american best-selling author who describes herself as a "medical intuitive" and "a mystic".  This is what I found on Wikipedia anyway.  Regardless of what she calls herself, I really like this quote.

"The soul always know what to do to heal itself."  I suppose that's true.  You often become weak when deeply wounded.  You become tired and you sleep a lot more.  Your thoughts become cloudy as the body attempts to protect the mind, the heart.  You look for answers.  You are moved by the simple gestures, and sometimes simply the whisper of the wind.  You become more in tune with your emotions.  The pettiness around you no longer matters.

At least, that's how it worked for me.  As every individual is different, every soul is distinct in it's own very way.  Hopefully suggestions don't hurt though, and you can attempt a few to see how it feeds your soul.  How it possibly heals your being.

  • On your day off, just lay in bed and listen to the sounds of nature early in the morning.  The chirps of the birds.  The soft wind.  The leaves swaying in the trees.
  • Take a nature walk.  It doesn't have to be in a field, or forest.  It can be in a simple little park.  Admire the beauty that radiates from all that is living.  And I know, living things, can be a tough concept to grasp.
  • Lay in the grass and notice all that is around you.  The vast sky.  The grass beneath you.
  • Slow down
  • Think about good times.  Cherish those moments.
Those are just a few things to try.

"The challenge is to silence the mind."  Ain't that the truth!  I struggle with my mind a lot.  It keeps trying to push me in directions I don't want to go.  It keeps challenging my faith.  Over and over.  And again.  It keeps wanting answers.  It attempts to bring out the anger that is buried slightly below the surface.  It attacks my healing journey and can make it collapse like a house of cards.

I was blindsided today.  I was looking for something that I knew was among the sympathy cards we received after Preston passed.  I'd forgotten how voluminous this mountain of cards was.  Among them, also a handful of cards celebrating Preston's arrival.  The sheer number of cards, coupled with the reminder of what true happiness felt like.  It was enough to make my head spin.  Moments later, it was hubby who was thrown into a downward spiral, as he needed to get Preston's social security card from his nursery for our tax return.  Because he had to declare Preston as deceased.  The reminders never end do they?

Thankfully we have each other.  We're there when the other struggles.  We often ride this roller coaster ride together though we aren't always in the same car.  And I have a huge support system which includes all my readers.  And everyone, no matter what you are going through - you are not alone.  Remember that when your mind goes to dark places.  

Perhaps what I'm trying to say by all this, as my husband didn't quite understand why this quote was positive - your brain will continue to think about the darkness, the emptiness and the sadness.  The key is to steer it into another direction.  Don't take the "silence the mind" too literally  but rather concentrate on the positives.  For me, as difficult as it is - I concentrate on the 16 weeks I had with Preston.  For baby H, who I only carried for 9 weeks, I cherish those 9 weeks.  How they made me feel.  How amazing seeing the sonogram for the first time felt.  And to a certain extent, I reflect on how the loss made me feel.  The deep emptiness and pain - it showed me a whole new side of love.  And nobody, no thought, no nothing, will ever, ever take that away from me.  My children changed me for the better and that's the most positive thing that could have ever happened to me.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Always thinking

My mind is always going, thinking about this and that.  Thinking about things that need to be done, thinking about things I want to do.  Thinking about solving the latest problem that's arisen, thinking about what to write about.  Thinking about Preston.  And while sometimes, my thoughts could be enough to drive me crazy, I am thankful for the way my mind works.  On day 29 of my 30 days of gratitude challenge, I am grateful for my mind.

I like to feed my mind with knowledge.  I enjoy learning about history, or how to do something new.  I like trying to solve a tough problem.  I like coming up with options.  For example, we once thought we should try to come up with ideas on how to save money.  Brett and I both were to come up with a list of 15 things that could possibly help with savings.  It took several weeks to come up with 15, but I did it, and several things did come handy.  Other things are perhaps more of a pipe dream - selling a craft of some kind on Etsy, selling photographs, or writing a cookbook filled with Crohn's friendly recipes. 

To me, thinking can be fun.  I like keeping my mind challenged.  Perhaps that's one of the reasons I enjoy my job so much.  I work in accounting, and I often have to use math to ensure that we are paying the right amount or to reconcile an account.  Most of the time, the math is really easy, but every now and then, it requires a spreadsheet to figure out.  I love working in Excel, it just makes it so easy and helps me visualize the numbers by having them right there for me to see.  I enjoy being able to find more efficient ways of doing tasks.  My mind really helps me with all that, and I'm so thankful that I can think outside the box.

I've always liked puzzles.  I've done them for as long as I can remember.  Jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, logic problems.  They feed my mind, and I'm thankful that I enjoy them.  Brett's grandmother, Grace was so sharp the whole time I knew her.  She passed away last year at the age of 98.  She watched Wheel of Fortune and was great at solving the puzzles.  She loved crossword puzzles.  We played Scrabble a few times.  She won.  I can only hope that my mind stays as sharp through old age.  Grandma's mind, makes me hopeful that mine can too.

Nonetheless, always having something to think about can be exhausting.  It can also keep you up when you are supposed to be sleeping, or trying to go to sleep.  I am getting better at dealing with this, though I don't know that I'll ever really know how to shut off my mind.  Come to think of it though, I don't think I'd ever want to be able to shut it off.  Well, I take it back, there are days where I've needed to shut it off for my own sanity; to help my heart.  There are nights where I wouldn't have slept if it wasn't for Xanax or Ativan.  Some of those nights were in the hospital when I was really ill, others were after we lost Preston. 

When I was ill in the hospital, I was basically glued to a bed for 7-10 days.  Once the obstructions cleared and narcotics were no longer needed to help numb the physical pain, it was hard to be with my thoughts, staring at the wall all day.  Thinking about what I'd done wrong... what I'd done wrong to "deserve" Crohn's disease.  Thinking about how I really should have taken my meds when I thought I was fine and didn't need them.  Thinking about how surgery was pretty much impending it's doom on my life.  However, my thoughts also allowed me to make peace with needing surgery.  My mind helped me realize that it was the only way to regain quality of life.  It also helped me banish stress from my life.

After losing Preston, nighttime was very difficult.  I had started going to bed earlier since Preston was sleeping more and not waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning.  I had started being able to go to bed at 10:30 or 11.  The evening was ours.  I would feed him when I got home from work, and then we'd play a little and he'd take a nap, and then we'd do it one more time before bedtime.  Having that routine ripped away from me without warning was difficult.  It was a tough adjustment.  I spent every minute of every evening thinking about what I should be doing.  I spent hours reading quotes about loss, trying to find something to understand.  A reason.  But, there was no reason, and while it took awhile to realize, my mind helped me figure out something my heart will never understand.

There are days where my heart is stronger than my mind.  Days where I need to search for a reason for why this happened.  Days where I need to blame everything and nothing.  Days where I need to be mad.  Days where I need to cry.  Days where I feel guilty.  And because of my mind, I've learned that I have to let my heart take over sometimes.  And I'm ok with that.

I'm thankful for my mind, because it will help me keep Preston at the forefront of my mind for the rest of my life.  And while sometimes that will create some sadness, his presence in my life has made me a better person and that too, is something to be thankful for.


Doing puzzles at age 2 with my cousins.  I'm the one in blue that's cut-off in the picture (on the left)