Why my body is my best ally

I’ve long been searching for answers to the great mysteries of the human condition. In my early twenties, I discovered written wisdom from others who had traveled on the path of enlightenment before me. It was then I that I first experienced inner yearnings to outwardly express my real Self.

For many years, I felt driven to live life to its fullest, enjoying my work as well as raising my children. I had friends and a fairly good health that allowed me to pursue my favorite sports and other enjoyable activities. Then, I suddenly became very ill. Living a “normal” life became impossible because doing anything normal made me even sicker.

For almost 18 years, ME has challenged me to find ways to, not only cope, but also actually live with a new frame of mind. All the ways I previously knew to express my real identity had vanished. I wondered where the real me had gone… Had it drowned in all that sorrow of loneliness and pain that became my daily fare? How was it even possible to be myself and express my identity if not through my roles or occupations? I was disoriented, drifting.

I still felt my soul prompting me to look inside for the answers to questions I had not previously known, existed. I was hurting, sad, angry. The only thing I could do was to learn to breathe and relax in this context. I used the tools I had gathered over time and did the best I could. Still, I felt miserable. Much forgiveness had to be given freely, to others and to myself in the middle of the darkest time of my life. That’s when I had an epiphany of sorts.

Through years of breathing periods of quiet time (call it meditation), I realized that:

1. I am not a warrior
2. My body has not betrayed me
3. My body has not let me down

When I conjured up the metaphor of a Dragon in my first book, it represented the overwhelming amount of space that illness occupied in my world. Naturally, it was obvious to me that fighting a Dragon was out of the question. If a warrior can’t muster up the strength to brush her teeth, how can she/he be up for such an epic battle? So, logically, I put aside all thoughts of fighting illness and began to approach my situation with a fresh perspective.

As much as illness is inside it, I chose not to make that a reason to make my body a battleground in my mind. I now thank my body for all the hard work it is doing just to keep me alive. In those terrible times of air hunger brought on by crashes, I learned to appreciate my lungs for allowing me to take in what I so badly need. Visualizing mitochondria knocking down a few barriers, I give my cells encouragement to welcome vital nutrients, glucose and oxygen so that they can do their work more efficiently. When my muscles ache, I send them love and soothe them as best I can. And when my body is out of “spoons” after doing what is seemingly very little activity, I acknowledge its efforts and give thanks.

Do I always succeed in “cheering” on my body? I don’t. Some days take a toll on my morale and I give in to discouragement.  In those moments when I want to hide from the Dragon, he inevitably finds me. As much as I’d sometimes like to punch him in the snout, I choose to silently look at my challenges as just that, challenges.

Taking stock of my survival skills and tools as well as the blessings that give me the courage to go on another day, brings me the peace I crave. One of those most welcomed blessings is my commitment to trust my body and the Force that created it; this Force that is life giving and healing! All I have to do to let healing flow through all of my being is to get (my ego) out of my own way.

I surrender to the thought that “I” am not this body. My true self is consciousness traveling in a world that is part of a universe of incomprehensible vastness that the human mind cannot fathom. I am. My body is my ride. Granted it’s a high maintenance one but it’s the only one I’ve got. For now.

See you on the path of healing and beyond,

Marianne

You can visit me at mariannegranger.com for audio blogs and more.

Image: Integral Life/Unbound Body

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As I age with M.E.

In my forties I was moving forward fulfilling my drive to be a community organizer/communicator/coach (my day job) and also a screenwriter (a remnant of my earlier training and work as a stage actor). Being there for my grown children and reveling in the bliss of holding my grandchildren was a part of growing old that I welcomed along with coloring books, card games and baking sessions where I’d let them lick the spoon. 

Getting older was to be a time when laughter would come more easily as I learned to not take myself so seriously, to go with the flow, to explore new ways of enjoying life. I dreamed of finally pitching my screenplay to an interested and able producer, I dreamed of taking my grand-kids out for ice cream and engaging in general silliness that parents don’t always have time to indulge. Taking road trips, mini-vacations, going to lunch with friends, having folks over for potluck dinners, visiting museums in the city, witnessing graduations; all that seemed pretty tame and within reach during my golden years. The only extravagant item on my bucket list was to spend a week in New York and see a few Broadway plays. OK, a really extravagant dream was to visit Harry Potter World. Apparently, one can get old and remain a nerd! 

Illness has been a big part of my daily life for nearly two decades and at 64 years old, I have had to let go of the dreams I had for myself. The journey of reconciliation with life in a body that aged way before its time is not an easy one. After experiencing the known stages of grief over several years, I came out the other side feeling weaker and more physically fragile than I could have imagined.

The most difficult part of aging with ME is that loved ones become accustomed to my not feeling well. This of course, because they have no idea just how desperately ill I really am.  It is my doing, I know, because they never see me when I’m actually bed bound. Having to be “my own doctor” is another reality that becomes harsher as I age. This, because actual doctors with diplomas on their office walls have no idea of how desperately ill I am! NOT my doing but what can I do but go on as best I can? I endlessly research and participate in raising awareness in the hope that more people will put pressure on governments to allocate funds for medical research aimed at finding a cure (or even adequate treatments) for this Dragon.

Getting older when one is ill requires increasing help from family, friends and the community. Isolation makes getting help for daily needs more difficult in this day and age. It’s easy to let fear point to a not so distant future where I will be unable to care for myself—at all. I don’t want to look that far ahead, so I work everyday to look at this present day alone. No further.

To me, aging with ME means to simply, in the words of the Beatles: Let It Be.  I’ve let go of expectations from myself and from others. The best person to care for my heart and soul is me, and I believe that choosing to let things and people “be” is a good way to feel at peace with what is. After all, what is the point of getting old if one doesn’t allow wisdom to grow, to make us stronger in the face of adversity and to serenely welcome the uncertainty that is life? Isn’t it fascinating that most of us seniors have discovered that we don’t have all the answers, unlike when we were younger adults?

As I age with ME, I feel free to not know who I am or what role I am supposed to fill. I’m content to just be the best version of myself. When I can.

See you on the path of healing and beyond,

Marianne

Image: pexels.com

The Colors of Perception

Experiencing chronic illness for almost two decades provides a person with the luxury of time for giving much thought to the meaning of life, relationships and the world. Somewhere between a nasty flu and imminent death is a space where I live my life every day, year after year, never getting “over it”. As I witness the world around me from this vantage point, I learn how few things we really need to just be, to just live.

Long ago, I decided to let the emotions I experience manifest themselves without judging whether I should or shouldn’t be feeling the way I do. I am not a negative person when I’m feeling frustrated and this frustration doesn’t take away anything from who I am. I am not a positive person when I’m feeling empathy; it is just another facet of my being. Any heart can hold the entire universe if it so wishes.

I recently became aware that several emotions, for lack of a better word, live side by side in the deepest recesses of my heart. In daily existence, we are subjected to feelings that are the result of our thought process, which defines what is acceptable to us, what is “good” or “bad”. All this, based on our perception of the world according to our individual experience. 

There are many people out there who want us to think that “negative” emotions can be expulsed from our being through a myriad of techniques and that the “positive” can grow to fill our heart with bliss, leaving no room for the nasty stuff.  I beg to differ with this over simplistic view of our inner universe. I have known people who proclaim that they are “pure joy”. Joy, joy, joy is their perceived personal identity until… you do or say something that offends them. These days, it’s easy to offend. 

If you prefer one political view to another, or you pray to a God differently from another, you love differently, you prefer the city to the country, or you’re vegan …, our differences are endless so you’re very likely to offend someone, especially those who pride themselves in being joy incarnated. They are first to shut you out of their life because you’re, well, negative, resentful, even disrespectful. This is strange to me because I am in fact the same person who was so lovable until I expressed something that was not shared by such a joyful, dare I say, “friend”.

It is a challenge to face such situations while remaining aware that each of us sees the world as we are and not as it actually is. To be honest, I cringe when I see hostile comments about a group of people who think differently from another group. How can we possibly know an entire group when we can barely penetrate the inner world of one single individual, even if that individual is our self?

Am I joy? Yes. Your life choices may affect how I momentarily perceive joy, if you hurt me or give me a loving hug, but what lives in my heart doesn’t depend on what views you express. If I embrace my own opinions or emotions as unique then there’s nothing preventing me from seeing your views as an expression of your own unique life experience. 

The human heart can paint the world in colors that can create rainbows of joy or dissolve into dark pools of sorrow. We are the masters of all that we hold in our heart and our canvas spreads farther than we can ever imagine. Kindness has a nice color, don’t you think?

See you on the path of healing and beyond,

Marianne

The end of Blissful Unawareness

This is the life!

I stretch my whole body with delight.

I don’t have a care in the world because I deserve this.

I matter.

I am important.

I’ve suffered enough.

I put myself first.

I don’t care about politics.

I don’t know who shot whom on this day.

Is the earth burning or freezing?

I don’t want to think about that.

I just want to feel good.

Two more species have gone extinct today?

Don’t know.

Some idiot’s hand is caressing a nuclear weapon launch sequence button?

Makes no difference to me.

Not my problem.

A nice steward brings me lemonade.

Lunch is coming soon.

This is so enjoyable!

Frightened children are starving?

That’s nothing new.

Desperately ill people are homeless, you say.

Sleeping in their car, you say.

There’s nothing I can do about it.

I can’t help.

I do what is right for me.

If I don’t take care of myself, no one will.

Let’s just enjoy the day.

Forget about everything else.

I love this deck chair.

So cozy, so comfy.

Let others worry about the world.

The sun soothes my light-starved skin. Hungering for fresh air, I take in as much of it as my lungs will allow. Every time I exhale renews a sense of freedom within me. Eyes closed behind my sunglasses, I can see the shimmering waters play with the sun as they morph into a myriad of delightful colors and shapes. My brow is relaxed and the few drops of sweat my skin exudes are just enough to be refreshing.

Yes, this is the life.

No point in feeling sorry for anybody.

I deserve the best and I’ve got it right here on the TITANIC.

May compassion win out over selfishness and may Love heal our World in time.

Marianne