Passionate Living

How many times have you been worried about being ill?

Having a health condition can be nasty because it interferes with your productivity. You spend time and probably money in order to gain your health back. Not only that, you also need extra time to regain the balance you had prior to falling ill. Falling ill is not a good business.

Sunrise on the Boardwalk by Arturo Donate

Or is it? There’s a lesson behind every disaster we experience as human beings. There’s a benefit to every adversity we endure in the journey of our lives. Humans grow from these difficult times, although we would mostly rather avoid them.

During the recovery process after falling ill, you develop a more delicate sensitivity and objectivity towards what you see and hear with your senses. You are more open and appreciative of the small details in life, and you can absorb the moment with greater proficiency than when you are in full health. In fact, sometimes being in full health can make you drown in your business and take the finer details for granted.

There is a TED talk but I fail to remember the title or the speaker. In it, she mentions the importance of disease. Would she rather have people stay healthy and disease free all the time? Not necessarily. She says that it is because of these diseases, these life changing maladies, that occur in the first place, that have made most of the greatest people in our society become great people: after their heart attacks or cancer diagnoses or other life threatening illness, their priorities were shocked into place and they pulled their act together. Lawyers become social workers, engineers become designers, accountants become community managers, and other more fundamental changes of characters.

This story shows, that although we might prefer to have a smooth and happy life all the way, it is the tough times that make it all worth while. No life was ever worth living if it never was worth fighting for: the struggles, the (non-personally invited) drama, and the battles that need be fought are the ones that make us change to be a better person. It is during hindsight, that we gain the clearest perspective and know then which step to take next.

Therefore, there is a benefit to falling ill: you stop being busy, you stop being part of the beehive, you stop being distracted by the hustle bustle and noise of city life. You start to notice the stillness of the clouds, you start to see the light of the sun, and you start to stand still be one with nature as you ask yourself, “Where have I been all this time? What have I been doing? It feels like I’ve done a lot but accomplished little in reality.”

Enjoy the process, absorb the experience. Before you lose grip of it and fall into the vortex of superficial living again.

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[1] Photograph by Arturo Donate

Storm in a water glass by Matt and Kim Rudge

There’s been an air of illness around lately. I don’t know whether it’s true for you too, but in my circle there have been enough people falling ill it makes me wonder. From my colleagues in the studio, to my friends, to my baby nephew who’s having difficulty handling polluted air.

My baby nephew is a cheerful and playful boy by nature: he’s usually up and running and playing with his sister in the morning. But lately he’s been affected by dirty air since a recent visit to the fireman station last Friday. Everybody in the house is thinking how to get him back to his normal health.

It made me think also, and I suggested that he be brought to this physician that treated my illness six years ago. The good think about this physician is he doesn’t only heal my condition, he also teaches me how to maintain my health by keeping a healthy diet and exercise routine. And he is an advocate of natural medicine: there’s something about pharmaceutical drugs that go against his conscience.

I suggested my baby nephew to be brought to this physician, because even though he’s been to the doctor he only seems to be getting worse. I worry it’s actually because of the pharmaceutical medicine and antibiotics that’s prescribed to him. Maybe it’s making him more ill, instead of healing him.

I haven’t taken any drugs myself since six years ago, and I’ve been the healthiest in my life – the most that can happen is a flu which usually heals in a day. It leads me to believe that relying on pharmacy drugs may actually be harmful to our immune system. In it’s place, now I drink supplements made from organic substances to maintain a healthy respiratory and digestive system (since I’ve found out my health problems are sourced in these two).

Drinking enough water has also been vital in keeping good health for me. I used to catch a flu easily, but since drinking enough water, the frequency has decreased drastically. It turns out regulating my body temperature helps me to avoid a lot of the sickness I used to have.

I think pharmaceutical medicines are only good when you have an external wound, like a burn or a cut. It isn’t good when you have an internal illness though. These things take a different approach to healing.

As I said before, there are many professions in our society that suffer from a conflict of interest, and our medical system is one major one. Their motto is to save lives and regain health but they make their profit from people who are ill. If everybody stays healthy most of the time, do you think the pharmaceutical industry would still be a large and lucrative industry?

That’s why we should take our health into our own responsibility. Relying on pharmacy doctors and health insurances is practically out of our circle of influence. But maintaining a healthy mind and lifestyle is something we can do consistently everyday.

Cheers to good health.

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*In the first post this year, I mentioned my resolution to write and release 26 songs in 52 weeks. Well, here’s the first song! Tell me what you think:

It’s True by Endy Daniyanto

[1] Photograph by Matt Rudge. Because you need to be properly hydrated

Lego - Grumpy by Daniel Blunt

I feel I have this sensitivity towards other people’s emotions. What I mean is I can tell what’s making someone sad or angry. And lately, I think this sensitivity is growing stronger.

There was one time years ago when a friend of mine called me, and she sounded really happy. She talked about things she did that day with a bright and cheerful tone. But something raised my suspicion and made me ask her “Have you been crying?”, and she said “Yes.”

Several nights ago, my mother was angry about something and I was guessing she was angry about “this”. Later I learned she was angry about “this”. It made me amused at myself because I was able to figure it out before my mother told me the reason.

Hurting other people

The point of this story however isn’t about knowing why other people feel and act they way they do. Instead, the point is how to not hurt other people even when we’re tired and exhausted. That’s the lesson I learn every time someone at home gets angry and the negativity starts to spread among family members.

Nobody likes to be around a grumpy person in the morning. Because how we feel in the morning determines significantly how we feel throughout the day. So if we were feeling fine before, and then someone in the family becomes grumpy and ruins the atmosphere in the house, it doesn’t only hurt her but it hurts everyone in the family.

We already have much to do during the day that we can’t afford to waste our energy on negative emotions, especially in the morning. We might want to express our frustrations in hope that someone understands how we feel, but the benefits are outweighed by the detrimental effects. It’s a much better choice to exercise patience, and do our best to cause as little damage as possible.

Having the sensitivity

This is a lesson I’m still learning. There are times when I feel I’m reckless with other people’s feelings – I worry I joke about something that’s a serious issue for them. At times like this, I try to exercise sympathy and see if I can see what they see.

Letting people know how we feel, including when we are upset, is necessary to maintain a healthy and stable emotion. But most of the time, we express our anger and rage merely to satisfy our ego and not to find a solution. When this happens, the relationship suffers because both sides are hurt.

Have the self-awareness to know when your negative feelings hurt other people. Do your best to be an independent person. When everybody else is feeling down, become someone who is cheerful and bright and you’ll find that acting the way we want to feel is a powerful exercise.

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Further reading:

[1] When You Can’t Smile, 2009
[2] How to Not be Angry, 2009
[3] Photograph by Daniel Blunt. Because it’s LEGO!