Can You Think Yourself Sick?

This is one of my favorite questions that I get asked frequently.  Can you think yourself sick?  Most certainly you can!  However, most of the time, we don't even realize we're thinking ourselves sick, even if we are aware we are able to do this.  Okay, I know this sounds a little convoluted, but let me see if I can explain this better.

I'll start by going back to an example from when I was a kid in high school.   Every week we had P.E. (Physical Education) class.  Now, I hated that more than anything in school.  I wasn't good at team sports and I got laughed at and bullied so much, that every time I knew P.E. was coming, my stomach would be in knots.  In addition, I was being sexually molested and abused at home, so undressing in front of a bunch of classmates was not the feeling of safety I longed for and I wanted to avoid it completely.

Knowing that I could not get away with this every time because someone would catch on to what I was doing, I limited the amount of times I pulled this stunt.  I would go to PE as much as I could and just put up with the name calling and taunts and bullying, but when it got to be too much, I did the unthinkable.

Raising my body temperature...

Shortly before P.E. class, I would start focusing on my thoughts to get my body temperature to elevate.  I did this with my thoughts, just focusing on raising my body temperature.  I would be sitting in a class prior to this and just do it silently.  No one knew it was going on.  By the time I got to P.E., I would tell the teacher that I wasn't feeling good and thought I was running a temperature.  Of course, he would tell me to go see the school nurse.

When I went to the school nurse, she would take my temperature and lo and behold, the thermometer would show I was running a fever.  Deep down inside, I knew I wasn't sick, but I was able to get my body temperature to appear that I was.  The nurse would call my mom and she would leave work to take me home.  My poor mom, I feel sorry for her.  If she ever suspected what I was doing, she never let on.  Of course, I had to continue playing the role of being sick but generally by the time I got up the next morning and my mom took my temperature, it would be normal.

I appeared sick...

See, I managed to make myself appear sick.  It really isn't that hard and in fact many people do this all the time.  I'm sure there is some psychological condition for it, but in my case, I just hated P.E. so much that I would do anything to get out of it.

While I know we can think ourselves sick, we also can make ourselves well.  Now, the trick is though, making sure you are aware of what you are doing.  Most humans go through life being disconnected and unaware.  They do things every day that makes them sick, but are not even aware they are doing it.

We diminish our own health...

Instead of taking care of ourselves in the best way possible, we do things that diminish our health and then all of the sudden we are sick.  We have some condition or situation that we now treat with some form of medicine, but we don't go in and treat the underlying reason that led up to the situation we are in.

While we can think ourselves sick, we can think ourselves healthy.  This means though, that we have to start listening to our body and becoming aware of all that we are, all that we feel, all that we sense, and not numbing or avoiding.  If you don't think you do this, I'd counter that you are probably of an alien species.  It is human nature to not be aware of our body, even if we trick ourselves into thinking that we are.

We can do so much with our thoughts, especially if it is followed by action and it comes from our core.  Just mere words will only get you so far, but learning to connect deep within your biological self will yield much more powerful and long lasting changes for your life.

I'm not suggesting that anyone use the stunt I used when I was in high school.  It really isn't good to mess around with your health in that way.  It is far better to be upfront and honest, letting someone know that you just need a day off for yourself or some activity or event is not right for you.  I took the easy way out.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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