Make that Tissue Dance- Looking at the Bright Side of Being Sick.
There was a time in the distant past where I’m confident my jokes were good. Surely they rolled off the tongue and remained ever the eternal “earworm,” repeated by the hearer to whomever sauntered down the sidewalk. Yet somehow, after the birth of my son, this gift for joke telling was replaced by the less enviable “dad-joke,” at least that’s what my former students believe. Here’s an example, “how do you make a tissue dance? You put a little boogie in it!” According to my students, that’s a “dad-joke.” What about being a dad makes that less funny? Dad-joke or not, sickness has plagued me all week, and despite the abundance of tissues used, not one of them has broken out into spontaneous Macarena!
Writing about sickness was not on my agenda this week, of course, neither was the actual cold that invaded my body. I hate being sick, I purposely live in such a way as to avoid illness as much as possible (although not to the same level as Niles Crane), and when I awoke Tuesday morning feeling crummy, frustration was quickly taking over. I confess, if this blog didn’t exist I would have given in to the negative, but ideas for this week were needed and it would seem the bacteria community was ready to oblige. The goal this week however, isn’t to try and dissect ways to prevent illness, instead let’s look at the benefits available when sickness disrupts the day to day norms.
I believe illness is a rare opportunity for humans, especially creative humans. Now to be clear, we’re not talking today about the Voldemorts of the illness world, those diseases that alter futures and change families, no not those. More like, the little guys, the speed bump sicknesses that bother us, take us out for a few days, but don’t otherwise impede the very fabric of our lives. It’s in the small disruptions that we have a couple of pretty interesting opportunities.
For starters, sickness is an opportunity for self-reflection, and if we take the time to look inward while recovering, in my experience, we’ll find out some pretty valuable information. I think in Western society we treat illness with a lot of surprise, as if a thief suddenly attacked us in the wee hours of the night as we’re lying there vulnerable; when in reality we have been blowing holes in the castle walls of our immune system for months. Sadly, most of us neutralize our symptoms trying to press on through our day to day lives, or we lie in bed numbing the ailments while binge watching the newest show. It’s worth taking the time to look inward and discover what role you had to play in the decline of your immune system. Could it be you’ve been living a high stress, low rest, lifestyle thereby subjecting your body to high levels of cortisol? Or maybe your physical well-being has been jeopardized by one too many fizzy beverages and or high sugar snacks.
In an article from “Frontiers in Immunology,” there are two types of stresses discussed that can weaken the immune system, physicochemical and psychological[1]. Physicochemical stressors are those environmental components that we engage with daily (which is a new term for me), then there’s the psychological stress where we believe there is a threat we can’t cope with. Exposure to these types of stresses over a lengthy period of time lead to a weakening of the immune system. Once the immune system is compromised, the environmental factors become harder to cope with and illness is inevitable. Next time the ole’ cold bug hits, take some time and reflect on what stressors led to the illness using questions like these:
- What was I doing the week before I got sick?
- How well am I taking care of my body?
- What’s the biggest emotional stressor in my life right now?
Here’s how I answered these while fighting off my own cold. 1. I was staying up late working on watercolor illustrations, getting up early to do soul care, and going 90 miles an hour at work. 2. I’m doubtful about how I took care of my body. I implemented some intermittent fasting and did a poor job drinking enough water. 3. The biggest stressor in my life right before getting sick is family and the holidays, I felt like it consumed a lot of mental energy while regularly adding stress to my day. Once you’ve worked through the questions, take some time to decide what you’d do differently with the things you can control. I can’t control much regarding the holidays, but I can be more careful about fasting, nutrition intake, and upping my workouts going forward.
The second big opportunity to take hold of while enduring illness is in the forced rest. There is a time to press on enduring the illness, but there is also a time to take an “illness day.” Sick days can be wonderfully refreshing if approached in a life-giving way. To begin with, you need the right mind set, you have to think “macro patience” as Gary Vaynerchuk[2] would say. Watch Gary’s content long enough and you’ll hear him talk about macro patience, which is (I’m paraphrasing here) looking at your work goals from the biggest view point possible, it’s being in the work for the long long long haul. Applying that to our situation here, macro patience means taking the time to rest now so that later you can run hard for the long haul. You can either rest for a little bit today, or when the illness gets worse, you can rest for a big bit later. I confess, I fought this all week and only write about it because I finally gave in. The cold bug got me on Tuesday, and it wasn’t till Friday after only marginally improving, that I called in sick. What then do we do with this time of rest? Well, you could binge a show while eating chicken soup with stars, which is not necessarily a bad way to go, especially if you’re completely knocked out. But, if you are capable, here’s a list of ideas to use when you need to refresh both body and soul:
- Go for a walk
- Read a book
- Take a hot bath with Epsom salt (that’s not just for the ladies!!!)
- Sit outside and watch the clouds
- Journal
- Drink tea by the fire place
- Investigate a creative technique
- Doodle in a sketch book
- Play with a medium you don’t normally use in your creative work
- Listen to your favorite podcast while sitting outside
After my sick day, a co-worker eventually asked how I was feeling, and received this reply “I did all my favorite things!!” It was true, during the sick day I walked at the park, found some trees to sit by while journaling, drank tea, and reflected on what I was doing before I got sick. And yes, I felt so much better, genuine self-care will do that. The next time you get sick, which I hope is after the holidays, take time to do some self-reflection and engage in practices that refresh your soul. Getting sick is a drag, and can quickly derail the locomotive of your creative goals but it doesn’t have to. It could become your “presto log” launching you even further into your future endeavors (thank you Back to the Future 3).
One last dad-joke
for the road, “why can’t children play with Darth Vader? He’s a choking hazard!”
[1] Editorial: Stress and Immunity, edited by Pietro Ghezzi, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00245/full
[2] Gary Vee on macro patience (nsfw due to a bit of language) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFzPuEEvnDU