It will all be okay when you decide it is okay.

I finished the book The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer this past week. Man is it good. I highly recommend it. There are a few takeaways that I want to share. Firstly, we are all humans who experience feelings and emotions (something I tell my patients daily). These feelings and emotions lead to experiences. And those experiences are what shape us into the people we are... Stay with me. This book points out that you and I as individuals are NOT the emotion itself. We are a body, a mind, a soul, experiencing the emotion. But we are NOT the emotion itself. 

I am not anger. I am not fear. I am not joy. I am not sorrow. I have a body that feels a physiological response to emotions. I have a mind that tells me stories (often times not true) about the experience. But my soul? My soul is what I need to pay attention to... and what so often gets missed. Part of being on this earth, the book discusses, is allowing emotions to flow through you-- to open up. To open your heart space and allow any emotion (they are neutral by the way... we give them titles like 'good' or 'bad') to freely flow through us. The process of 'opening' and allowing any emotion through is a step on the path to healing.

Another point that really hit me is this week's blog title. Everything will be okay, when you decide it is okay. The swirling uncertainty? The unknowns that lie ahead? The fear of what's to come? Well, it hasn't happened yet. And it maybe never will. Your soul needs you to understand that. If you move forward, with appropriate caution, you can decide whichever twist or turn comes, it is going to be okay. 

I saw a patient this week, and she is young. Young for the cancer world anyway. She is devastated and shared a story with me about not being able to run around the park with her grandchild. "All I could do was watch." That was truly upsetting to her. She felt she missed out. She felt she lost out on memories, as she was too fatigued from treatment to get up and run, push, or climb. I asked her what she did while watching. She nonchalantly shared she sat with her daughter while they together watched the toddler. I probed a little more and reminded her that while she felt she missed out with her grandchild, it maybe was her daughter that needed her there, on that bench, having that conversation... 

I am not saying illness is easy. I am not saying cancer is without heartbreak. I know it is. But I also know, some things, can and will be okay, if you decide it is okay.

Strength and healing always,

Erin