Quick paradigm shift. We don’t actually have illness. Illness has us. Now that might seem a little confusing but stick with me. Let's look at Depression for example. Depression is a very common illness and likely something you've experienced for yourself. Now here's the krux; to say that you have depression is to associate yourself with feelings of being depressed and thus cultivating an identity around that illness. Now I’m by no means saying that bodily sensations of sadness, loneliness, and anxiety aren't a thing. What I’m saying is that without us there to label these sensations as we do, then “depression” wouldn't actually exist. And that's what I mean by “illness has us”. It has us to label it, to associate ourselves with it, and to cultivate an identity around it. By labeling something as a thing that you have you’re already fueling the fire. It's living in the world of “ I have this disease and I can't do this, this, or this”. And the common solution is “Well because I have this illness, I must take this pill, in order to get back to my normal self”. An attempt to reverse engineer an illness is playing a small game. These kinds of things must be looked at as a grander tapestry, and approached as such. Rather then “I’m sad, I have depression” try - “Im sad, okay cool, this is my thing, this is the feeling that arises when ‘such and such’ happens to me. Okay, here it is again”. Look at the grander picture; like an eagle soaring above the problem and identifying all influencing factors. That my friends is playing a big fvckin’ game. Because if illness does not have us to identify ourselves with it, then it has a far less powerful grip on us to begin with.
