Creeping Tolerations
By Silver Rose
Creeping Tolerations
I was pretty sick last week, for the second time in three months. Clearly, it was time to figure out what the heck is going on.
You see, I believe our physical well-being is a direct reflection of emotional well-being. When my body had a break-down last week, I knew I must have received numerous warning signals in the form of emotional messengers. I had simply ignored them. When you ignore emotional messengers telling you that “all is not well,” they just intensify. What starts out as a mild annoyance can turn into the flu if you don’t pay attention at the beginning.
Emotional Messengers fall into two categories: negative and positive. If you think about it, those are the only two emotions we have. We have a variety of labels for the subtle nuances – sad, angry, blue, annoyed, self-justified – in the end, those are all negative emotions.
When I was sick in bed, I began to examine my life and to gain some insight into when and how I allowed the negative emotions to gradually take over until I had to get sick in order for them to gain my attention.
I call the state I was living in, “Creeping Tolerations.”
What are creeping tolerations? They are those little things we let slip, convincing ourselves that we can tolerate them when, in point of fact, they are very slowly, like the drip-drip-drip of water torture, driving us out of our minds!
For me, they were things like:
· Getting caught up on my tax situation
· Closing out 2003 financial records
· An office that was messier than I’m comfortable with
· A car in desperate need of a wash
· A body that needed to be exercised more regularly
There are many more, but you get the picture.
Toleration is not acceptance. If I had accepted what was on my list, there would have been no water torture and no illness. I could have gone about my business, knowing I’d get to them when I could. But I pretended to accept them when, in fact, I was merely tolerating them, a victim, thinking I had no other choice. Have you ever noticed that, during those times of your life when you feel like a victim, you are less healthy, mentally and physically?
In my experience, what we tolerate defines the quality of our lives. Some of us settle for only the best, some of us are content with a middle-ground, and others tolerate less than what we want, thinking it’s all we can have.
When we tolerate less than what we want in any aspect of our lives, we are telling the Universe, “This is what I’m willing to have – nothing more.” And the Universe always gives you what you ask for, not what you need.
So, if you are experiencing any dis-ease, be it of the body, mind or spirit, take stock. What are you tolerating, pretending it’s not bothering you? With what are you putting up? Whatever it is, it’s not worth your life. Your life is made up of seconds. Every second robbed is a piece of life given up. Take yours back. I plan to.
Happy Journey,
Silver
