This one morning, about two weeks ago, I woke up to see a small canker sore on the inside of my lip. Thinking nothing of it, I expected the little pest to move on and eventually go away. The sore had other plans and continually grew until it took up a considerable part of my gums and the pain made it hard to eat, drink, and even smile. This pain lasted for well over a week and I spent it just was waiting for the pain to stop rather than taking care of myself and treating the sore.
Eventually, I became used to the pain and the sore became a part of my everyday life for the week and a half it lasted.
This menial nuisance created a larger realization of how we learn to live with our suffering.
Suffering is inevitable and the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck highlights this in the first chapter. "The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering itself," and it goes to show that we are going to experience strife in our lives, but if we try to avoid it, we are going to screw ourselves over in long run when we have to face an issue that is inevitable.
Challenges are what makes people grow stronger, not having everything go perfect and smoothly. Challenges teach lessons, even if we don't want them to. It is honestly crazy that this idea finally sunk because of a canker sore, but the world has a weird way of showing me realities of life.
More importantly, as I was typing this up, I was realizing that this was also a plea from my body to take care of itself. Canker sores can be caused by a series of things, but a main contributor is stress. Handling transfer applications, work, and school throughout the past month and a half has been pretty stressful, and because of it, I didn't take care of my body and mind.
My body was reaching out to me externally in a plea to look within and realize that what I really needed to do was take care of myself. As the saying goes, "healthy mind, healthy body," and for the past month, I have pushed that idea to the side in pursuit of my goals. The issue there is that without a healthy mind, my goals will not be accomplished or achieved with knowing that I sacrificed my mental health because of it. I get one life, but that doesn't mean I have to rush and sacrifice crucial parts of myself for a materialistic notion.
I am currently back in Pennsylvania visiting and then I head off to Canada for spring break. Although I was only here for two days, these past days have been some of my most enjoyable days of the year so far. I am so excited for Canada and the memories I will make on my first solo trip as an adult, but I also learned how much I love visiting what used to be my prison. This place is no longer a home, but it certainly is a place I can gladly say no longer is holding me back from the potential of a thriving life. I now hold control over a variable that was fixed.
It was currently the beginning of March, the first milestone of the year, and even though I have not posted every week, I have posted more than I have done in months. In a way, these posts serve as a check-in to my consciousness and how it's doing. 2024 is the year of intention and with holding myself to a certain standard, I am making decisions with careful consideration and purpose behind it.
March is going to be a great month filled with intentional decisions and hard work. It is also going to be where I take care of myself because a healthy mind helps produce a healthy body, and vice-versa.
Until next time,
a hopeful/less stranger
10:01pm
03.03.2024
Comments