This is the long awaited second and final installment to the Not To Worry (AKA blessings in disguise) series. First installment here: http://integrallife.com/member/chris-emerson/blog/ruined-life-not-worry
- You will most likely be funnier/stranger. Funnier because you’re basically forced to turn so much dark stuff into light just to help get through it. Humor can become a good, healthy coping mechanism for difficult times. Stranger for the same reason and because you might have gone to some strange places mentally (assuming you see that kind of strangeness as a good thing.)
- The depth of your suffering is evidence of how happy you were and have the capacity to be. Your pain is a testament to how much you feel life. The more pain = the more happiness and fullness on the other end you have to look forward to. Illness can also be a sign of being meant for more, so you can get your life moving in much better, more meaningful, more appropriate directions.
- You’ve expanded your awareness into many areas it probably wouldn’t have gotten into otherwise. In addition of learning a ton of lessons, you might have been shaken into higher, wider, and deeper horizons of awareness, and even towards spiritual awakening. I imagine some people could attribute suffering as the catalyst for their move from an ethnocentric to worldcentric awareness, for example. With regards to awakening, recall, “Suffering is the first grace.” People who are content with their dreams are less likely to want to wake up. Also, you can get shaken loose from objects/concepts in general. Shaken free as your mind is forced to expand past those limitations.
- That it will be more fun when you wake up is also attributed to the fact that if you’re having a good dream and are woken up from it you’re kinda bummed, whereas if you wake from a nightmare you’re very relieved!
- You can see more clearly the insanity of the world. What’s going on with you could just be a small-scale result/example of a collective issue, which you were lucky and healthy to get sick of. You can now know and spread basic sanity much better.
- You’ve got a good experiential example of how much you/I AMness can make it through unscathed. For example, most people are afraid of going insane, but if you’ve gone insane, or had some of your worst fears come true, and eventually come out the other side alright, then that fear tends to take a drop because you know that stuff can’t really ultimately touch you.
- With regards to having the first-hand experience you need to adequately empathize with others; I’m reminded of the quote, “Every scar is a bridge to someone’s broken heart.” And if you’ve made it through a lot you can provide genuine hope for the hopeless ones. You gain their trust and can love them in a way they can accept because they know you actually understand.
- And of course you begin to appreciate life and the simple things much more when you are well again. Annnnnd you get to see the beautiful/awesome/epic contrast of going from absolute darkness into the Light!
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Chris
