What Auto-Immune Disease has Taught me About my Passions
Abstract:
If you’re following my vlogs, you’ll know I’ve been living with auto-immune trouble for over three years now. I’m better than I was, but not completely back to normal.
The last thing I thought was that – apart from being a giant pain in the neck – this
would teach me things about my passions and my life of passion and purpose. In fact, it has taken some things I already knew to a whole new level.
Your mission today is to learn the lessons from a debilitating disease – without having to go through it.
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Background: What I’m on about
What I’m talking about here is insights from a disease that apply to “healthy” life as well. I’m not giving any medical advice, nor am I saying that people with auto-immune diseses all feel the way I do, or should.
This is important because I have zero tolerance for toxic positivity. I’m very aware that I got away lightly. I know people who have it so much worse, and unlike me, aren’t getting better. I have no business, nor would I ever attempt to speak for them, or anyone else. Okay? Good.
Task: What I learned about my passions
I’ve been talking about creating space, simplifying life and learning to rest for many years. It’s a major part of my work with my clients, too. So these things are anything but new to me.
Do I always manage to take it slowly? Nope. I still have weeks when I’m rushed off my feet, but I catch myself quickly these days. And the auto-immune trouble has “helped” in life’s usual, unsubtle way:
These days, if I overdo it, my body unceremoniously knocks me out. Bang! There I am, on the couch and unable to do anything, for days (used to be weeks, so I’m grateful – but still!).
Regular breaks are a very real necessity even on good days, to keep up my energy.
Creating plenty of space for passions is also a necessity, otherwise I just won’t have it in me to pursue them. I’ve become very, very selective with who and what is worth my effort.
Again, these aren’t things I only learned recently. However, it’s a whole other experience to not only know something intellectually, and be forced into it physically.
What I describe above isn’t sick care, it’s human care. We should all do it, and it shouldn’t take a disease to allow our bodies, minds, souls and spirits the grace to rest and have free, unstructured time. Do it now. It’ll make you feel alive and wonderful – and those are things I no longer take for granted.
Transcript
Here follows the exact transcript of everything that’s being said in the video. You can also see this text as subtitles in the video itself.
I have learned a few lessons about my passions, and I would like to share them with you.
Hello, welcome to this week's Wild Spirits News. I'm Sibylle, and I help women between 40 and 60 to do lots of what they love and to find their unique life purpose, and if that sounds interesting, check out my website, wildspiritscoaching.com.
Today's subject is 'What autoimmune disease has taught me about my passions". If you follow my vlogs, you will know that I have lived with autoimmune trouble for over 3 years now - three and a half, about three and a half years. I am better than I used to be, but I'm not back to normal. Now, the last thing I expected was that - other than being a giant pain in the neck - this autoimmune disease would actually teach me things about my passions and my life of passion and purpose. In fact, it has taken some things that I already knew to a whole new level. So your mission today is to learn the lessons from a debilitating disease, without actually having to go through it.
Background
The background to this is 'What I'm on about'. What I'm talking about here is life lessons from a disease that apply to quote unquote "healthy" life as well. I'm not out to give any medical advice or say that people with autoimmune disease all feel like I do, or should feel like I do. This is extremely important because I have zero tolerance for toxic positivity. I'm aware that I got away lightly. I know people who actually are debilitated by this, by autoimmune trouble and are not getting better. It is not my job, nor would I ever attempt to speak for these people or for anyone else, actually, other than myself.
Task
The Task is 'What I learned about my passions'. I've been talking about creating space, learning to rest and taking breaks for years. This is also a major part of my work with my clients in my coaching program "The Magic of Purpose", so none of this is new for me, right? Do I always manage to take it slowly? Nope, I'm a human, some weeks I'm still stressed, some some weeks I still work too much, but I am catching myself more quickly these days, and my autoimmune disease has - again, quote, in quotation marks - "helped" in the usual way of life, namely with a sledgehammer, really unsubtle, and has helped me with this in the following ways (I've written them down):
These days, when I overdo it, my body unceremoniously knocks me out, and there I am on the sofa, bang, unable to do anything for days. I mean, it used to be weeks, so I'm kind of grateful, but it still sucks.
Regular breaks are an absolute necessity these days, in order to keep my energy levels at an ex-, at a reasonable level. I can't say "up", because it's never "up" these days, but at a reasonable, on a reasonable level, in order to, so I can actually keep working.
And creating plenty of space for passions is also a necessity, because otherwise I'll never ever have the energy to pursue any of my passions. So if I don't actually create, consciously create space for them, it's not going to happen.
So this is something, again, that I have been talking about for years and practicing for years, but there's a big difference between knowing something intellectually and being forced into it physically. And that is the difference that I'm talking about and that I have been experiencing lately.
What I describe here is not sick care, it's human care, and that is my point: This is not about autoimmune disease, it's about what we all should do anyway, but most of us don't because we can get away with it. And I, for years, haven't or didn't because I could get away with it, and suddenly I find that I can no longer get away with it. But what I'm doing now, the breaks that I'm taking, the slowing down and all that, is - okay, I have done it in the years before, because again, I've been working on this for at least 10 years now and working with my clients and on myself - but it has just taken on a different kind of urgency and it has made it crystal clear to me why this is so important.
And it's not important because I'm Ill, it's important because we as humans are designed that way. We should all take breaks, get plenty of rest and create space for our passions, because we, as I am fond of saying, are not on this planet to pay bills. So I'm telling you: Do this now. Don't wait until you get sick. Do it now. It'll make you feel so alive and so wonderful, and those are feelings that I no longer take for granted.
Let me know
And that brings me to the last point which is 'Let me know'. How do you stand on this? Do you have problems actually allowing yourself to rest unless you're completely exhausted already? Or do you have a good balance in your life? I'd love to hear it. Leave me a comment below the video or reply to the email that you got the link to the video with.
And like I said, if any of this sounds interesting, check out my website wildspiritscoaching.com. There you can also sign up for the Wild Spirits Community News. That is a 100% spam-free newsletter, you get two emails per month, so how's that for spam free, with additional information that I only ever share by email and that is actually useful. So it's not just some marketing spam newsletter, it is actually useful information. I'd love to have have you in the community. Have a beautiful week, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye!