I woke up today with a sore throat and a cough. I find it difficult to answer the simple question: Are you sick? I always look for some external validation of illness. I usually take my temperature. If I am running a fever I can officially declare myself sick and more importantly give myself permission to do nothing more than read and drink tea.
I can't rely simply on symptoms. After all I have symptoms all day long. My head hurts. I sneeze. I have an upset stomach. If I responded to every symptom with a diagnosis I would drive myself crazy. It's not the symptoms I can't trust, it's my thoughts about the symptoms. Thoughts are fickle, transient and unreliable.
Perhaps the diagnosis is irrelevant anyway. The real question I need to answer is: What do I need? And right now I need to get back to my book and my tea.
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