Missing two months of school due to a chronic concussion from rugby is not fun. Going from a very active lifestyle to basically being bedridden was a tough transition for me. Imagine this: spending almost the rest of your day in a dim room, feeling nauseated all the time, taking 8 tablets of painkillers for your excruciatingly painful headaches, losing balance even when you’re just standing up, being sensitive to light and sound, and most importantly— being away from your everyday normal life. Thought that was the end of it? Nope. My sports medicine doctor also prohibited me from doing anything physical and mental. So, no school, no cellphone, no t.v., no sports….etc. Every time I woke up, I felt a deep sense of isolation and unworthiness. It just wasn’t fair. Everything was going great, then this happened.
So often, when inevitable challenges occur in our lives, our immediate reaction is to run away or bury ourselves in the remnants of our childhood. We relentlessly rely on “guilty pleasures” or “quick fixes” to assuage the pain or any negative emotion associated with our struggle. In my experience, this never fixes anything in the long run. Why? Because it just conceals vital parts of our humanity, which are vulnerability and suffering. Truth to be told, our suffering is self-inflicted most of the time. We believe and feed all our negative thoughts and beat ourselves up by making hurtful, self-deprecating comments directed to ourselves. I‘m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not pretty enough. I’ll never make it. Sound familiar? Sometimes we just need to tell ourselves, shhhhhhhhhh, look for peace amidst of the chaos, and give ourselves a break.
Somehow, a part of us is afraid that growth and happiness might come out of our suffering because we’re too focused on the present moment, forgetting that nothing ever stays the same. Change is the only constant thing in this world, as my mom would say. So, no matter what you’re going through now, know that it won’t stay like that forever. Life Always Gets Better.
As weird as this may sound, I’m actually grateful that I got a concussion. It gave me a break from the boring, structural nature of high school. I can honestly say that I learned more in those two months than I learned in two years of school. This is because I managed my own time and cut out the things that are not beneficial to me. Although I’m not a 100% well yet, I feel so liberated and contented with my life right now. I also switched to a healthier diet and got in shape again. I watched nearly a 1,000 movies, read a ton of books and caught up with my art projects. As of now, I’m learning about business and marketing, new science, and spirituality on my own. And I’m glad none of them have deadlines. Thank God. The bottom line is, life is too short, so don’t take it too seriously and just do the things you are passionate about!
Here are some tips I found helpful on overcoming adversity:
1. Love more, fear less.
This may sound overly cliché, but it’s actually scientifically proven that both love and fear can’t exist in the brain at the same time! So do more more of the things you love and be with the people you care about when you’re going through a tough time.
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2. Use healing Gemstones.
Certain types of gemstones can actually emit positive healing energy that can help you feel better. For example, rose quartz has a gentle comforting energy. It’s known to cure heartaches.
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3. Be grateful for what you have.
Always remember there’s someone out there that has it worse than you. Just remember of how blessed you are and take charge of your life.
Mizoram, India, 2006
4. Give back to those in need.
My family recently volunteered to make a thousand peanut butter and jelly and meat sandwhiches for the homeless people at our local church. It really took things off my mind, but, most importantly, I felt that such a great sense of community by helping out our church and the homeless.
