Episode 156: The Opportunity in Illness

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If you hang around the planet long enough, you’re going to get sick, and for sure someone you love is going to get sick.

A year ago my husband was so sick that he dropped 40 pounds in a month, his skin kept peeling off repeatedly, his entire head swelled, cracked, and was oozing, and he could do little more than sit in a chair all day.

This is a screenshot I took while we were on FaceTime when he was spending a week at my mom’s because she was away. I couldn’t do anything to help him, and he couldn’t do anything to help me take care of the girls and our business, so it was easier for him to be somewhere else.

I couldn’t allow myself to realize how bad it all was in the moment because I needed to keep it together to take care of our kids and our company, but looking back now, it was really bad.

I’m so happy to say that Mike’s health is 95% better and that the dark period we went through a year ago is becoming more and more of a distant memory.

But here’s what I’m even happier to say: Mike took the assignment.

See, I don’t think illness is simply our bodies needing us to pay attention to something physical going on that needs medication or a procedure.

I believe illness is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for awakening, growth, repatterning, presence, and expansion.

But only if we’re up for the assignment.

Mike is a different person than he was a year ago. Or, perhaps, he’s actually the person he was always meant to be that was hidden under layers that literally needed to fall off in order to reveal his most beautiful self.

At the one-year anniversary of the sickest Mike got during his 9 months of struggle, we recorded a conversation about The Opportunity in Illness for the podcast to let you in on:

The surprising way we view illness that helps us embrace it instead of fear it
The critical switch your body needs to make in order to heal, how the medical system hampers this shift, and what you can do to make sure it happens anyway
Practical steps for getting your body into a healing state that have nothing to do with what you put in your mouth
The question that I ask myself every time I get sick that ensures that I uplevel instead of being taken out

Once you’ve listened, I’d love to hear what this episode brings up for you. What did you learn? How can you apply it to your own healing journey? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Here’s to all of our healing journeys, physical and otherwise.

In This Episode

Why illness isn’t your fault, and the opportunity that exists with it [7:50]
Our thoughts on children getting serious illness [10:15]
Mike’s perspective on his health, one year later [14:40]
What he did the last year to improve his health [27:32]
The exact moment Mike realized he had to stop trying to control the situation [37:35]
What internal changes he has made, and the important role communication has played in his healing [39:37]
Something that really gave Mike hope through this entire process [49:25]
The amazing things that can happen when you listen to your “little voice” [63:51]
How being in control and being in charge are two very different things [66:05]