There are many reasons why people need to be sick. This article asks the question, Why am I sick? and looks at the common and obvious answers, the hidden, denied and disowned answers, the philosophical answers, and the reasons to stay sick; for everyone doesn’t want to get better.
Common and obvious answers
- It’s heredity. It runs in the family.
I have to ask, if thought creates, what exactly runs in the family. But, the fact remains: we do inherit our genes.
But, genes are influenced by environmental factors.
An environmental factor is any factor that influences a living organism.
Non-living factors: soil and water pH, air, temperature, sunlight
Living factors:
Availability of food …. eating unsuitable food, starvation
Presence of conspecifics, (same species)… support people
Competitors….. striving, pushing yourself, adrenal
Predators… people out to destroy you
Parasites…. people who will suck you dry and drain you
According to science, all of the above are factors that will influence the genes.
As I see it, thought and belief patterns are also a part of our environment. Therefore could it be possible that thought and belief patterns could also contribute to the environmental factors that influences a gene. If thought creates, could individual thinking and individual beliefs be a reason why one person in a family manifests something and another doesn’t.
- It’s (flu and virus) going around. Everyone’s got it. Hard to escape it.
Is that a self-creating thought pattern of the individual, or group consciousness empowering the consensus.
A virus is invasive and needs a host. It also invokes an immune response, inferring an enemy is present. What perceived enemy is invading your space?
Someone gave it to me infers that it was something that was forced on me. I had no choice.
What else was forced upon you? What else do you have no control over?
- I ate something that didn’t agree with me.
Change the focus from the food to the stomach. Maybe it’s not the food that doesn’t agree with you, but something else. Could the stomach be rejecting food because it is too stressed and tense; living too long in fight, flight or freeze with the expectation that a harmful event, attack, or threat is eminent. If we are in constant stress and tension, our energy moves from our stomach to other parts of our bodies preparing us to fight or flee. Who eats as they are going into battle? The focus is on survival. Nor do you eat when you are in shock. There are times when the body will not tolerate food, simply so that it can concentrate on survival.
- From a religious perspective – God sends trials to make us stronger
We grow strong through trials – sickness being a trial.
The contradiction :
If God sent the sickness to make people strong
and Jesus went around healing everyone
then they were working against each other.
OR
The sickness had another source and purpose.
We created it ourselves to attract our attention to a certain issue in our life.
Hidden , denied or disowned answers
- To get sympathy and attention
All of a sudden, someone is the centre of attention. - Needing time off
When a person won’t take time off, God/Universe/Higher Self can arrange it for them. If you are constantly thinking about time away from the job or needing a rest, you may create it in another way.
Do you need a break? What words are being used? A break can be easily arranged, if that is what you ask for. - It’s a way for someone not to appear ungrateful
Some parents encourage their child/children to succeed where they failed. When a parent has invested money and time into a child to develop in a certain area/sport, the child may not want to continue. So as not to appear ungrateful, the child has an accident or develops an injury. The training has to stop. - Escape
Sickness gets you out of doing something you may not want to do or face up to. If you focus on escaping a certain situation, sickness may be what you create on your road to avoidance. What you believe, you think about. What you think about with emotion, you create. You don’t have to know the principle, it works whether you understand it or not. Sickness is also a way to delay the inevitable e.g. get an extension to assignments or relinquish responsibilities. - Taking on someone’s stuff
A child can take on unresolved issues of the parent
You may be exhausted and weighed down by carrying responsibilities that aren’t yours to carry - Fighting the reality of life
On some level of consciousness, and for reasons you may never understand, you have created your own life circumstances, to learn, evolve and grow. When you are repeatedly rejecting your self-created life circumstances, stress can cause many problems, sicknesses and issues. Some say they don’t have a choice. They can’t change jobs or leave a relationship. Everyone has a choice. The real issue is which consequences the person wants to live with. People tend to choose the consequences they know, rather than the ones they don’t know.
Philosophical answers
- A wake-up call
A lot of people do recognize serious illness as a wake-up call. How many people change their lifestyle after being diagnosed with a terminal illness? - A person born with a disability can be resolving issues from another lifetime. Someone who chooses to rely completely on others could be making up for past aggression. There was a time when I didn’t believe in other life times, but that has changed.
- Death is an honourable way to leave when you have had enough
It is an opportunity for the peace-maker who suffers in silence, or the non-confrontational person who keeps everything inside to leave with dignity. - Put things in order
Dying from a lengthy disease allows someone to put things in order, rather than go suddenly without time to say goodbye. Would you rather leave in a car accident with no goodbyes, or have an illness and have time to put everything in place and say goodbye. - I’ve done what I came to do; it’s time to leave
It could be said that for Jesus to die so young was a waste of a life, but he did what he came to do.
Any premature death can be overwhelmingly sad, but there is always a bigger picture which is not always obvious at the time. Our beliefs and theories are constantly being challenged. Do we let them go, or search for examples to uphold them? As long as we focus on a specific, we are unable to see beyond it to something that surpasses our understanding. Can we step back a little from the pain and emotion, and be objective?
Reasons to stay sick – the hidden agenda
- When the carer gets sick the cared-for person improves
An elderly woman had cared for a sick husband for many years. When she got sick, he got better. This had happened on other occasions. The woman recognized the pattern. Why would she want to get better again? The husband would most probably revert to his old sick ways, and she would have to exert herself and look after him once again. - It gives someone an excuse for bad or unacceptable behaviour
Rudeness and bad temper and be blamed on a disease. If the person did some personal development work, they may find the bad behaviour has a deeper source which they are not ready to deal with. - To get paid-out under worker’s compensation
In the workforce, there are people who don’t want to get better, so they can make money from an injury. I didn’t think people did that, but personal experience proved otherwise. - Lobbying
When a person acknowledges that they can shut down a normal body function through thought, and that changing how they think could reverse or improve the body function, but choose to ignore the fact that thought creates, because it is more beneficial to their cause not to improve.
What are the benefits of being sick?
This can be a somewhat confrontational question for a person with a long term chronic disease, but I believe that on some level of consciousness, we have allowed, agreed to, created or drawn to ourselves the realities we live in and with.We are not victims. We are not at the mercy of others.
So, if anything shows up in our lives, it is on our terms.
Initially, we may not be able to identify the benefits of the sickness and pain
We have options:
Search for the meaning and message
When did the symptom occur and what was happening in your life at the time
Identify what you believe about sickness and family traits
or
Blame another
God, (why does God let these things happen)
The family line who passed it down (it’s in the genes; it’s hereditary)
The person who gave it to you (virus) which infers I am a victim.
Sickness is a complex web of inter-related issues on many levels
Physical: unsuitable patterns of eating, exercise, relaxation
Mental: focusing on thoughts and beliefs that have been held since childhood, and no longer serve the potential of the adult
Emotional: wallowing in negative feelings, rather than use them to be directed to the issues that need addressing
Spiritual: not understanding who we are and what we are doing here; not listening to our wisdom, intuition and inner guidance
While the healing process may begin on one level it usually extends to the others. Even if a person understands the metaphysical connection and message of an illness, there may also be other contributing factors: outdated thought and belief patterns, unacknowledged emotions and the spiritual dimension which all need addressing in some way.
Learn more about the metaphysical connection to pain and disease in Holistic Reflexology, the eight principles.
Re-visit the past and discover its wisdom. Wisdom in Retrospect, glancing back with insight to discover wisdom hiding in the shadows.
Both of my books are available from the publisher www.feedaread.com or leading online book stores.