The Boil Within Us

Few days back I met up with a relative who was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma about a year back. Sixty-eight years of age, he would bicycle about twenty kilometers each day, never smoked, and ate healthy. As a person, he is religious, helpful, and quite affectionate. Both him and I had a nasty time in 2014. We got talking.

It was not about the disease but the way it had impacted us to such an extreme. What blew us away? Why had our immunity gone to the dogs? Both of us had one thing similar. He had been a straight-forward person all his life but recently he had started bottling up. For me, last two years had been two of the most difficult ones. I had gone through extreme anger, guilt, frustration, despair, basically all the negative siblings. I had also been bottling up. I had thought of seeking professional help but, sadly in India, visiting a shrink entails too many queries. Plus, I thought I could handle it. So did he.

The rapidity with which his Myeloma and my Dengue spread and impacted, was shocking. As if our bodies were so weak that one small excuse and we were pushed off the cliff.

The common thread had been, the boil that both he and I had had inside. It got me thinking. Do we not bring down our immunity when we are emotionally or mentally vulnerable? Would it be too far-fetched to say that our physical well-being is connected to our mental well-being, even in diseases which are not directly linked? I have seen my father’s health troubling him more when he has other things on his mind. And these are not directly related issues like hypertension or acidity.

Why do we let the inner boils grow? What stops us from taking help from our family, friends, or counselors? Why do we not take these seriously enough? If we think talking doesn’t help, then we have to be strong enough within us to be handle it and end the negative emotion right there. You get angry, you just keep shut. Cool!

But is your emotional and mental self is also at peace? If not, you just added more fluid to the boil.  A boil, that will in the end manifest itself in some strange form and you will be left wondering what happened. So, find an outlet. Talking, meditating, helping others, anything that helps you stay healthy…mentally and emotionally.