How I Managed to Spread a Disease By Thinking
Last week when I shattered a full glass of water all over my bedroom floor, my husband was caught up in the throes of MMA or Modern Family or something otherwise more important. Because I have no clue where he keeps his shop vac (nor how to use one), I was left to my own devices in cleaning up the wreckage. All I could find to pick up the pieces was my 3 year old daughter’s toy dust pan and sweeper and a Dirt Devil with a half-charged battery.
Despite the fact it was well past my bedtime and the lighting in my bedroom is dark, I still thought I had gotten everything swept up. But then, around the middle of last week, I started feeling like there was a splinter, sticker or a shard of glass stuck in the bottom of my right big toe. Because I’m not as flexible as I was during my pre-baby yoga days, bending my leg up to a level where I could actually inspect the bottom of my toe proved to be impossible. After trying to survey the area with a mirror, I realized that my eye doctor is correct–after 42, it’s all downhill AND I need reading glasses.
Anyway, I finally got desperate and asked my husband to take a look. He did. What he saw and what he said wasn’t really that encouraging.
According to him, there was no splinter, no sticker and no glass shard. Only a possible case of athlete’s foot on my right big toe.
What the ****? Athlete’s foot? Are you kidding me? Is it possible that someone with such delicate, beautifully manicured feet as mine could have such a nasty affliction?
I really don’t know. And, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to Google it, yet.
What I do know, however, is that my husband’s mere suggestion has set me off with a case of the itchies. All of a sudden, the whole bottom of my right foot burns and itches. So does my left foot. And so do other random parts of my body.
My imagination has been going crazy, and now I’m thinking about all kinds of ridiculous things.
My head itches. Do I have dandruff, too? Even worse, could I have picked up lice from some kid my daughter goes to school with?
The mosquitoes are partying in and around our yard right now. I woke up with a bunch of bites the other morning. Is it possible I have contracted the West Nile Virus, too?
I clearly need to get a grip.
All of this thinking about athlete’s foot, dandruff and the West Nile has got me thinking about…well…thinking.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about negative thinking and how it might be considered a disease, too.
I recently had lunch with a friend who is going through some tough stuff in her life. She just isn’t in the best place at the moment. Although she is normally upbeat, positive and happy, right now, she can’t see the good in anyone or anything.
When we got together, I spent an hour and a half listening to her rant and complain about all things gone bad. There were some things she talked about that sucked. On the other hand, there were some pretty darn good things happening, too.
I tried to point them out.
For every positive I brought up, she was able to elicit a corresponding negative.
For each suggestion I made, there was a reason why she couldn’t do it, why it wouldn’t work, or why her situation was different.
After a while, I wanted to slam my head against the table. I decided to just stop talking instead. I realized I was trying to fix her problems and fix her life and, in actuality, the only person who can fix her is…her.
I left our luncheon feeling pissy and drained. I had allowed my friend’s disease to infect me. Her (and then my) negativity affected the whole rest of my day.
I went home to my husband and started projecting my bad attitude on him. Luckily for me (and him), he called me on it. He told me I had a choice about whether I would contribute to the proliferation of the disease we call negativity.
I realized he was right.
So I stopped.
And, I felt better about not being so caught up in how horrible my life is (because it really isn’t).
Are you contributing to the spread of disease in your own life?
If it means you would be healthier, happier and helpful in creating a better world, would you stop propagating the disease?
Did you know that stopping is as easy as making a choice to stop and then actually-
Stopping?
Let’s do it. Let’s create an outbreak of positivity, happiness and joy. Let’s have a contest to see who can manifest the biggest and best miracle by controlling our thoughts, rather than letting our thoughts control us.
Are you in? If you are, leave me a comment and say “Yes!”
Ok…that’s all for this week.
Before I go, I wanted to let you know that I finally looked at some images of athlete’s foot on the internet. Some of them are downright scary. I started to go down the rabbit hole, but stopped myself. Instead, I’m on my way to Walgreen’s to pick up some anti-fungal creme.
Wish me luck!
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