My experience with migraines when I was younger provides an example of how taking ‘meaning’ from one’s illness can be transformational (Emotion Healed & Harnessed, pg.’s 85-87).  After experiencing many migraines over the years, and with the benefit of hindsight, it finally dawned on me that they served a deeper purpose. Within a day or two after each migraine I would feel much calmer, with far less nervous tension in my body than I had prior to it. And this would continue for a week or so until my nervous tension and anxiety levels would gradually start to build again. I finally ‘got’ what my body was trying to tell me, and with that, reached a level of acceptance, and began to see my migraines as NOT just random events designed to cause me pain and discomfort. But, on the contrary, they had provided me with great insight and a way to ‘heal thyself’.

When I was younger, I often tried to manage other people’s emotions and that, with your own, is a lot of emotional management when you are an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person)! I remember deciding not to have a 21st Birthday Party because I was so worried about how my friends would get along – my old school friends, uni-student friends, football club friends and ‘heavy partying’ friends. Perhaps I worried unnecessarily but when you are an HSP you do ‘read (feel) the room’ strongly. I would have either FELT uncomfortable, or chosen to take the easy way out and just ‘numbed’ myself with alcohol. And in those days the latter would have been the choice. Fast forward to my many years as a practicing Naturopath and Counsellor, I have been able to use my sensitivity, and ability to ‘read (feel) the room’, to my advantage and help others with their physical and emotional health challenges.