Are you treating yourself as if you matter?

During my many years as a life coach for people with chronic illnesses, I’ve met many people who thought that ignoring their illness-related pain was their best option. I don’t agree.

I think you will understand why if you think about a child who tells her mother that her knee hurts. If the mother tells her that she’s too busy to do anything about it, not only is the pain going to continue until the knee recovers on its own–if it does, but the child gets the message loud and clear that she is not important. If her needs continue to be ignored, she will eventually conclude that she must not be important and her needs must not matter.

In a similar way, if you ignore your illness-related pain, you are sending yourself a message that you’re not important. Even if you consciously try to reject that message, your subconscious mind will hear it and let it in. So it’s important that you don’t  ignore your pain.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that you should run to a doctor every time your little toe hurts. But  a good parent determines if her child’s knee or toe needs to be seen by a doctor or just given a kiss, and she doesn’t ignore or be dismissive of her child in either situation. Instead she  expresses her love and caring. I encourage you to be that same kind of caring parent to yourself whenever you experience illness-related pain.