You often hear the term I’m going to ride out the storm. If you look up the meaning of that term it says “To remain at ones location during a storm to wait until it passes, or to succeed in surviving and getting through something dangerous or harmful that can’t be stopped or avoided.” Now this definitely can be a viable strategy if you’re dealing with an actual storm. When you think of the word storm as a “life storm” though, this is where I think we can use a better strategy. I’ve had so many panic attacks caused by my health issues where I’ve just rode out and curled up in a ball trying to breathe and just hope I wake up alive the next morning. Now before I get into the “surfing” strategy I should probably quickly introduce myself. My name is Justin and I’m 38, I have a great wife and two awesome sons. I’ve battled an invisible illness called Chronic Hyperventilation Syndrome for years and years. It causes so many different symptoms it will make you feel like you’re going crazy. I’ll get more into those symptoms in another post. I also have bad IBS and ADHD and have had tons of weird mystery health issues that have come and gone throughout the years. Then two years ago my left side of face became paralyzed (its better now) while I was on vacation with my family. After a bunch of labs and tests done in the hospital to rule out a stroke I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and the co-infection Babesiosis. The meds didn’t cure me and I later learned that I’ve had Lyme undiagnosed for years and it’s now chronic. Now back to what you can do if your “life storm’ is chronic or whatever situation you’re dealing with is here to stay for awhile. Do you want to just hope it goes away by itself or things will just magically get better by riding it out? I tried that, especially when I first got diagnosed with Lyme Disease. All that happened was it made me feel alone and depressed. I’ve found the better strategy is to lose the victim mentality and do everything in your power to make the best of whatever situation you’ve found yourself in. Even if it’s just making small changes and trying to appreciate even the smallest things in life. I’ve been forced to change my whole entire lifestyle due to my health issues. My whole diet has changed and I can’t even drink alcohol. Never in my life did I think that I’d be someone who meditates, or does yoga or gets acupuncture but here I am now. I’ve also realized life can still be an awesome adventure once I adjusted my mindset to my new situation. “You can’t change the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” I’ve learned to live my life by that awesome quote. Also I wish it didn’t take a major “life storm” for me to learn so many of the lessons that I have. I want to share all the tips and mindset shifts I’ve made that have helped me. Let’s not just ride out our storms, lets learn to how to surf them!! I’m far from being cured and I’m no expert but I am in the journey of surfing my life storms now. Lets help each other. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think because I’m learning this whole blog/website thing as I go! In the meantime have the best week ever! Surfs Up!
Crush it!
Justin