Our bodies offer a wealth of wisdom in alerting us when we do something wrong, but few people tune into their bodies to listen. As a result, our bodies could become chronically sick.

Sometimes we can understand what our body tells us, and an instant of clarity flashes in front of our eyes. In that case, the key is to capture the message.

That’s what I did when my body got sick.

My body had given up on me

I had been sick for over two months and no physician could find a cure for me. After a week in the hospital, on a normal saline water intravenous drip with nothing to eat by mouth, I still had diarrhea every 30 minutes, day and night. I was losing weight quickly, going as low as 88 pounds (I'm five feet four inches tall).

The theory was that if I stopped ingesting food by mouth maybe the bowel inflammation I had been having for two months would stop. It did not.

At first, my physicians couldn’t find what was wrong with me. After a colonoscopy, they made the diagnosis of lymphocytic colitis, and I was sent home with several treatments to try. I was asked to try each treatment for at least three weeks before deciding whether it worked or not. Nothing worked. I was miserable.

My low sodium was making me nauseous. My low potassium was giving me an irregular heart rate. I was trying to replenish the loads of sodium and potassium I was losing every day and wondering if the current week was going to be my last week on Earth. Would we find a treatment that worked before my heart gave up?

That’s when, one night at 2:00am, after several sleepless hours, having to use the bathroom every 30 minutes or so, a sudden instant of clarity flashed before my eyes.

A memorable instant of clarity in a sea of darkness:

Just before getting sick, I had been very stressed at work. My medical practice was booming. I was seeing more and more patients each day, making more and more money each month. As a matter of fact, I was making more money than I had ever made in my entire life.

But that came at a cost. Being a perfectionist, I was trying to do it all: see patients the best way I could, answer the phone and schedule patients’ appointments myself on my days off, and do my own billing at night. I was constantly stressed out and my anxiety level had never been higher. All I had time to do on my time off was eat and sleep. After two years of that kind of stress, an acute diarrhea every 30 minutes, a signature of the beginning of lymphocytic colitis began.

At first, I was oblivious to the problem, continuing to push my body to its limits. Losing weight made me slim like a model and I could wear clothes I had not been able to wear since I had been in my teens. People complimented the way I looked. But that was the outside, the cover of me. Inside of me was a different story. Inside, my body had given up and was sending me a clear message.

Then, in the middle of the night, I understood it all. I had a sudden 40,000-foot view of my life. I grabbed a pen and a beautiful orange piece of paper, and I wrote a letter to myself:

Dearest Chris,

You must remember this for the rest of your life. This month, you died. The person you were before doesn’t exist anymore. You need to turn the page. You have too much stress, too much work, no time to dream anymore, no energy to live anymore. Money is not what matters the most. Passion for life is what matters. Money without passion is destructive. Do what you love, even if it doesn’t pay. You only have one life, and it is very, very precious. You almost died. It was such a close call. If and when you get better, remember! Please remember! I beg you to remember!

Your Chris

The message sent by my body was suddenly loud and clear: “If you go back to work with the same workload and the same amount of stress, you will die.”

A few days after writing that letter, I started a new treatment that worked after only three days. As time went on, the diarrhea subsided and I felt stronger, but I never forgot the letter I wrote to myself.

When I went back to work, I hired a biller and I saw many fewer patients each day. I changed my goal in life from seeing more patients and making more money to seeing fewer patients, having less stress, making much less money, and being happier.

Nearly two decades later, I still read that letter from time to time. The letter’s intrinsic truth, depth, and clarity brings tears to my eyes each time I read it.

Moments of clarity like this are rare in life and if you have one, you need to grab it and store it in your memory. How can you do that?

How to store moments of clarity in your memory

1. Write a letter to yourself: Explain the problem the way you see it and find ways to solve it. That’s what I did but there are other options for creative, visual people.
2. Draw: You can pretend you are an 8-year-old and make a drawing with crayons showing the problem you have and the solution you found.
3. Paint: Get an easel, canvas, acrylic or oil paints, brushes and paint whatever comes to your mind without thinking too much. Paint from your heart.
4. Listen to music: Choose a song that fits the way you are feeling and listen to it on a regular basis.
5. Sing: Learn to sing the song that fits the way you are feeling.
6. Create lyrics: Chose a song you know and create new lyrics that fit your frame of mind.
7. Create a new score: If you are more creative, create a new music score that goes with your lyrics.
8. Play your instrument: Play the instrument you know with the notes that come to your mind without thinking.
9. Create a play or a short movie: Re-enact what you are going through in a one-man, or one-woman show. Play yourself and film it so that you can remember.
10. Create a dance: Re-enact what you are going through with dance movements at your own created tempo and film yourself.

Some people, when they get sick, will have a rare instant of clarity about their life, but as soon as they get better, they will forget that instant of clarity and go back to their stressful, destructive habits to prioritize making money. Repetitively pushing the body to its limits might bring more physical ailments in the future, like heart attacks, strokes, or even cancer.

Conclusion

It is important to listen to our bodies. Some people get sick and are unable to fix the underlying problem, but for others like me there could be a fixable reason why we are sick. It is sometimes not enough to treat the illness; it is also important to understand why your body got sick.

Is our life balanced? Do we engage in what we're passionate about? If the answer to those questions is no, life could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Let’s implement solutions and make sure our lives are balanced, happy, and passionate before our bodies get sick.