A Different Perspective

Sometimes, when I'm in a situation where I have to eat food that is too spicy for me, I just try to shift my perspective. "Some people enjoy this sensation of pain," I tell myself. "Some people think this is tasty. Let's try to imagine we understand that."

In this piece from the New York Times, a woman who is a yoga instructor, uses her yoga experience to interpret her mother's early-onset Alzheimer's. We talk about the virtues of living in the moment, but when forced to do so by a disease, we tend to reveal that "living in the moment" is not all it's cracked up to be.

It's odd to see someone willing to not assume that the consequences of a disease are Bad, but to look beyond the inconveniences to see what the disease provides that might be interesting or worth experiencing. "I shall set aside my first reaction and see what else there is here to learn."

I've often hoped that if I ever have to experience chronic pain, I might be able to get past the first reactions and "make friends with the pain," as I've heard some people describe it. Quite frankly, I'm guessing I'm better at it in the abstract than I would be in reality.

But what an interesting exercise for any bad thing we go through in life: To set aside the assumption that it's Bad and look around for what might be interesting or instructional or even a spiritual lesson.