 The first mentor that had ever really introduced me to acupuncture was the person that was treating me and he said something really interesting to me as I was going about the process of trying to fix my lifelong GI problems that I'd seen many specialists and doctors for. He said that all illnesses are a gift and an opportunity and it took me a long time to realize what he was actually trying to say because at the moment I was just pretty pissed off that he would say that but in this video I want to share what I think is a very wise insight that that mentor of mine gave me and I think I see a lot in other people who are trying to heal themselves. What's up guys? Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day and I've included a free PDF. It's the first link in the description and it's on five daily rituals that can possibly help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. Check it out the first link in the description. So the first thing I want you to think about here is that symptoms and sickness are canaries in the coal mine. So if you're not familiar this expression comes from the coal miners who'd bring a canary. Basically the canary would behave differently or die if carbon monoxide was being secreted into the atmosphere in the local locally inside the coal mine. So the canary dying would indicate that the air was unsafe to breathe and so the coal miners could leave quickly but in the same way sickness and illness they're all indicators of something being out of balance right? Every single symptom, depression, pain, bloating, insomnia, they're all messages your body's trying to give you and it's served the role evolutionarily of preventing yourself from doing further damage that could be something you cannot fix later. So the first thing we always have to view illness and symptoms is always their messages. They're messages about what's not working right now but they obviously are only messages if you listen to them. If you don't then they're just annoyances. So the second thing that's really important here is that in the same way because symptoms are messages about what's wrong they're also the Hansel and Gretel breadcrumb paper trail candy trail to get back to wellness. So there's a popular concept called solutogenesis which is basically that your symptoms are a way of finding your way back to health right? Anxiety indicates a certain specific imbalance bloating indicates a certain specific imbalance depression indicates a certain specific imbalance physical pain and so on and so forth. So illness has to be viewed as the opportunity to recognize the signs and the symptoms that are trying to say hey pay attention this is what's going on right now and these are the ways you can get back to what's going what would be a state of balance or a state of feeling well again. So the first thing is that symptoms and illness always has to be viewed as it's a canary in the coal mine it's a signal hey pay attention pay attention pay attention and then the second thing is it shows the exact breadcrumb paper trail to get back to feeling like yourself again and finally sickness and illness are a gift because they're showing you exactly what you need to get back to wellness again. So no matter how bad the illness or the sickness or the symptoms your affirmation internally always has to be this sickness this illness these symptoms are a gift and they're showing me what to do to get well again because if you view it any other way this is so annoying I hate this this is stupid I'm dying like why is this happening to me this oh it's just like my mom said would happen it's my genetics anything else disempowers you and it prevents you from recognizing the signal that something has gotten wrong right self medicating by drinking a bunch of alcohol when you've had chronic insomnia means okay maybe this can help you for a night or for a few nights but then you're missing the message the message of what else is going on in life that's preventing that from happening the same with anxiety or depression or SIBO whatever the symptom the affirmation always has to be in the intention this is a gift this is a message illness is a gift it's a gift and a message what is it trying to say what is it trying to say what is it trying to say because then you're putting yourself in the mind state of I this is something that's happening for me it's delivering the message I have to open the letter and read it and figure out what it wants me to do and because then you'll do it and you can return to a state of healing rather than being caught in this mire of just why is this happening I hate this I feel like crap every day what do I do this sucks like this my genetics it's the weather it's whatever those things are not going to help you heal because those are not empowering beliefs those are things that you put your locus of control externally outside of you so I hope this helps a little bit if you yourself are recovering from something I found that in my own quote recovery viewing illnesses as a gift and as a message like my mentor told me was one of the most important things I've ever come to realize because then you're going to take the steps naturally to heal and you're going to recognize it as an opportunity in his words and not as a curse or the bane of your existence so I hope that helps you guys of course you can check out the first link in the description which is for a free download on five daily rituals that can potentially help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine you can also check out my last related videos in the topic right there and right there