The secret influence on life choices NL 3/15/22
The secret influence on life choices NL 3/15/22
Two stories, labels, and reflection on vital decisions
Finding the inner narrative and getting unstuck
The following story reflects the poignant nature of the narrative identity and inner governing story that guides our thoughts, beliefs, moods, emotions, and behaviors. Our developing personal narrative is the positive guiding essence of how we move forward. It inspires us to thrive, create, shrink, limit, confine ourselves, retreat from people, tighten into a defensive bundle, or even lose our purpose or life direction.
Simon’s Story
I’m Simon, and I have bipolar disorder. I like to joke that I was a late bloomer, very tongue in cheek because that was far from the truth. I was in my mid-forties when I physically collapsed. Life and everyone in it just became too much, and my mind and body had come to a place where something had to give, or in my case, both gave way at the same time.
I spent a long time in bed thinking that the heart palpitations, caused by my excessive drinking, were killing me. Eventually, I took a stupid Am I Bipolar? test in a magazine, and found that I ticked all of the boxes. That led me back to my GP, who set me up with an appointment with Arno, my first psychiatrist. Within an hour, and with prescription in hand, I entered life after diagnosis and the circus show that comes when dealing with extended family and friends. Luckily, I had Jax to help me.
That was a tough period of my life. Every mirror I passed seemed to be judging me for what I had let myself become, and every ear that I bent didn’t seem to understand what I was going through…
High Anxious Blood Pressures and a Dilemma
Ron’s story of elevated blood pressure readings and an arduous decision process
Anxiety, fear, and stress can increase your risk of many different illnesses and degenerative diseases. There is a decision-making process that relies on advice, getting reliable well-sourced information, and the input from our developed inner wisdom or inner guiding voice. The inner guide, of course, needs our attention and awareness. It is influenced by experience and develops in each of us throughout life. Ron’s personal story about reliance on his inner guidance and knowledge to make a difficult choice follows.
Shocked by a high blood pressure reading
I took the BP readings with a manual sphygmomanometer and stethoscope at home when not feeling well. My blood pressure was elevated. I was so worried that I made an appointment to see a physician with internal medicine and cardiology training. At the large clinic I visited, my blood pressure was taken on each arm in rapid succession. I was nervous and talking a “mile a minute” while my BP was taken. My systolic pressure was way above normal, and my diastolic was quite normal. I am normal weight, athletic, with no risk factors for heart or vascular disease.…