Being Alive as a Chronic Condition

     Life in general has interesting similarities to chronic medical conditions, like chronic pain (non-cancer-related). A fundamental error patients (& many clinicians) make in dealing with chronic pain is to assume that rules for acute pain apply: 
     1) urgent call to cure;
     2) find & remove the (single) cause; 
     3) after which, everything will quickly be back to the way it was before. 

     That NONE of these apply to chronic pain (nor to life) takes an agonizingly long time to realize. So frenzied, useless activity masks the avoidance of the central issue.
     Accepting things as they are to permit a deeper, more profound understanding of the complexity of the problem is terribly unpopular. Like addicts - who are highly motivated to cure existential pain via their substance of choice - we all have a fervent drive to exhaust all avenues of escape, before we allow ourselves to open up to & embrace reality "with eyes wide open". Only NOW can healing begin.

     Life is similar, and of course more complicated. Yet, it's the rare individual among us who doesn't harbour "magical thinking": "Oh if only X, THEN I'd be fine." X can be any one or more of: toys, sex, wealth, looks, fame, health, luck, intelligence, etc.
     Life cannot be fixed / controlled by any of these "magic bullets." Life's too complex & ever-changing. We get used to & grow tired of any & every type of shiny thing. What we truly hunger for is profound evolution of our consciousness, a quantum shift in our state of being - which only happens as a result of consistent, prolonged, intelligent training eg mindfulness.

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/01/hope-expectancy-therapeutic-alliance.html

Crystal Crescent beach, Nova Scotia, September 2, 2013