Inspiration
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Beliefs
February 2012
A friend of mine who has done a
lot to educate herself on issues around MCS but who is still a
little new to spending time around me (thus new to having to think
about MCS) asked me a question the other day. She asked in a
slightly timid and stammering way, a little afraid that she may
offend, “When we talk, you seem to operate under the belief that
you will not have MCS for the rest of your life… is that
true?”
I paused while thinking about it for
a second, and then I burst out with laughter. She seemed a little
shocked by this response while I smiled and replied, “Of course I
do. That belief is one of the only things that keeps me sane and
heading on the right path. The path to actually getting better.”
She gave me a look of relief that I was indeed not offended, but it
was relief mixed with puzzlement. She wasn’t quite sure what I had
meant by that. She had known from her research that MCS as of yet
has no cure, at least no completely reliable
one.
I paused, and continued to smile at
her while I said, “Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there is
as of yet no cure. Living with MCS may not be a choice, but living
a good life with it often is. And living a good life is just as
much a mental game as it is a physical one. Yes, I have to be
diligent to avoid as many MCS triggers each day as is possible but
believing that the future will be better then today is what has
allowed me to get as far as I have. If things can keep getting
better then maybe there will be a day that MCS will simply not be
an issue.”
As with just about everything to do
with MCS there are rarely any answers that fit everyone. Just as
different chemicals may or may not cause a reaction between
different people with MCS, a specific outlook on the disease may
not work for everyone either. But there are some generalities to be
drawn; those of use with MCS must do our best to avoid chemicals
that cause us reactions, we must develop strategies for dealing
with MCS reactions when they do arise, we must also develop mental
strategies for coping with having MCS. For some the correct belief
is to make MCS their friend who teaches them to navigate a toxic
world, for others it may be dispassionate acceptance of the reality
of MCS in their life, for myself it is a belief that I can and will
continually get better, even to the point of not having MCS at
all.
To truly Thrive we all need to adopt
attitudes that promote our own personal journey. We all hold points
of view, about the world, other people, MCS, etc… But what happens
when these attitudes aren’t promoting our health and growth. Our
logical mind says to just get rid of them and try something else,
but there is a real challenge with this. Take a moment and do a
quick mental review of your own beliefs. Is there one that you know
is not correct? Logically we may know that since we have held
beliefs in the past that have been incorrect that we must therefore
now have a belief or two that could use some revision. That is not
what I’m talking about, what I’m asking is for a specific belief
that you now hold that is you know is not true…. Do you have one?
Of course not. If you had a belief that you knew was not true you
would not have that as a belief in this present moment. We as
humans are incapable of believing something and knowing it is false
at the same time. This of course presents a major hurdle in trying
to come up with a new belief system that may perhaps work better
then the one we presently have.
But if our lives are not what we
want them to be, we will need a different set of ways to interact
with our world. If we don’t change what we do we will keep getting
the same results. And if you don’t like the results you are now
getting in your life, or think you could be doing better then a
great place to start is by trying to change your personal belief
system. Our personal beliefs color everything else we do. In a very
concrete way our beliefs are what we build our entire personal
reality from. We interact with everything based on what we believe
the world to be. So, right here, right now take a deep breath, and
ask if your life is what you would like it to be. If it is great,
but if there are things that could be better then ask if you are at
least willing to change your view of the world. If you are great,
but if you are like most of us, the honest answer is ‘not really’.
Then ask yourself if you are at lest willing to be willing to
change your view of reality? I suspect the majority of us can, with
that last one, crack open the doors of perception just enough to at
least be able to see through the break and glimpse a possible
larger world outside the restrictions of our present set of
views.
Ask yourself; if I could believe
anything, then what new beliefs would work better at creating the
life I want. Write them down, and perhaps try out one new belief
for one full day to see how it fits. During that day act as if you
truly believed the new point of view. If it proves useful or at
least feels right then do your best to keep it, if it doesn’t then
just cross it off your list and try the next
one.
We all like to be right. A question
I have asked myself many times is if I really want to be right or
do I really want to be happy and healthy. The question isn’t really
if we want to be right or happy. Because once we adopt new beliefs
that work better then the old ones, we will then hold a better set
of beliefs about the world. That means we get to be Happy, Healthy
and Right; a very satisfying place to be.