With Age Comes Wisdom

Not that I'm all that old, or all that wise, but I have learned a few things from kicking around this planet for a while. Perhaps one of the best lessons I have learned is that I will not be stuck in one mood, one mindset, one way of feeling forever. I remember when I was in college and thought every time I felt crappy, because of a breakup, a disagreement with a friend, even a bad cold, it would last the rest of my life. I'd NEVER feel better, but would just have to endure the pain. Well, I was a theater student, but still. I think it's a common feeling, and most common to the very young. Now I know better. I know that each setback, emotional or physical, will sometime end, and I'll feel pretty good again.
I've been thinking along these lines lately because I have been beset by my old nemesis, fibromyalgia, and the fibro-fog has descended. After 17 years of its circumlocutions in my body, I know that it was this time brought on by the vast ranges of temperature we are now experiencing in New England. It goes from 70 during the day, to 30 at night. My body just says no to that 40 degree shift. All it seems to want to do is sleep, and wait until the weather settles itself to real cold, when I am not happy, but am functional at least. Now, when forced to function, I feel either as if every muscle has melted off my bones, or else clings to them so fiercely that I can barely move for the stiffness and soreness. Even my brain turns traitor, and slows to a crawl. I swear I lose about thirty IQ points while the fibro fog lasts.
This brings me to my point. I am quite lucky, really. This state of affairs will last a few weeks, maybe a month, and I'll adjust and be back to normal. So now it's easy to just go with the flow, knowing this will end. It's the same with most of the mental pain I put myself through, the sadness, the holding on to betrayals or hurts, all the myriad things I (fairly infrequently) find to torture myself with. I know now that they will end, just as I know the fibro fog will lift. It's still not easy going through these things, but I get that light at the end of the tunnel feeling and it helps. I know whatever it is will not go on forever. I will feel better, and sometimes I WILL MYSELF to feel better. That's part of the whole Happiness gig. I know I'll feel better, why not actively try to make it so? Sometimes, that action is limited to staying in bed and reading and sleeping, as in the case of the fibro fog. Sometimes it is forcing myself to engage with the world, as in the case of most sadnesses. I know I will feel better sometime, and trying to feel better makes it happen that much faster. So, if you right now feel great, great! Go out there and revel in it. But if you feel sad or lonely or ill, do something that will force you to feel better. Be gentle with yourself, but get out into the world, go to the park and watch kids play, or sit and sip good tea in a cafe, strike up a conversation with a neighbor. Or if you have a bodily malady, give it up and stay in bed, well-equipped with your favorite feel good books or magazines. Write if you feel like it, draw if you feel like it, but give yourself a break. Let yourself be wise. Let it all flow over you, and know that the only true constant is change.