Which would you choose?

I recently experienced a client of mine who had a stroke last week. Now before you get your one-sided criticisms, judgements, and opinions of this story, put them aside and listen to the rest of it. My client has been on a healing journey for the past few years to renew a lifetime of pain and suffering from abuse and toxicities physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Earlier this year she made the decision to get off all of her prescription medications because she intuitively felt they were creating more harm than good in that she did not feel alive, or at least did not know what feeling alive was like because all her life she listened to others and the world outside of her to tell her what feeling alive was like, rather than listening to her inner voice. In other words, her soul has been screaming to break out of her numb, mummified, crystalized shell of existence. With each crises we experience in our lives, it is part of Nature's way for cleansing and upheaval and an opportunity for us to step up to finally become Human Beings - the realization that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Existence without acknowledging spirit is called materialism.With materialistic thinking, one may look at her situation as being a case of her not taking her cardiac medications resulting in her stroke and giving bragging rights and the "I told you so" degradations of her doctors and loved ones.

Let's zoom in a little bit more. Like any process there involves a peeling away of the many layers accummulated from a lifetime of bad habits, dogma, and conditioning from our parents, families, society, religion, government, the media, etc. Very few people understand what it is to be truly FREE human beings - "Free beings are those who can will what they themselves hold to be right" (Rudolf Steiner); and this occurs at every given moment. Making choices based upon fear is not freedom. "Take this pill or you'll die" is an enslavement (and insult) of our consciousness. It is when one decides to break free from the binds of conventionality that begins the path towards healing. How can one know freedom if they do not have the courage to move towards it?

Another perspective of this client's situation is that the stroke is symbolic of a wake-up call to completely surrender to the world of spirit; to intensify one's relationship with their soul-spiritual natures. What better time than a physical crises to start a path towards spirituality? What do most people who are facing death and the Grim Reaper unexpectedly say? "Oh my God!" The stroke can be viewed as a spark to reignite what feeling alive is all about. It is true that this client could have died from this brain insult; but she didn't, which further reinforces the urgency and "second chance" she's getting to live a life of freedom. This is what healing is all about. Sometimes you need to hit a few bumpy roads in order to appreciate and understand the smooth ones.

So I leave you with this question:
Would you rather live a life where you are numb, blind, and desensitized to life or to live a life where you experience something like a stroke so that you can feel alive? In other words, many people who appear healthy are actually truly sick because they are desensitized to who they are with respect to their soul-spiritual natures. This is what my client was experiencing from the side effects of her meds. She felt like one of those zombies from the movie "The Dawn of the Living Dead". This is an example of how society tends to keep the dead alive and kill the living. On the other hand, sometimes it takes a crises for one to wake up and smell the roses. And when you smell the roses, you can lift yourself to higher ground to get a better view of your life.

Please keep in mind that there is no wrong answer to the above question. It all depends where you are in life and from where your vantage point is.

What's my answer to the above? I'd rather live a life where my perceptions are filled with pristine clarity so that my mind can make clearer choices rather than be foggy and deluded which can give faulty sense impressions (and thus misconceptions) of life. To be free takes a lot of balls and a lot of responsibility. What most people lack is taking responsibility for themselves because they willingly tend to give it to anything external to them (ie. people, things, situations, etc). Your doctor may be able to save your life but they can never tell you how to live one.