Good morning! It’s time for Inspiration Corner again, and then I have a full day planned out. So today I’m going to talk about perspective and attitude. Let’s face it — and I am not going to argue the fact — sometimes, life sucks. Sometimes it not only give us lemons, but squeezes them in our eyes. Everybody has a moment here and there in their life where they sit there going, “What the fuck just happened?”
I used to try to focus on eliminating these situations. Well, I have ceased thinking that the key is to stop these things from happening. Actually, the key is all in how we respond to them.
Now, I’m not talking about tragedy, like losing a loved one, or anything on that scale. Those defining moments in our lives take a lot more consideration than a simple blog post can deal with.
What I’m talking about are those days where it feels like everything’s going wrong, or we fall down the stairs and break our ankle, or where we realize that we accidentally overdrew our bank account. Or an important guest is coming for dinner, we’ve burnt the roast or lasagna or whatever we were going to serve them, the dog just pooped on the floor, and to top it all off our best friend calls us to start yelling at us about something that they think we did. You know — the days that have a lot of people reaching for a bottle of wine, a joint, or the chocolate.
So, Friday night I had a really bad histamine reaction. It was my own fault, because I ate something that I knew I shouldn’t be eating. But the reaction was a lot worse than I expected. Scary worse. As in, two doses of Benadryl barely had it under control and I was sitting there wondering whether I was going to be needing my EpiPen. 
Yesterday, my body was reeling from the aftereffects—I won’t go into the details, they aren’t pleasant. Anyway, I was sitting there, finally paying attention to the hammer of reason bludgeon me as I finally accepted that I. Cannot. Fuck. Around.
I can’t try “a little of that” or “a little of this” just because I hope I can get away with eating it, or because “It didn’t give too bad of a reaction last time.” Because, even though histamine intolerance isn’t quite the same as my food allergies, the end result can be the same: anaphylaxis. I didn’t quite reach that state Friday night, but I was getting there. And that is a scary place to be.
So I sat at my computer, thinking about the reaction and about the limitations I have on my food choices and I realized I had two options. Three, actually although I don’t consider one an actual option.
One — the one that’s absolutely not a consideration — I can ignore all the cautions, keep on eating food that’s on my prohibition list, and keep having escalating reactions until one night Sam needs to use the EpiPen on me.
Two — I can continue to mourn the things I can’t eat anymore, and to gripe about it every meal, and feel sorry for myself while eating very basic foods that won’t hurt my body.
Three — I can kick my ass in gear and start doing what I did when I first found out I had to go low carb. I can start experimenting with what I can eat, spend a little more time in the kitchen, and come up with some really delicious recipes. Now this tends to be my normal state of mind, but lately I’ve fallen into the pity party trap, and trust me it’s not a place you want to stick around.
While I’d rather not have the limitations I do, the fact is they are here, my doctor doesn’t think they’re going to get a whole lot better—at least not till my body has time to heal—and it’s time to accept where I’m at, and work within the confines to create a new normal that includes really tasty food that I like.
I tell you all this because that’s what I mean by changing perspective. Yes, crappy things happen. Yes, sometimes it feels like the roof is falling in. But…after acknowledging our feelings, then we can start in working our way through them. Wallowing in self-pity gets really old, really fast, and can drive your friends away. I also guarantee that it will drag you down. The more you focus on the negative, the more negativity in your life you will find.
So, if you have something in your life that isn’t going right, look for a way to change your perspective. Sometimes it takes creative accounting with your own mind to find a way to look for the positives. But it also opens us up to possibilities that may help the issue, or at least help us deal with our reactions.
For me? The positives in choosing my third option are several:
- It will help cut down on my reactions.
- I’ll still have good food to eat.
- It means I focus more on my blessings rather than focus on what’s lacking. Every time I buy something from the store that I can eat, I’m grateful for the money to be able to buy the food in the first place.
Sometimes, we have to stretch a little to find something positive to say about the situation, but once we make it a habit, life usually takes a turn for the better.
So have you been able to change your perspective on something in your life, turning it from a negative to a positive? If so, tell me! And celebrate the fact that you are able to turn a situation around and take control of it.
