Being sick: Allowing Yourself to Sick Out

In winter, many people suffer from the flu. I don't usually look up to that. It's something that comes with life. However, this year is different, as I have already heard from 2 young people who have died from the flu. The first was a 22-year-old bodybuilder and the second was an 18-year-old college student who contracted pneumonia from the flu. Terrible and that from just a flu! If you just have the flu, the temptation is often to continue working anyway, such as working from home. However, this is not going to help you, allow yourself to get well.

Read more about allowing yourself to become ill here.

Being sick: Why you still want to keep going

The crisis, from more than 10 years ago now, has hit many people pretty hard. The fear of losing your job is therefore a reason for many people to continue working anyway.

Or you are a business owner and if you are not working there is no money coming in either, because you only have reimbursement from your insurance after 2 months and then you have to be really seriously ill. The flu often doesn't count then.

In addition, you may also feel obligated to keep working when things are just really busy at work. You don't want to burden your colleagues with taking over your work because you know they are busy too. You feel (almost) guilty for letting your colleagues down so much when you get sick.

To get rid of that guilt, you promise to keep working from home, so that at least you won’t infect anyone else with your nasty cold or the flu. Actually, a fever is the only good reason to stop, and even then there are people—maybe you’re one of them—who feel they have to keep going.

In that case, you might also ask yourself if you’re suffering from a work addiction.

It all depends on your beliefs about the importance of work and the importance of your health.

The flu makes you social

In addition, there is evidence that if you have the flu, this virus manipulates you to still see as many people as possible. This is because the flu virus can then spread even better. So illogical persistence may be caused by the virus itself. Especially in the phase before you get the flu but have already contracted the virus (which takes about 48 hours), you can suddenly become very social.

What should you do when you are sick?

If you are sick you should at least call in sick, get real rest and eat healthy. You stay in bed or on the couch and try to sleep as much as possible or just watch series or read a book.

Being sick and taking a rest

In any case, this is not the time to do a lot of cleaning, exercise or work.

The reason you can get so tired from a mild flu is that your immune system needs all your energy to fight off the virus. This is also why you shouldn’t waste your energy. That’s why it’s best to engage in activities that don’t require a lot of mental effort, since finding solutions to problems also takes energy.

Hence watching series or reading a book when you can't sleep.

Being sick and eating healthy

Your immune system consumes a lot of energy when you are sick to deal with the virus. You don't want to burden your immune system with unnecessary inflammation then, and you can actually strengthen your immune system with nutrition.

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, for example, provides important vitamins and minerals. A single tangerine, for instance, contains enough vitamin C to meet the minimum recommended daily intake. What would happen if you ate two? You can’t actually get too much vitamin C.

Unhealthy foods—such as those high in sugar, salt, and fat—often cause inflammation, which the immune system then has to address. As a result, there is less energy left to fight the flu virus.

Do you find it difficult to eat healthy? Then hypnosis can help you with that.

Steps to make being sick easier

Do you find it difficult to keep calm even when your head feels like it's full of cotton wool? Do you feel guilty toward your colleagues when you call in sick? Do your fingers start itching to get to work even at home?

In that case, hypnosis can help you make being sick easier which also helps you get healthy again faster.

Overcoming beliefs about being sick

It's important to identify beliefs about why you don't allow yourself to just get well. Being sick is already no fun, then forcing yourself to keep working doesn't always make it better. The only question is why do you do it?

The Why Question

Asking the why question alone can be enough to uncover these beliefs. Coaches, psychologists and hypnotherapists can do this with a so-called Socratic Conversation. The why question is then repeated several times to get to your deepest beliefs.

After all, when you know why you are doing this, you can change it.

Regression

Another way to identify beliefs—if, for example, the Socratic Dialogue doesn’t work—is to use regression. Regression is a way to go back to an event in your life where beliefs originated. In many cases, for example, something happened in childhood—such as when you were still in elementary school—that (unconsciously) left a lasting impression on you and led to any illogical beliefs.

By looking at that moment once again, with the knowledge you now have about life, you can change the beliefs that make you more likely to allow yourself to just sick out. For example, you may find that your belief about continuing to work when you're sick actually makes no sense at all.

Listing fears

Continuing to work while sick can also mean you fear losing your job or fear poverty. To make sure you can face those fears and thus just be sick without getting totally stressed out, you can list your fears regarding work.

Then put those fears in an order from most scary to least scary.

Confronting Fears

With this approach, a hypnotherapist can help you confront those fears. This is done first, for example, through visualization and later in real life. For instance, are you afraid of poverty? Then cutting back on spending for a week or even a month can help you learn that money isn’t always necessary—only to pay your fixed bills.

You can also when you are better help other people who have taken the fall and see that it is not the end of the world.

Being sick: changing beliefs

Confronting the fear and seeing that poverty or unemployment, if that is the fear that keeps you working, is not necessarily the end of the world can already change your belief that it is best to be sick once a year or even twice a year.

Other ways to change beliefs is by repeating hypnotic suggestions, such as during self-hypnosis and through guided visualizations.

Hypnotic suggestions for changing beliefs about being sick

Initially, a hypnotherapist will let you hear the suggestions yourself. This may include a recording that you can play at home during self-hypnosis.

For self-hypnosis, it is important to first sit or lie down in a relaxed place. You focus on your breathing and relaxing your muscles. Once that is accomplished, you close your eyes and repeat the hypnotic suggestions or turn on the mp3.

These can include beliefs such as:

"If I take rest when I'm sick, I get better faster and therefore more productive."

"If I continue to work while I'm sick, I actually start making mistakes which creates more stress and sickness."

"I deserve to rest."

"My colleagues are understanding when I'm sick; after all, I'm taking over their jobs."

These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions. Depending on your beliefs, they may vary.

Guided visualization

Another technique you can use to allow yourself to relax when you are sick is guided visualization. Especially if you get itchy when you have to sit still, this can help tremendously by stimulating your imagination about how nice it is to relax precisely when you are sick.

Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis and other mental techniques can help you? Then come to the workshop or check out the training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Sources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201801/does-the-flu-trick-people-being-sociable