On New Year’s Eve, I was getting ready to go out to dinner with one of my closest friends and as I got ready, I went into my closet to find a clutch bag, those smaller bags that us ladies carry to go perfectly with that gorgeous dinner outfit. I found the perfect one and I opened it to look through making sure it was empty before adding anything in it. As I looked, I found a packet of ‘Gaviscon’. For those not familiar with it, Gaviscon is a medication for heartburn, acidity and other stomach related ailments. It comes in pill form as well as liquid form in small sachets like the one I was holding.
I realized that I had not carried this particular bag for a while, pre-COVID actually, when I still used to go out and party like a rockstar lol! But as I held that sachet in my palm, I remembered why it was in there. Back when I used to drink alcohol, I may have mentioned this in some of my posts, I got to a time that I developed terrible tummy issues. One of the symptoms I would have would be a burning sensation in my stomach. Think acidity on steroids. I used to be in pain for hours at a time with very few things able to give me relief. It felt like my stomach was on fire and it was hot to the touch too! Gaviscon was one of the few things that did give me temporary relief during those times. It often felt like a fire extinguisher to the fire in my stomach. I came to learn that alcohol was one of the reasons why my stomach was acting up. And clever me, decided to carry these little sachets whenever I went out so that in case my stomach started hurting I would slurp it right up and hopefully have a bit more time to have keep drinking and having fun.
As I sat there reflecting I realized two things; One, I knew what the problem was at that time (alcohol) but was willfully ignoring it and Two, I was taking measures to deal with the consequences of my actions (drinking) instead of dealing with the root. Now hindsight is 20/20, or so they say, so, I can say this now after the fact. However, it did get me to wonder how many other things or habits do we KNOW are not good for us but still keep doing them then try to take steps to mitigate the consequences when we would be better served by dealing with the root cause? See, I could have chosen to stop or even reduce my drinking at the time in order to be kinder to my stomach. Instead, I chose to carry around medication that would help me deal with the pain that came after I had already done the damage. Mind boggling isn’t it?
How many times do we set the ‘fire’ then carry ‘gaviscon’ around to put it out? As we begin a new year, maybe part of our growth is not in making resolutions for all new things but in reviewing our habits to see which ones need to be replaced by better habits which will empower us to be better and stronger versions of ourselves.
Let’s take time and reflect on which of our habits are us trying to deal with the consequences as opposed to the real issues that slow us down from running our race on earth as fully as possible
The Musings of a Wandering Mind 