Symptoms Are Not the Obstacle; They Are the Opening
I thought it was the end of me—
an unexpected, disorienting storm unraveling
everything I thought I could count on.
My body turned unfamiliar.
Unpredictable.
A place I could no longer rest.
And so I did the only thing I was taught to do.
I fought with all my might.
I fought with questions,
with strategies,
with endless doctors’ appointments,
with plans and promises that I would not let this destroy me.
I tightened around every sensation
like it was a threat,
like it was evidence that something had gone terribly wrong.
It was as if my symptoms were the enemies
here to ruin my life;
everything I had worked so hard to create.
The fighting, the solving, the seeking became my daily routine.
And then, somehow, a softer voice arrived.
Clear. Immediate. Undeniable.
I am fighting my teachers.
I am fighting the ones guiding me home.
And just like that—
the ground beneath me shifted.
The fighting, seeking, and solving stopped making sense.
The symptoms weren’t here to break me.
They were not the obstacle my mind had convinced me they were.
They were my teachers, the hands to walk me home.
The symptoms did not take my life from me.
They took the story of me
that I had innocently adopted as my True Self.
They exposed the generations of lies
that I had been taught to believe:
that I must earn my worth;
that I must perform to be accepted;
that I must hustle to be adequate;
that I must prove my value.
Symptoms did not close the door.
They opened my eyes and my heart to truth.
They were the place where the illusion finally collapsed.
The place where I found my way back to me.
~by missy maiorano, 2026