I need guidelines

From sunlitdays @ LJ

I find self-help books to be sort of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you're reading someone else's opinion of how to live your life, how to fix your problems, how to be happy, etc. So the implication there is that you're doing it wrong to begin with, and the way you're going to solve that problem is by finding an expert to guide you a different way, because they have it figured out.

Then of course you realize there are 9 million books on this topic and they all contradict each other. Who's the expert now?

I've learned, though, that you can find useful truths in self-help books, at least for your own life. You don't have to believe every word in order to take something away from the book.

And with that, I've been searching for a way to be sick. Not a way to get better (not happening), or be happier (too much pressure), but a better way to think about chronic illness and how it has taken over my life. (See, "taken over" ... I'm sure there's a self-help book on negative thinking, and I've already failed that author.)

So without further ado, I bring to you the book that I recently added to my Amazon wishlist as a "high priority": How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers.

What I think I really need is someone to tell me how to be at peace with what's happening. One thing I'll give myself credit for is adapting to the new "normal" relatively quickly—I have a penchant for realism in the face of drama—but my chronic illness is a progressive one. More and more problems arise, and the outlook is not positive at all of that ever changing. So how to cope when your new "normal" is soon replaced by another new "normal" and another and another and another? I don't want to trick my brain into thinking this is okay ... I really want to find a tactic that will work no matter how many things go wrong. Each time something new goes wrong, I find myself grabbing air in the dark to find my way again. I need some new tools, and judging from the reviews of this book, I may have a better shot with this.