Life is filled with ups and downs. You can either stay up or fall down, but sometimes it’s best to just stay put and experience life as it comes. Emotional health is a person’s ability to express feelings appropriately. Hospital stays are a perfect example of this. While they may seem scary at first, they’re often just what the doctor ordered to get a person’s life back on track.
Here’s why you must experience the hospital at least once in your lifetime:
1. A hospital stay will help you see where things are going wrong.
Even the best of us hit a rough patch from time to time. But when such rough patches last for too long, stress and depression can take over, and soon enough you won’t be able to see the forest for the trees.
A hospital stay is a chance for you to step back and realize where things have gone wrong in your life. While you may not be able to change the past, seeing all that has gone wrong, and seeing how to fix it for the future can help you see where things are heading.
2. A hospital stay will help you see that you’re not alone.
Whether or not your friend or family member is a part of your reality, there’s going to be someone at the hospital who understands what you’re going through. You may have had a rough day before you went into the hospital and come out of it with a new outlook on life. Or maybe all your fears about being in the same room with your loved one have been dispelled after being around those in quite a similar situation as yourself.
3. A hospital stay gives you time away from it all.
While you’re at the hospital, you don’t have to see, or talk to, or think about anything. The whole world can go away except for the people at the hospital with you. It’ll be your time away from the world’s pressure and worries where you can reflect on what’s most important in your life.
You may spend some time talking to family members or friends that aren’t in the hospital with you and discover new things about yourself. While most of us have a rough time regaining our lives after a scary experience, this is often what is needed in order to get back on track with our lives.
4. A hospital stay gives you a chance to be “normal” for a while.
Being at the hospital can make it seem like you have to go through everything that everyone else has gone through, but soon enough everyone in your group will be discharged, and you’ll be back to being your old self. This can be life-changing in how it changes you as a person and how others perceive you before they release you.
Being one of the “regular” people who haven’t had a new experience yet will give others a feeling of security knowing they are normal too, and this can actually help cure some of their fears or uncertainties about what is going to happen next in their lives.
5. A hospital stay will make you realize what’s in store for you.
Knowing that something is going to happen in the near future can be comforting or terrifying, depending on how well you’re prepared for it. While a hospital stay may seem like it’ll be one long jaunt through uncharted territory, if you’ve been thinking about what is coming up, then this can actually prepare you to handle everything better.
6. A hospital stay often reminds us of how good we have it.
While you’re in the hospital, you will likely keep hearing about all the other people in the unit that are far worse off than you. While it may be hard to hear at first, this helps you remember that most of us have things pretty good and that we need to appreciate them, since most others won’t even get this chance.
If an experience like a hospital stay can help us realize how much others don’t have, then it can also remind us how important it is to make the most of what we do have and give thanks for what we did manage to dream up in our own fantasy world.
7. A hospital stay may help you gain a new appreciation for life.
Maybe nothing momentous happened to you during your hospital stay, and it did end up being just a normal time for you to reflect on life and make the most of what it offers, then this is all the better. Since not every hospital stay comes with an “aha” moment, this can be just as good in helping someone realize that everything we have can make us happy.
