Heartburn

February 11, 2010

Turning Problems into Opportunities

Here is a very simple example of how I personally turned a problem into an opportunity very recently.

I was suffering with some very severe heartburn, something I have never really experienced before, but since the beginning of 2010, it has occurred a few times. I don’t like it. Let me be straight about that. It’s nasty and it makes me want to just lie down and switch off until the pain is gone…

Except I can’t because the pain won’t let me sleep. There is no posture, position, location or exercise that I know of, which soothes the pain. It’s like a prison of pain and dysfunction, where life just has to be put on hold.

Wait a minute. This is ridiculous isn’t it. You see how that sounds like a real problem? Well out of desperation the other night I sat down in my studio and felt that making some music might help me, even though I couldn’t really focus on anything except this pain, but what came to me soon after transformed the situation.

I had an idea for a song and it seemed appropriate to entitle it ‘Heartburn‘. Within about 10 minutes I had the song written and whilst it isn’t about having acid indigestion, it was my condition that inspired a title, which in turn inspired a song about something else.

Once I had recorded a rough demo of the song I felt better. I felt physically better and much more connected to my life again. In this case I am very happy to say that I was able to turn a problem into an opportunity.

I posted the song soon on my Weekly Songcast if you are interested in listening to it. I sang it amidst the pain!