Eye floaters will be noticed forever

Have you ever noticed something that you can’t stop paying attention to no matter how hard you try? Your breath, blinking, or heart rate. So, picture this: I recently woke up one morning, ready to conquer the day, and BAM! I notice these weird black floaters in my left eye. Like, what the heck, right? 

If you don’t know what floaters look like, it looks like this. Exciting right?

I’ve had these before, but they typically come and go very quickly. So I don’t think about it much, In fact, I’m pretty good at ignoring them. Days go by and I notice them. Hmmm, that’s strange. They are still here.

We’ll get it more time. A month goes by….okay, strange…Maybe I’ll google. Okay cool. It’s me getting older, or cancer. Thanks Google. I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. No real worry about it.

I call the optometrist and explain what I’m going through. The person on the phone says, “Oh my, I need to schedule you an emergency appointment right away.”

Hold up! While the world continues to put value on this thing. I know better. As I tell all of you. Let’s solve a problem when there is a problem. My brain can’t help but think of the worst, however. What if this never goes away? What if it is cancer? What if they can’t find anything I feel crazy about seeing something no one else can see. And the list goes on. I already know my answer. Sure. Could be. Maybe. We’ll see.

I arrive at my appointment. The place is all quiet and has those fancy machines and that distinct smell. You know what I'm talking about. I take a seat, looking around at the other patients, wondering what their eye stories are.

Finally, it's my turn. The eye doc, this super nice lady, takes me into her examination room. I spill the beans about my floaters, and she gets to work. She checks my eyes, and takes pictures, (which essentially blinds you for a few seconds).

Then takes a look at the images and drops the bomb. Saying, the floaters are caused by protein clumps in the jelly-like stuff inside my eyeball.

Apparently, it happens to a lot of people as they get older. Bummer, right? I was hoping for an easy fix.

I ask her if there's anything she can do, and she looks at me with a mix of sympathy and frustration. She explains that surgery is risky and not recommended unless my vision is seriously messed up. Basically, she tells me to suck it up and deal with it.

I walk out of that office feeling kinda bummed. Like, seriously, I gotta deal with these annoying floaters for the rest of my life? It's a tough pill to swallow, my friends. But hey, life's full of curveballs, right?

But here's the thing: I'm not gonna let these floaters bring me down. I'm gonna embrace them, and accept them as a part of who I am. They're not gonna define me, man. I'm gonna focus on the awesome things in life, the things that still bring me joy.

So you might be thinking, wow, Nate I just went through this journey with you. What’s the point? Well, here is it.

We often have things in our life that we hyper-focus on. It could be a thought of some type of possible threat. It could be noticing a body sensation. We hear horror stories from others and Dr. google is no help.

What I want you to learn is acceptance. I could spend the rest of my life trying to figure out a solution or wonder if this is ever going to go away. But guess what that is doing? Making me miss out in the present moment.

Some of you may struggle with anxiety and something called sensorimotor OCD and the way we respond to the noticing is with uncertainty and acceptance.

Yep, I’m noticing the floaters. Yep, there you are heart rate. Cool, that breath is still there. Could stay for life. Could stay a few days. Right now however I’m playing mario kart with my family. Right now, I’m cooking dinner. Right now, I am living life.

Right now is a powerful phrase. I would say, stop seeking solutions and start living life.

It’s okay to feel frustrated and annoyed. We learn to take value away from what life brings us by choosing to purposefully not find an answer and accept all possibilities.

Anytime a threat comes up, have your answer ready. I’m loving these floaters. Isn’t my body awesome? I am grateful for my ability to breathe right now.

Anxiety is okay. It’s not going to harm us. It’ll pass when it passes.

I want to know for you, what are you learning to accept right now in your life, let me know in the comments.

And go right here to learn more responses we can give OCD or anxiety.