Allergies are an incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable phenomenon. It is easy to fell helpless. But you have a choice. You can react to the pollen or dust (or whatever your allergen is) with fear and resistance… or you can choose to cultivate love and acceptance. The physical discomfort and suffering you are experiencing in your allergic response is an invitation to cultivate an ongoing posture of submission and acceptance. If you weren’t having your allergic episode, you wouldn’t have the incentive to practice this. Think of your discomfort as being like an secret cup that you have within you. The allergy empties that cup and creates a longing for wellness. Yet unlike a really harmful invader like a flu virus, the pollen or dust that has “invaded” you is harmless so it is an easier act of self-mastery to dial down this response. Maybe even one day switch it off. 

From time immemorial, allergens like dust and pollen have been a symbol of both creation and destruction (“ashes to ashes, dust to dust”). These twin symbols cause our bodies to become confused in their presence, to mistake a harmless ingredient in the life making process (like pollen and dust) as something that could harm us; as something that requires a full blown immune system response. But the pollen or dander or dust isn’t a virus or some other potentially lethal invader. Today we are going to practice using the power of our words and our mind to turn down the dial, at least a little, on the magnitude of our allergic response.