Ignorance is not just a disease; it’s a silent killer.

Hello, everyone. Trust we’re doing great today. I just want to specially appreciate @fortwis09 for organising this amazing contest in this community. I would so love to share what I’ve got with us.

In today’s piece, I bring it from the bottom of my experiences because I think it’s more literal and real. I grew up to hear that “ignorance is a disease.” Back then, I’d be more ignorant and naïve to understand this was just a saying. I actually thought it was a diagnosis that could be cured with a doctor’s prescription.

Now, what’s scarier and worse than ignorance?
Well, I never knew this until I was enlightened recently. My parents would always warn against getting upset quickly. And even if it did happen, it was even worse to hold a grudge.

But in my secondary school and even up to my university days which are wrapping up in no time, holding a grudge was a way to tell someone how hurt you were.

Sincerely, getting on people’s nerves has never been an option for me. But when people choose to step on the toes of others without even recognising it, it hurts.

One thing I was good at was making sure you got the message that I was hurt whenever I was offended. If you failed to understand, then we were in for a long ride. We could talk, but you could also tell from the tone of my voice, or from my abrupt responses that things needed to be fixed between us.

That is to say I took things a bit too personally without recognising I was hurting myself. The funny thing now is that, you don’t start a beef with someone. Innocently, most times, we find ourselves being hurt whether intentionally or unintentionally.

But the moment you try to retaliate with just a show of your emotion, you become so bad of a person that you may even doubt you could do or say what you said after your recovery from that phase.

I saw the above book in my roommate’s cart while I was working one day. She has a few books that are so good, and I plan on reading almost all of them if I don’t succeed at reading all.

Some of the key points that stood out for me from this book by are:

• Stress is not just in the mind or brain. It’s an emotion just like any other feeling that spreads through the whole body.

• There’s a short-term stress and a long-term stress. While the former is not harmful, the latter is very dangerous.
  I could reflect, re-assess, and re-examine myself to see how I treated not just people, but myself.

While I was innocently wanting people to understand that we needed to deal with an issue, that grudge kept sapping away my strength, joy, energy, and even my life span. By the grace of God, and a little bit of knowledge, let’s say I’ve regained my years in its fullness.

• The body does not understand what makes you angry, but it’s very skilled at telling when you’re happy or sad. The longer the feeling, the more it works or adjusts to it, be it for better or for worse.
  I didn’t know not being able to control one’s emotions could lead to breakout (acne), hypertension, high blood pressure, or even a loss of appetite.

As I read through the pages, I couldn’t help but be in awe. How ignorantly ignorant I was back then.
We cannot always prevent some things from happening. I still get angry, but in a different way. Instead of holding on to something, one can express our displeasure and still be cool at how we handle it.