I live in Minnesota; we have mosquitoes 🦟. No repellent is perfect nor perfectly applied, so there is a high probability of being bitten.
And being bitten does not only happen outside because the sneaky suckers, literally, slip inside despite best efforts to keep them out.
Hang with me; I promise there’s a life lesson here 😊
When a mosquito bites, some of its saliva gets into your bloodstream, and an autoimmune response happens. Your body perceives the saliva as an allergen, something that causes an allergic reaction. In response, your body sends out the chemical histamine to remove the allergen. It is the histamine that causes the bite area to swell and itch.
Adding insult to injury, as the saying goes, if you scratch the mosquito bite, it will become more inflamed, causing it to itch even more.
On top of that, the itch sensation doesn’t always occur at the bite site. So, you may be scratching and unable to relieve the itch because you are not scratching in the right place.
Tracing the area to find the bite bump gets you to the site to give a good scratch, which feels so darn good. Until you stop, then the sensation to itch becomes even stronger – because you scratched it in the first place, releasing even more histamine.
However, if you don’t scratch but instead apply something to reduce the swelling and histamine reaction or smooth on a drying agent, the itching may not stop immediately, but it will fairly quickly.
Oddly enough, I think there is a correlation between life and a mosquito bite.
Think of what has transpired within the past day or two. As you went through your day, what unexpected difficulty happened? How did you respond to it? Did your reaction match the problem? How was it resolved, was it resolved?
Just like being bit by mosquitoes will happen in Minnesota, things will happen in your day that will give you a good bite.
You will know you’ve been bitten because you will feel your thoughts and/or body respond. Hello histamine. Once you are bitten, it’s what you do that will set the course for what happens next.
If you immediately start scratching at what bit you, your thoughts and body will likely light up further, escalating the initial issue into a full-blown focus-grabbing problem.
If you have not been caring for yourself during the day, so you are tired, hungry, rushed, and/or irritable, you may find yourself scratching where you haven’t actually been bitten. In all likelihood, this will amplify the initial issue or create a problem that wasn’t from the original bite.
But, just like mosquito bites, if you don’t scratch but instead apply coping mechanisms, the difficulty or problem may not immediately disappear, but your reaction will likely be focused on the resolution and solution.
As we work to unearth, there will be times when the bite does not come from outside ourselves but from within. I actually think this is a good thing. And the reason why I believe this is because change is not comfortable. It’s not meant to be. It’s up to you to decide if you want to stay comfortable in what you know or to pursue unearthing who you are.
Self-nurturing will support you as you pursue unearthing who you are. You will be better able to recognize when change is happening – tune into the bite – and proactively prepare to manage the discomfort.
You’ve got this, my friend, even when the mosquitoes bite 💙
