The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
33
Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom
Y EARS AGO, I dated a lovely young woman who was a few thousand
dollars in debt. She was completely stressed out about this. Every
month, more interest would be added to her debts.
To deal with her stress, she would go every Tuesday night to a
meditation and yoga class. This was her one free night, and she said it
seemed to be helping her. She would breathe in, imagining that she was
finding ways to deal with her debts. She would breathe out, telling herself
that her money problems would one day be behind her.
It went on like this, Tuesday after Tuesday.
Finally, one day I looked through her finances with her. I
figured out that if she spent four or five months working a parttime
job on Tuesday nights, she could actually pay off all the
money she owed.
I told her I had nothing against yoga or meditation. But I did
think it’s always best to try to treat the disease first. Her symptoms
were stress and anxiety. Her disease was the money she owed.
“Why don’t you get a job on Tuesday nights and skip yoga for a
while?” I suggested.
[147]