Pneumonia: emotional and spiritual meaning

What pneumonia and pleurisy are

Pneumonia is an infection of the lung, caused by bacteria or by a virus. Pleurisy is inflammation of the pleura, the membrane wrapped around the lungs. Fluid between the two layers of that membrane makes each breath hurt. Fever, a cough, and breathlessness are the usual company. This is not an illness to watch from the sofa if breathing is hard. Treatment follows the cause. Recovery can leave you tired for weeks.

The emotional meaning of pneumonia

The lungs are where the air of a life is taken in and changed for the whole body. Pneumonia is read as an inner conflict severe enough to weaken that exchange. Inflammation is taken as the sign of being deeply shocked or irritated, often towards a person or a situation at work. Hate is the strong word the spiritual interpretation uses. It is a question, not a verdict: who is living in that irritation, and have you been able to say so?

Breathing is also read as touched by the fear of being alone, or of being overwhelmed, and by a revolt against the life as it is. Relationships feel tangled. Responsibilities feel as if they are sitting on the chest, with no way out. Discouragement can go as far as asking whether the life is worth the effort. That question belongs with a person who can sit with you, and with a doctor if the body is failing. It is not a reason to delay treatment.

There is often a public face of strength, and a private sense of having no power. The life being lived can feel like someone else's plan, often a parent's. Work no longer matches what you hoped for. Contact with the people around you feels difficult, and anguish fills the gap.

Pleurisy and a grief

Pleurisy, with its fluid, is read as fears that were not spoken around a despairing loss. Someone dear has gone, or a couple, a job, a project is visibly ending, and you want to watch over the people still in it. The hard shell is for other people. Under it, spiritually, there is a child with no defence, in contact with a pain that followed a family drama and was never explained.

A gentler way to hold it

• List what you are carrying. Put a mark next to what is actually yours.
• Ask one person for one specific help, before the chest has to ask for you.
• Strength and softness can live in the same week. The shell does not have to be the whole of you.