Being ill can bring you down and make you wonder if you will ever feel good again. It is in those moments when gratitude sets in for the times you did feel good.

I am certainly not an advocate for feeling sick, but there are good things that come of it. It makes you realize you don’t always have to be – nor can you always be — strong. Moments of weakness remind us that we are human. We make mistakes. Our bodies protest. Our minds grow weak. The soul remains constant, but the rest seems to tumble like a house of cards when illness sets in.

Our bodies are our temples, yet we often neglect them through lack of rest, poor nutrition or less than ideal amounts of movement. Even if we do pay attention to those things, we might still catch a cold that lays us low for a while.

Rarely will you hear someone tell you it is okay to be weak. It is as if we think we always have to be strong – or that a state of weakness is abnormal.

It isn’t.

It’s a part of life.

Even in moments of physical, emotional or moral weakness, know that you will bounce back with the help of your inner strength (and the strength of the people who love you) – it is a strength that cannot be measured in pounds or kilograms. It can only be measured by how well you live your life.

If you are feeling less than Herculean today, it is really okay. You are not alone. Being in a state of vulnerability reminds us of our beautiful fragility and the tightrope we walk between strength and weakness – every day.