I have recently been observing my girlfriend while she had influenza.

From the outset i had the understanding, probably from yoga philosophy, that i had a choice whether I caught the flu also.

I decided to choose not to care whether I got what she had, my preference however was not to get it. To believe that i had a choice in the matter is a strange place to be but its where i'm at none the less.

By all rights I should have gotten the flu along with Ali, I was always in close proximity to her and she was coughing and sneezing all over the place. In the past I have been one of the first to get colds and flu, and usually caught things as soon as someone with a cold looked at me the wrong way. However this time it has been very different, a week into the flu and i still haven't caught it.

How can this be? I don't know that I understand it. From a yoga point of view catching the flu is a weakness in ones ability to control the ego, and because you have an aversion to it you are more likely to catch it than someone who is egoless and does not have any feelings on the subject. I chose the egoless path on this occasion, and it has worked.

An interesting thing I noticed was that as the days went by and I did not catch the flu, Ali's condition appeared to get worse in response to my wellness and last longer than it should have.

Could it be that because I was not catching it, Ali's body actually made her flu worse so that I would be more likely to catch it? Was her ego doing its nut because it was alone in its suffering?

This has important ramifications for my future well-being, if I know I have a choice and that mind-over-matter can work here, then iI don't think I am going to be ill for a very long time.