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A participant from our study group reports the following.

Four months ago, one day after taking a shower, I noticed a small, firm blister filled with a little fluid on my right shoulder, about 5 mm in diameter. Over the next few days, it hardened, became rough and scaly, and began to grow larger. In other words, a wart had formed. I wondered what separation conflict I had brought into a state of suspended healing, and the following situation came to mind.

About a week before I first noticed the wart, I helped out a friend who organizes self-defense classes by serving as an assistant instructor at one of his sessions—something I normally never do, but he needed my help. During that class, I took a hard blow to my right shoulder. Although it was clear within the context of the class that this would happen, the force of the blow completely took me by surprise at that moment, and I would have loved to pack up my things and go home. So I wanted to distance myself from that person, and the epidermis at the site of the blow reacted with cell breakdown, which, as is usually the case, went unnoticed.

About a week later, I seemed to get over it, and the healing process began (small blisters filled with fluid). The reason it ended up healing unevenly and a wart formed was because my friend said it would be great if I could help him out every now and then in the future. So I was in a bind. On the one hand, the thought made me feel rather uncomfortable; on the other hand, I didn’t want to refuse him this favor. So it took another two months during which I gradually realized that I could always say “no” to any requests he might make in order to get out of this lingering situation. A good three months after the incident, the wart finally fell off on its own one evening.