There are many, many ways to compromise the health and wellbeing of our bodies and minds. What’s worse, the connection to spirit/source is obscured, maligned and distorted along the way, keeping us off balance, and unable to hear nor heed the rhythms and voices of nature. As a result, we’re likely suffering from some variety of chronic disease.
Chronic conditions may be subtle, and we can certainly adapt to and cope with them, for years, even decades, often without great effort or concern. We learn to accept that the body is imperfect, prone to breaking down, with aches, pains, injuries, and strains being par for the course. This is, of course, a fallacy. The body is incredibly resilient and adaptable, but our busy lives, fraught with responsibilities and distraction, may not afford us the discipline and focus. “Toughing it out” is not an element of thriving, rather one of surviving. Stubbornly pushing ourselves, without adequate training and conditioning, ensures the greater likelihood of injury and further disease.
And who, but the pharmaceutical industry, to offer us all sorts of treatments, protocols, surgeries and procedures to help us along the way. Granted, the advances in trauma, emergency and acute care are essential, and impressive, but for the vast majority of health concerns, we’ve become far too dependent on an outside, superficially informed authority. We’ve deferred the responsibility of knowing and understanding how our bodies work, and forgotten how to listen to them.
Causative Factors
Buying food products, or most anything offered in the many aisles of the grocery store, is a common, widespread problem. Massive advertising budgets and clever promotional campaigns have us convinced that we need to buy something in a can, box, or bag in order to have a well-rounded diet. This is also, of course, a fallacy.
Real, whole, natural and nutrient-dense foods are primarily found around the perimeter of the store. Fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, eggs, and perhaps a few selections from the deli counter, are usually all we need. While the dietary needs of one individual from the next may vary greatly, many may be misguided and improperly researched. We’re too quick to trust the trends, rather than listen to our bodies. Vegan or carnivore, doesn’t matter. How do you feel? How do you sleep? Can you concentrate? Do you have a lot of energy? How’s your sex life? How’s your vision? Aches and pains? The body is an organic, realtime encyclopedia of free information for you.
Environmental elements affect us in myriad ways. Whether it’s the air, water, the noises, and sounds, energetic fields from technologies and devices, the materials we wear, sit and sleep on, the materials our homes and offices are constructed or detailed with, everything informs the complex system that is the human being. We may have endemic sensitivities due to our inborn biologics, or we may develop sensitivities through exposure, short- or long-term. How well we adapt to our environments is, of course, a factor of how well we maintain our diets and movement inputs and regimens.
Toxicity is inevitable in most modern environments, especially in city life. It shouldn’t surprise us if we get a “cold” or “flu” (very common healing responses) once or twice a year, as the body’s way of processing, clearing and expelling contaminants and toxins. There are, naturally, numerous other ways potentially adverse elements around or within us may present, and it is important to pay attention to what the body is signaling or saying with its many varied signals and voices.
Emotions and psychological conflicts can and do cause injury and disease in the body. Fear, guilt, shame, stress and all the rest of the “negative” emotions are fairly obvious in their effects, as we feel drained, unfocused, fatigued and on edge. Prolonged emotional conflict leads to chronic conditions, and again, we’re tempted by the medical establishment to find solace or solutions in prescriptions, protocols and extrinsic fixes to our “brokenness”.
Don’t rush toward suppressing or negating symptoms (these are your body’s healing responses). Listen. Feel. Pay attention and learn. Symptoms can be your medicine, signifying a healing phase, and do not necessarily mean alarms need to be going off in your mind. Trust your body. Ask for help if you need it. Learn as you grow.
Solvitur ambulando