Time Will Heal All
by Dr Jenna
One of the qualities of spring can be impatience. I remember living in snow bound Minnesota just waiting for the snow and ice to melt off the lakes, I would get so impatient that I would launch my kayak into any open water there was and try and break up some more ice. This was a cold process but seemed easier than watching the snow melt from my coach.
We often get impatient with our body and we expect it to run perfectly even when we are not treating it perfectly. I feel the body is a pretty amazing machine and runs amazingly well despite what we do to them. We often cause harm to our bodies through a variety of causes: poor diet, smoking, drinking, drugs, stress, toxins, chemicals and medications to just name a few. These stressors take their toll on the body over time and cause slow decay. When our body finally starts to show signs of this abuse we get angry with it. I often hear “why is my body failing me?” It seems instead we should ask how we have failed our body. We want a quick fix for something that took us years to create.
Our body is programed to survive: it will try and survive at all cost. If we are starving, it will change the way the body metabolises to save us. When we are exposed to toxins it will try and modify the stress by storing the toxin in our fat so that it does not harm the rest of the body. The liver is constantly trying to remove toxins from the body and the kidneys work to filter the rest; to maintain the fluid/salt balance in the body. Our skin works as a detoxifier and is one of the largest surface areas in which to detox and our body does all this without our conscious awareness.
When our body tries to rid itself of viruses and bacteria it forms mucous to grab the bug and get it out, it then makes our nose run to excrete it or a cough to expel something that has gotten into the lung tissue. The body mounts a fever to help kill the bugs, as they do not like to be hot. It does all this to protect us but we get angry at it for making us sick and it is really trying to keep us well but they symptoms of this annoy us. We should be amazed at how our body protects us, not angry that we have a cough or stuffy nose. We need to be patient with the process and allow it to run its course but with modern day society, we all feel the need to get back to work so we cannot put up with the symptoms.
Other illnesses that occur may take time to correct and we cannot expect the body to fix something over night that has taken years to create. Patience is important in the healing process, often people prolong their illness by getting back to work too soon and I have certainly done this just to end up sicker. If I had listened to my body, let it rest to overcome whatever bug I had been exposed to, I would have healed quicker. This is even more relevant to illnesses that are caused from chronic stress. Getting more stressed about the situation does not help the body overcome stress.
All of us as patients must develop patience to allow the body to find its homeostatic point – balance is important, as all things must come back to balance.
Image courtesy of kancp26 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
