With the year-of-Covid continuing on around the world, I find myself constantly contemplating our human bodies.
These bodies have an incredible capacity to face the physical, emotional, and chemical stressors that we contact every minute and create the defenses necessary to get us back into homeostasis (our own bodies’ innate balance) as quickly as possible.
As a healer, who has studied this phenomenon for over 25 years, I’m continually awed by what we can do.
Our bodies and minds can take an incredible amount of stress before ‘tipping the scales’.
Ideally, we want to support our bodies in homeostasis by eating foods that build us up, rather than take us down. We want to drink the appropriate amounts of water and healing herbal teas, rather than sugary drinks that take our immune systems extra energy to process and eliminate.
We aim to decrease the stressors in our life and avoid those situations that keep us in the constant ‘fight-or-flight’ modes that contribute to the breakdown of our adrenals and nervous systems.
We want to sleep enough that our brains can detoxify from all the chemicals that are produced during the days, so that we can think clearly and make good choices for ourselves and so that our lymph and immune systems can do their jobs.
When we push our bodies to the limits by eating foods that tax our digestive capabilities and alter our blood sugar, we aren’t able to use that energy to heal and repair. Eating processed and sugary and fried foods can lead to insulin resistance, gallbladder issues, irritable bowels, and pain syndromes like Fibromyalgia.
When we don’t get enough sleep, our immune systems become over-taxed and aren’t as able to mount the necessary defenses to fight viruses, bacterias and other stressors that come our way. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to chronic colds and flus, chronic fatigue, and pain.
When we’re in toxic relationships with friends, family members, co-workers, and jobs, we’re using our life force to constantly figure out how to navigate those situations, instead of using that energy to heal our digestion, nervous systems, and skin conditions. Constant stress can lead to fatigue, anxiety, depression.
Can you think of any of the above-mentioned areas where you’re pushing your body more than necessary?
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Sending big hugs to you, wherever you are in the world,
Dr. Arjan