The consequences in my own life for breaking nature’s laws have been hard to live with, and often hard to undo. Even though abiding by these laws (such as getting enough rest, sleep, leisure, sun, fresh air, pure water, natural diet, exercise, laughter, love, creativity, meaningful work, time in nature, etc.) can make me feel impatient or limited sometimes – like when I think that extra rest will keep me from a project or an outing – the healthy results from living well are incredibly liberating!
I’ll admit I’ve been a slow learner in this department. So many, many times I have pushed ahead – through tiredness, aches, and pains – under the delusion that I could accomplish more this way. The truth is, I accomplish more when I take great care of myself, when I live in accordance with nature’s sensible, common-sensical laws.
When I consistently get enough rest and sleep, enough sunshine and fresh air, enough exercise and stretching, the right foods (eaten only when hungry), laughter and playtime, love and friendship, and creative self-expression . . . I thrive. When I am thriving (not just surviving), creative ideas and projects flow almost effortlessly, things get done (and get done well!), money flows, and I feel happy, capable and high on life.
Ideally, one lives every day in accordance with nature’s laws, and there is never a need to suffer any symptoms of ill health. But when you find that you have broken one (or several) of nature’s laws, and you find yourself experiencing uncomfortable symptoms (warning signs!), do you know the quickest way to heal? It may seem ironic, but the “quick fixes” on the market are not the quickest way to heal. The quickest way is actually to slow down. Nature’s laws cannot be ignored, only broken.
These natural laws rule, whether we like it or not, and taking aspirin to suppress the symptom of a headache cannot heal you. The headache may temporarily subside, but all drugs come with side effects, and there will be consequences as the body will now be forced to find a way to cope with and finally eliminate the toxic aspirin. By suppressing symptoms you may enable yourself to bypass your body’s warnings and keep pushing onward with your activities. However, this will only lead eventually to further depletion.
The quickest way to heal anything is to let your body do the healing. Your body is wise beyond your comprehension, and it will always act intelligently and in your best interest. We put so many toxins into our bodies, and create so many more with all our chronic stress. Our bodies are often forced to create what we know as “symptoms” in order to eliminate toxins in an effort to maintain a state of health.
So how can you let your body do the healing? You can simply get out of the way. When you notice an uncomfortable symptom, see if you can ascertain the cause. Review the laws of nature (getting enough rest, sleep, leisure, sun, fresh air, pure water, natural diet, exercise, laughter, love, creativity, meaningful work, time in nature, etc.) and you can become aware of where you may be out of balance.
Seek to remove the cause – if you are tired, you can rest. If you are not truly hungry, you can skip a meal and just drink water. You can get some sun and fresh air, take a break, and find some peace in nature. You can stop putting things into the body, and lighten its burden. You can do the relationship work that needs doing. There is no quicker way to bring back a state of health than to facilitate the body’s own intelligent healing efforts by removing the causes of dis-ease, and supplying the conditions of health.
You can trust your body to reestablish a state of health, once you remove the cause of the symptoms (enervation and over-toxicity). Your body knows very well how to heal, and giving it any kind of potion (even the “natural” ones!) will usually confuse its efforts and thwart healing. The hardest part for many people is that this natural healing process does not always seem “quick”, in our usual terms. But when we avoid all treatments and medicines and simply allow the body to do what it wants to do (by removing the cause of dis-ease and supplying the conditions of health), we are truly on the fastest track to real healing, not just the wild-goose-chase of symptom suppression. You can have your health, and your work and projects too,
but it’s important to keep them in that order!
Ellen Livingston
