It's sicky season
Jennifer Schmid
It seems like everyone is either sick or recovering from a cold or flu virus right now. Lots of kids are out of school, and people are using multiple sick days from work. You can hear the hacking and nose blowing from people’s offices and children’s classrooms a mile away.
No one is getting sick because they have a flu vaccine deficiency. (Read my concerns about the flu vaccine here.)
The reality is, 99% of us over indulged in sweets, cold weather and stress and under-nourished ourselves in whole foods, sleep and fresh air over the long weeks of holiday celebrations and travels. Combine that with some virulent little buggers out there, and you have a bonafide recipe for feeling like crap.
Mind you, my own immune system was not immune to this annoying cold going around. Despite a brave fight with my arsenal of herbs, whole foods and knowledge, the scales got tipped towards illness, and I succumbed to a few days of overall yuckiness (technical medical term, haha). I had to take two days off of work, and if my nose and lip could run in fear, they would sprint every single time they saw a tissue approaching because they were so raw.
Ultimately, I survived.
We have this weird attitude in our culture that it’s somehow shameful if we get sick with a cold or flu once in a while. I think I am sometimes guilty of perpetuating that belief in my zest for wanting people to feel amazing all the damn time, because life can be freaking incredible when our physical and emotional and mental and spiritual bodies are our allies rather than our enemies.
However, when you add the sick-is-bad belief to the fear-belief that ALL ILLNESS COULD LEAD TO DEATH AND MUST BE SUPPRESSED AT ANY COST, jeez, it adds another layer of stress in our lives that none of us needs.
Sometimes, you gotta give into whatever sickness comes your way and ride the wave through. Moaning and groaning for a week that the grim reaper is lying at the foot of your bed and people should say their farewells hasn’t actually killed someone, even if that person felt that all life was being squeezed out of them with each and every cough. (If you haven’t seen the man-cold satire video that made the rounds on social media, let me know and I’ll post it in the Facebook group. )
Truthfully, getting sick is a call from our body to BE GENTLE. It is a reminder to check in with ourselves and take inventory. Not getting enough sleep? Check, gotta get at least 7 hours per night. Still eating sweets and sugary treats every day, even though the holidays are over? Check, that is NOT working for me. Been craving homemade bone broth? Triple check! It was the healing elixir to my sore throat and achy muscles. Been cooped up in a stuffy house and office for what seems like weeks on end? Check, weather permitting, open the window for 5-10 minutes and wrap yourself in an extra blanket. Fall off the supplement wagon? Check, time to get back in the habit of my daily Echinacea Premium and Pure Body Extra-Strength.
Restarting Healthy Habits
On the other hand, getting sick is mightily inconvenient when you are working hard to incorporate healthy habits into your life like exercise, early morning meditation or cooking more often. It can seem doubly difficult to REstart those habits after recovering from a cold. Instead of letting the sickness sabotage your goals and progress, remind yourself that your goals will help to strengthen your body, soul and spirit. Just because you got sick with the cold or the flu doesn’t mean that you should give up on what’s important to you. As soon as you feel well enough, start taking the baby steps to get back into whatever called you to begin with.
As Les Brown says, “I’m too legit to quit.”
Healthy Under Pressure Summit
If you haven’t gotten to it yet, it’s not too late to sign up for Marina Bruni’s Healthy Under Pressure summit. Marina has pulled together an impressive array of health experts for 20-30 minute daily interviews to teach people how to stay healthy under the pressure of our hectic, daily lives. Click here to learn more.
All right my friends, stay healthy out there! As always, if you need support, please reach out via email or the Facebook group , and we’ll figure out what you need to get back on the path of your goals and dreams.