Body Talk

Body Talk

After taking my mind off work completely on Sunday, I feel a lot fresher and energetic today. Driving around town in the stifflingly hot weather last week had taken its toll on me. I felt the first rumblings of sickness creaping into my body. So I decided that a full day of complete rest would be my remedy.

And it worked. I'm back on my feet again, ready to pounce on the world. It also got me thinking: most of us don't really spend our weekends resting. Yes, we don't go to work, but we continue occupying ourselves with a thousand and one other diversions--shopping, movies, TV or clubbing until the wee hours of the morning. These things help us take our minds off work but unfortunately they don't help to rest the body. We are continuously bombarded by a variety of sensory input which automatically triggers a series of chemical responses inside us. Hence the body remains hyperactive. If you believe what Daniel Reid says in the Tao of Detox, the body needs at least a few days of complete rest before the elimination system can start kicking in and thoroughly remove all toxins from the body.

When it comes to health, we all have our pet theories. I am inclined towards the natural healing school, though I'm not fanatical about it. I dislike taking any kind of medication, even health food in tablet form, because I have this superstition that anything that's processed will have some harmful side-effect. Of course, I am not consistent in following this principle either (I'm too fond of Indomie and Maggi Mee).

I utterly dislike soft drinks (they are too sweet) but I'm fond of alcoholic ones. I like cheap, simple and unelaborate food but sometimes I think I stretch my luck a little bit by eating at visibly dirty places by the roadside. I cannot claim that I take very good care of my body (though I try hard to spend time listening to it), but at least I cannot be blamed for spending more money on my car than on my health. You see, I don't even bother to take care of my car at all! I consider owning a car a big hassle--I would rather do without it someday.

But I suppose we all can't escape from taking care of this all-important vehicle that we own--our body. If we believe what the Theosophists and mystics say, we have a total of seven bodies that overlap one another--the astral and etheric bodies being the most well known ones. Well, someday I'll blog about these esoteric things.

For the meantime, let's be grateful that this body that we possess is still serving its purpose well. Someday, we'll have to discard it, and when we do, hopefully we'll possess enough wisdom not to be too attached to it.