Listen to your body – it wants you to avoid illness

Listen to your body – it sends you signals every day.

If you pay attention, it lets you know when you should stop eating, which foods agree with you or which foods cause you to not feel good, it lets you know when you should sleep, and when you should get up – and if you’re getting enough rest.  If you listen to the signals it gives you, it lets you when you’re exercising hard enough, and when you can push yourself a little harder.  It also sends you warning signals when you’re run down and when you are more susceptible to illness.

This time of year when people in the norther hemisphere spend more time indoors and there tends to be higher incidence of cold and flu, listening to the signals your body is sending (warning you) about impending illness is especially important.  Our bodies are amazing creations that not only provide defenses against potential illness, it also sends you warning signals when you are most vulnerable and potentially about to lose the fight to prevent illness.  There are two things you can do to benefit the most from these warning signals that your body sends out.Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

1.  Learn to listen and pay attention to your bodies signals and the feedback it provides.  Many people have trained themselves to ignore the signals their body sends; this is true for many aspects of your body – including your immune system.  Unfortunately, many people have taught themselves to ignore the signals it sends – not just the scratchy throat, itchy eyes, and stuffy sinus, but even more subtle but important signals like slight chills, or strange headache, a general feeling of “not feeling well” or tummy that “doesn’t feel right.”
These are important signals that your body sends that you need to learn to notice if you want to avoid illness.  Kids are great at this – they will tell you when they “don’t feel well” or when they “don’t feel right”.  Many adults teach themselves to push these feelings off, and it might take a little time to learn to pay attention to these signals if you’re not attuned to listen to them any more.  This is a valuable first step in avoiding illness – but only if you take the next step.

2.  Stop and take immediate actions to avoid the impending illness.
These can be many and varied – as you learn to listen to your body, you also will learn the things that work best for you.  Often it’s just a matter of going home and getting in bed; don’t think you can just “push through the rest of the day and then get rest tonight” – think back – these are the times you wake up the next day sick, wishing you’d gone home to rest the day before.

While rest is probably the most important thing you can do so that your body is freed up to fight illness – there are many things you can do as well:  extra vitamin supplementation, extra chlorophyll or other detoxing agents, mouthwash with hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide in each ear for a few minutes, a hot bath to sweat out toxins (stay in there until you really sweat!), plenty of fluids, and positive thoughts.

Your body is talking to you all the time – most people just need to relearn to hear it, and then listen to what it’s saying.  This is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining and protecting your health.

Questions or comments?  I’d love to hear from you.

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