As I went for my early morning run in the cool, grey morning this morning, I felt so alive and grateful. It gave me cause to muse on the gifts of last week, when I didn’t feel quite so vital and when I was forced to feel how everything is in flux and nothing lasts forever, not the great times nor the bad times. I wanted to share my observations and hear your thoughts from your own existence, so here goes….
Learnings from a bee sting on the hand in January 2021.
1. I am very allergic to bee stings and my hand and arm swelled like a balloon and was excruciatingly painful. This led to a slow day on Friday in which I did only the bare minimum and a Saturday in which I scarcely moved, except to take more drugs. This may sound like a bad thing, until you remember that rest is part of health. Sometimes laying low and being still is just what we need to revitalize us.
2. Drugs have a place in health. My friend and colleague from the My Sexual Health Team Larisse Badenhorst who is one of the most caring and brilliant specialist GP’s I have ever met, sent me an urgent script and the cortisone started working it's magic. I’m a firm naturalist and hardly ever take medication, but in certain circumstances, drugs are a vital component of the treatment and we need them to help us heal. What a blessing to be able to gain access to what I needed! I mindfully acknowledged the magical powers of the drugs as I took them, giving myself full permission to let them help my body recover.
3. Kindness and care heal. The incredible support and empathy I received from my family and my beloved carried me out the turbulence of the thankfully short-lived response.
4. On Sunday, I felt a bit better and tried to take a gentle jog, my body said: “NO!”, a stroll was all that was possible, but the body is a healing machine and it's natural state is health and vibrancy and so it didn’t take long to get moving again and for my energy to return. We can't use force and sheer determination when we work with our bodies, we need to use wisdom and we must listen carefully. We need to work as a team-mate with our body in order to get the best out of it, not operate as a dictator or controlling master.
5. One of the best ways to get more wellbeing is to sleep more. Sleep has the power to heal in an incredible way. If you haven’t yet read Matthew Walker’s book, “Why We Sleep”, do yourself a favour and get it and read it. The very worst thing we can do to ourselves is to deprive ourselves of enough sleep. Sleep, as the latest research shows us, is vital for every part of our mental, physical and emotional health. It is literally catastrophic to be sleeping too little. When we are not well, we need even more sleep, and so much healing occurs while we sleep. How simple a solution is that!?
As we face the decline of the second wave of COVID and the potential promise of a third wave in June/July and an uncertain timeline for vaccine availability (and for some people fear of the vaccine), maybe some of these learnings can be useful. None of us know what’s coming next, it could be a cyclone (as in Mozambique), a flood, a disease, a death, or economic hardship and unemployment. By the same token, it could be a multitude of wonderful things too, we just don’t know. We can, however, encourage ourselves to take care of ourselves carefully.
1. We can rest enough and relax consciously.
2. Sleep enough.
3. Take medication if we need to and allow that medication to work magic on our bodies or minds. For Covid, if we are lucky enough to be able to afford it, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin B, Zinc, Quercetin (to help uptake the Zinc), Magnesium and probiotics and prebiotics are worth taking to keep the body in its best state to fight a potential infection.
4. We can work with our bodies, not using force, but listening carefully to our body voice.
5. Despite socially isolating and distancing, we can take special care to make time and space for being kind and offering care to our loved ones and our fellow human beings. We can be super kind and caring to ourselves too.
All of these are within our control and are possible. All of these will make a difference and support our vitality. Doing what we can is all we can do. This too shall pass, and we can trust this, so try to relax and stay focused on what is good and what is working.
We are open here at Body Brilliance, with all the precautions we can possibly take, we are available to support you in any way we can. Most of my treatments are being done outside in the garden. I’m busy running mindfulness training for quite a few companies here and overseas, to help their staff to cope better, and you can join a class (or in the very near future, buy a course off our website that you can do in your own time) https://www.theenergyincubator.com/videos-1, our FABES classes (Fitness, Body Awareness, Balance, Elasticity and Strength, or PILOGA if you like) are all available on line: https://www.theenergyincubator.com/videos-1, but you can join live if you prefer. We have Brilliant Running courses and so much more on offer to help you at this time. Visit our website (www.bodybrilliance.co.za and www.theenergyincubator.com) to find out more. Don’t hesitate to come for treatment if you are battling or sore, your wellbeing and safety is our priority. I am also doing telehealth sessions if you don’t feel comfortable to come and coaching on Zoom, so get in touch, we will find a way to help you.
Take care beautiful Body Brilliance family,
Much love
Sue and The Body Brilliance and The Energy Incubator Teams