For many people, gauging health goes like this:
Do I feel good or bad?
If I feel bad, is there an over-the-counter drug I can take to feel better?
If I try this drug and still feel bad, should I go to the doctor?
If I go to the doctor and get a diagnosis, is there some drug that the doctor can prescribe me, or do I perhaps need surgery?
What’s often missing from this decision process is the question, “What can I do differently to stop or reverse this condition?” Because many people aren’t paying attention to their own body and actions, they fail to see the imbalanced qualities of their body and mind until something goes horribly wrong, causing pain. Many people don’t spend time looking at their body or even feeling it. It sounds so strange even writing this because the one thing you can be assured you are going to be hanging around with your entire life is your body – so why don’t we pay more attention to it?
Most people are stuck inside a tunnel in their mind, and this tunnel is oftentimes connected to something in the outside world – connected to different things at different times. What’s at the end of our tunnel? Relationships, work, TV, food, clothing, a project we are working on, etc. Whatever we focus on is where our tunnel goes. Our field of vision cannot broaden unless we realize the totality of things. The only way we realize the totality of things is to keep breaking our own paradigms and widen the tunnel. Part of this widening includes becoming knowledgeable about how we operate and the state we are in, as well as doing things that make us a little bit uncomfortable so we don’t trap ourselves with unnecessary fears.
The problem may be that we are too close to our bodies to realize they are there. Our eyes are part of our body. Our nose, ears, mouth and skin are too – so we take information into these sense organs without really thinking about it because they are just part of us. The most common times we actually focus on our bodies are when we are experiencing something pleasurable or painful. If our senses are dulled, then we cannot experience pleasure or pain until it becomes very noticeable. One reason the senses may be dulled is due to desensitization from constant stimulation. An example of this would be if someone were to keep adding and adding salt to their dinner because they can’t taste the food, yet other individuals at the table taste the food just fine. Another reason our senses might be dulled is because our mind is too busy with thoughts. We might be sitting there with our dinner, but we aren’t even paying attention to it because our mind is fixated on a report we ran at work, a heated conversation with a loved one, the TV or maybe 20 other things. Think of the mind as the second layer of a water filter for all the sensory information that enters the body through the senses (the first filter), and if either the first or second filter has a lot of gunk already stuck in it, then it won’t let the water/sensory information through it – it creates a blockade. We may be in the right place to experience things, but our operating system isn’t allowing it in.
When our senses are dulled, it limits the way we can experience the world, and this limits our potential for learning, growth and performance in life. This is why it’s important to notice when you have small imbalances like dry skin, headaches, irregular digestion, skin rashes, ringing ears, stuffy nose, heartburn, bleeding gums, etc. There are many remedies, but more importantly, it’s the opportunity to look at what is creating the imbalance – whether it’s your own actions, environmental factors, or both – which is ultimately how to remove the root cause. This is critical because people get out of balance sometimes long before a serious disease manifests, and looking at the simple clues that someone is out of balance can save one from serious conditions down the road. When we are perfectly balanced, our immunity is strong, our mind is clear and we operate optimally – in the way we were intended to when we were created. Why would we settle for anything else?