Has anyone else been hit by the hectic weather we've been having? Since the very crazy rains a couple of weeks back we have been trying to get our house back to normal. Between a leaking roof, a back door too swollen and soggy to even close, french doors too warped to close, a flooded pool and garden, a fallen tree and blocked drains EVERYWHERE, we don't know whether we are coming or going. Our pool pump stopped working because it flooded inside and something shorted so we have a pool the colour of our grass.
As if that isn't enough, last night we were woken from a very deep sleep by, what sounded like the ceiling caving in and a waterfall in our house. We ran towards the sound only to find water gushing EVERYWHERE. It took us at least 5 minutes to determine that it was a burst pipe in our spare bathroom. By that stage all the bedrooms around that bathroom were rapidly filling with water. After a few more precious minutes we figured out how to turn off our water. That didn't stop it though and we weren't sure why. I could've cried at the waste of perfectly good water.
We called Help@Out who said a plumber was on the way. 45 minutes later, with hot water STILL pouring out of the pipe, the cavalry arrived only to tell us the water was overflow from what was stored in the geyser and all we had to do was open all the taps in our house to speed up the emptying. I could've saved so much water, not to mention our carpets that were now squishy messes in every room! However, he managed to fix the pipe and we finally crawled back into bed at 2am with every towel we owned lining all our floors.
Alarms were set for later because we were exhausted and needed the extra sleep so we woke up just in time to hear on 702 that load shedding would commence today. Because we woke up late, our power went off and there was no time to take care of the usual morning chores. Needless to say, it's been a hat day today;)
So here we sit, powerless, with incessant rain pouring down into our poor flooded garden, soggy carpets that will likely not dry because of all the rain, a back door that we can't even close and an exorbitant water bill heading our way (this for a person who saves EVERY drop of water that comes out of a tap...)
It dawned on me today, while lamenting all of our woes, that we take SO much for granted in our lives. We expect our house to be secure enough to protect us and keep us safe. We expect all the pipes to work how they should. We expect to switch on a light and be illuminated. We expect the rain to stop eventually and things to go back to normal and we take for granted that we can keep relying on these things because that's how it's always been.
Something invariably will eventually go wrong. That's the odds. At some point, no matter how confident you feel on the road, you may hit a puddle, go into a skid, and bash someone's bumper or worse. It's happened to most of us. It's a shocking feeling when something goes spectacularly wrong. But honestly, why is it so shocking? Nothing is perfect. Everything, from humans to cars, to water pipes, are fallible. That's why we take precautions. We have car insurance, household insurance and structural insurance in case of disaster.
How does all of this relate to wellness? Well, I'm getting to that part now. If we bring things a little closer to home and consider our bodies, we are also guilty of taking that for granted. EVERYTHING I mentioned in the above paragraphs is replaceable. Insurance makes sure that the burst pipe will be replaced, a crashed car will be repaired or replaced, a damaged door can be replaced. Think about your body now. Most of us have medical aid, and if something small goes wrong, it can likely be repaired. But what happens if it can't be repaired? What if you need a whole new part?
Only 1% of South Africans are organ donors. That means, if you need a new body part, chances are good you WON'T be a recipient. There simply aren't enough parts to go around. If something is irreparable, all that your medical insurance can do is try and soothe your symptoms and make you more comfortable, but if it's broken, it's broken. If your body is riddled with cancer, no organ donor can help you replace EVERY part.
Sounds gloomy huh? Sadly, it's reality for so many people out there. A house can be replaced, but if you don't have this body, where will you live? You can't replace it. It's a once off deal, this body. No matter what you believe about afterlives, none of them include THIS particular body that you are in right now.
We take them SO for granted. We punish them relentlessly. We fill them with junkfood, we deprive them of real food, we deprive them of movement, we load them with toxins, we push them past their limits and then, when something breaks, we stare in absolute shock at the doctor and say, "But how?!"
We live most of our lives in denial, let's face it. I think it's human nature to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all is okay as long as we carry on doing what we have always done. Those routines are like a safety net for us. If we pretend everything is okay, surely it will be?
At what point do we start to accept that things go wrong? They go wrong all the time and we prepare for some of them. You may say you ARE prepared. You have medical insurance. But unlike car insurance, medical insurance won't prepare you for the worst. It can only try and help an already sick body, ease your pain and mask the symptoms.
So, what kind of insurance can you take out to prepare your body for a long healthy life? Well, most of you won't want to hear it and I haven't quite figured out why it's so hard to comprehend. As I said, you only have ONE body. Yet, most people aren't willing to invest any time or money in it. Half, sometimes more, of your salary goes towards medical insurance, car insurance, household insurance, business insurance etc etc. You don't even blink because it's necessary and being without it could cost you everything.
Here it is in one sentence: Without this body, there is NOTHING to insure. Eish, that sounds harsh. But, it's the truth. No body means no house, no car, no business. None of those can even exist without YOU.
So the insurance you can take out to prepare your body for the worst can be found at organic food markets. Okay, it's not as simple as JUST food, but food is a huge part of it. Your body needs what is natural to it. The stuff we eat these days is NOT actually food. It's food-like, but it's not food and your body doesn't understand it. The same goes for the beauty products we use on a daily basis. They are so full of poison that your body simply doesn't know what to do with it. If you're thinking that it's fine because you only put it on your skin, you don't eat it, think again. Your skin is a big sponge that absorbs everything that touches it. It will end up in your bloodstream whether you eat it or not.
We use household cleaning products containing ingredients listed as poisons. They line our counter tops and floors and basins and baths and we breathe them in and ingest them without even being aware of it, on a daily basis. We use artificial air fresheners that pollute our bodies every second that we are breathing then in. We think they are cleaning the air. They aren't. They are only adding to the pollution we breathe in day in and day out.
Our bodies weren't designed to deal with all this stuff and their reaction to all of it is to develop, among others, cancer, autism, alzheimer's disease, parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes and motor neuron disease. I'm not talking nonsense. The proof is in the research. Doctors say they don't know what causes cancer, or how to cure it. They aren't being entirely honest with you. The truth is, changing your lifestyle drastically can prevent it. Cutting out processed foods full of chemicals, additives, preservatives, flavourants and colourants can literally be your insurance for a healthy body. Cancer institutions say this often and yet doctors continue to tell us that they are still looking for a cure.
The problem is that they only know medicine and chemicals. They can't tell you about diet and nutrition. They may recommend health eating and exercise but they don't really consider what it might be doing for the body, or what it actually entails.
Just as you do the research and find the best insurance for your car, your house and your business, you need to do the research and start investing in this one body that you have. You honestly have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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