Do you live your life as if your life depended on it? As if every moment mattered?
Even from the dizzy heights of hitting 40, looking back, one of the biggest regrets people have is that they didn’t take better care of themselves. We tend to think of ourselves as about 10-15 years younger than we really are. (Personally I still think I’m about 17!) And then there’s the whole “It won’t happen to me” syndrome. Hmmm, interesting. Or maybe you think you’re frozen in time like these air bubbles? Denial is a powerful enemy.
The point is, illness and breakdown don’t happen over night. People come to see me, surprised that some aspect of their health, be it physical, emotional or mental, is “suddenly” not ok. The way you treat your body, treat your self, has a cumulative effect. It could be a repetitive behaviour like smoking, one of the obvious ones. It could be carrying on in a job you hate, or being in a relationship in which you do less than flourish. If you think it doesn’t matter you’re fooling yourself.
It does.
And it doesn’t take that much. In terms of your physical wellbeing, eating sensibly and getting regular exercise is pretty much it. A patient of mine who was reluctant to go to the gym or cut out Nutella pancakes, recently said ‘Well, I’m not ill at the moment doing what I do, so if I keep it at this level, I’ll stay ok”. Well, no, actually. I understand the thought process, especially the Nutella pancake bit. But…
This might have been true a few hundred years ago, when we were far more active than we are now and made our own food from scratch, often growing it ourselves or buying it nearby. Human beings weren’t designed to sit at desks hour after hour, cruise through shelves of imported products, endless varieties of ready-made meals and chemical-filled edibles, and exercise our thumbs more than any other part of their body.
The price? A faster day by day decay of that precious resource, our health. The way you treat your body has a cumulative effect, even if you think it doesn’t or that it won’t happen to you.
Listen to the wisdom of those who are further down the line of life, boring though it may seem. Take care of your body, today, now, and even when it’s raining. Get regular exercise. Eat fresh, home-prepared food. Avoid sugar and chemicals. Get moving. Make time for the simple things. I know Edith Piaf sang “Je ne regrette rien” but look at how old she was when it came to a sticky end!