Physiology and Spirituality

The concepts of dis-ease and well-thy have been bandied about quite a bit. They are not new terms to anyone, especially the notion of disease in our bodies and what is happening in our lives and how they are linked.

We all know about these concepts but we tend to not pay them any attention until we fall ill or something happens to our physical bodies or we simply just feel tired. Only then do we give our bodies the attention they require but for most of us, once we are in good health again, we forget all about them and continue with our lives as we did before.

For those who might not be familiar with the above two concepts, I will go through them briefly, though for the most part I’m sure everybody knows what I am talking about.

1. Dis-ease:

When we fall ill, or we injure ourselves, it can often be linked to a stress in our lives which causes our bodies to not be at ease. Therefore the word disease has been re-termed to dis-ease.

2. Well-thy:

This is a new concept that has come about recently. It means exactly what it sounds like. Health is the new Wealth. In some big corporations you are not allowed to see clients if you look a little tired or ‘unhealthy’, you are encouraged to look after yourself. In general the size of your wallet is measured according to how healthy you appear to be.

It is becoming more and more common for us to look at ourselves, our life situations and our spirituality whenever we become ill, particularly spirituality, why?

I believe that many people find peace within their personal spiritual beliefs. It is the one path most of us choose for ourselves in this life and the one thing we are most certain of. After we feed our Spirit with stress day in and day out when we feel ill we tend to look for that part of us that fills us with something good, that one part of our Spirit that “detoxes” all the bad stuff out of our systems.

Quite often this becomes a time when our Spirit feels tired and we would take a holiday away from our daily lives before we feel we are about to “crash and burn”.

This is a similar experience to what I have had this week. I’ve turned to strengthening my Spirit and clearing out the stress and guess what happened? I became sick.

For a moment I thought about it. Why am I getting sick now when I’m resting and not when I was in a stressful office? Why do so many of us get the flu when on holiday?

That was when I realised, not only am I working on myself spiritually and mentally but my body is following physically. It is detoxing on its own.

As it does this, I noticed certain areas of my body were worse off than others. For example my throat has been gradually getting worse this week. Our throats are our centres for communication. Believe it or not, as I discovered a few years ago, the throat chakra, when out of balance actually means we need to listen more. Not speak up but to quieten down.

So that’s what I’m learning to do right now. I’m not just physically keeping quieter to save myself the pain but I’m also quietening my mind because once my mind is quiet only then will I truly hear the message that is coming my way.

As most of you already know, for the past six months I have been working on Oprah’s magazine here in South Africa and I have been really passionate about my work. Last week Friday I walked away from the magazine, albeit not of my own choice. I will admit though, I was looking at making this decision but at the end of the day it was made for me.

The driving message behind the magazine is “Live Your Best Life”, which is also the message from Oprah herself. This is what helped me to walk away. I didn’t walk away from her and what her brand stood for as I was too passionate about that, what I walked away from was a company.

Have you ever watched “The Devil Wears Prada”? I won’t lie to you, the press passes to events and all the freebies were fabulous but being under constant deadlines and stress was not healthy for me. I am going to Live My Best Life and I believe I am now on the right path to do just that.

During my last week of working for the magazine I read an article reflecting on the last twenty five years of Oprah’s show and she said something very significant. This is in her words so she does speak of “God” as she is Christian, if you are not Christian replace it with what you feel comfortable with, The God/ess, the Universe, Life, etc.

“Tune in to the whisper. ‘God’ first speaks to you in a whisper, a hunch. If you don’t get that whisper you get a pebble to the head, then a brick, until finally you hit a brick wall, which is full blown crisis. I’ve learnt to listen to that small whisper – that still, small voice that says “Something’s not right. Pay attention”.”

I can tell you truthfully that I recently got the brick to the head, it definitely feels that way physically, and only now am I waking up and beginning to pay attention and working on avoiding that brick wall.

I am more aware now of constantly looking after myself and the need to listen. I am realising the importance of constantly being in touch with my Spirit and Spirituality and not waiting until I’m exhausted to look to these parts of myself.

If I listen to my body and keep my Spirit strong I won’t fall ill or exhaust myself.

I gave myself a bit of advice this morning that I wanted to share with you. I feel one of the biggest causes of my stress over the past few weeks has been self-doubt. Questioning whether or not I was on the right path, even though I have had several signs that have told me I am.

Don’t doubt, have faith.

Simple words, a whisper from within.

)O(