ILLNESS

Why would I be grateful for illness when just yesterday I was feeling grateful for good health. For precisely the reason stated earlier, that I take good health for granted, and unknowingly push my body beyond its limits, or abuse it in many ways. The biggest abuse I can give the mind-body mechanism is stress. Stress as we all know lowers the immune system like nothing else, allowing the host of germs that are attacking us at any given moment an easy entry into our system. Unresolved stress, in the form of painful issues tucked away out of sight due to our hectic lifestyles or constant low-pressure stress that we get used to, is unrelentingly chipping away at something or the other in our systems, only to surface years later as tumours, ulcers or chronic illnesses like hypertension, heart disease or diabetes.

Some years ago, after a tumour was removed from my spinal chord, I was keen to know how it was caused so as to prevent it from ever forming again. A spiritual healer said something that made me sit up and take notice. She said, ’do you realise that the tumour was found in your spinal column in the area right behind your heart? It seems as though for years you have been tucking away stuff too difficult to handle right behind and out-of-sight of your heart’. Some pretty loud wake-up bells went ringing!

Therefore, when I fall sick, I know it is time slow down and take stock of the factors that are non-conducive to my continued well-being and try to eliminate them. Illness, it seems to me, is Nature’s wake-up call. So when it comes, I am grateful, for I know I have not been kind to my habitat and it is time to take remedial measures.