It Doesn't Hurt You to Take a Sick Day
During the mask years, nothing has been more on the forefront of people's minds as being sick. We have all been hyper aware of our immunity and, in turn, our frailty in the physical body. While we are mostly out of that time period, sickness is not something we can avoid. Rather, sickness is something that we must learn to do well when it comes.
Recently, my love and I took turns being caretaker and the sick. First him as the sick, then me. The starkest difference between the two of us when those little WATER droplets from the nose start falling is how we handle sick days. When I am sick I try to take a sick day early to beat it before it gets rough. Now sometimes we do not have that choice, powering through might be the only option. But being in tune with our bodies enough to recognize when we are getting sick and being willing to take rest to care for our bodies before we're forced is a skill I fear we are losing in the American go-go-go culture.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine ("TCM"), one of the best ways to avoid getting sick is managing your stress. Stress weakens your immune system and thus makes you more vulnerable to toxins. Stress means chronic and outside of your comfort range. So maybe if we want to avoid the WATER droplets from our nose we should consider taking a day off after chronic, outside of comfort zone stressors have waded into our lives for longer than we allotted for.
TCM next recommends, once you start feeling the beginning signs of a coming sickness (think, body aches, running nose, headaches), to rest and nourish. TCM calls this beginning stage "wind cold." But TCM also warns that if you "push through" you risk the "wind cold" becoming "wind heat," which is more severe (think, fever, sore throat, bronchial cough). Yet again, the way to avoid the WATER droplets from the nose is to notice your body's changes and to rest and nourish. What a countercultural thought in America today!
It is interesting to me that WATER in the body can signal good or bad, but it is up to us to determine where LOVE is once we notice the WATER. LOVE can be letting the WATER flow, like tears releasing built up emotions; or LOVE can be taking a sick day so that the WATER droplets don't turn into a flow.
In more ways than one, taking the sick day early nourished me. I took a nap, which I have not done in a long time and I felt reconnected to a part of me that has been dormant (haha!). I found energy and motivation to complete a project at work I had been putting off for almost two weeks. I got to enjoy the snow fall from my window, grounding me in the coming holidays. Funnily enough, this nap did not stop the wind heat from coming. But it taught me that, even the discomfort of sickness, can teach me to see LOVE in where I need LOVE the most (for me, slowing down to see the snow and napping).
What would it be like it we were so in tune with the WATER from our bodies, that we became so in tune with where LOVE is needed as well?
