Just do not show weakness? But!
There are days that are a present: we feel healthy, fresh and well rested, clear in mind and light in the soul. Wonderful, but unfortunately rather an exception. Because, let's face it, often it creaks and crunches somewhere in the complex system of body and psyche. Beyond the 40 mostly more common. And not infrequently, it is always the same complaints that persistently report.
Each of us has his own personal "breaking points". Physical or mental problems, in which we first notice that something in the body is not running smoothly or the strain is again too great. In one, every hassle and stress hits your stomach. The others are constantly suffering from migraine. And the third person always has back pain. No matter what it is, any weak point has any of us. And in middle age, he usually begins to come out more clearly. At some point, the body simply avenges itself for all the years in which he often did not get his money between office chair and family stress, TV couch and food sins. By then, even the most health-conscious among us must face the fact that there are also incidents in the human body. Such a complicated marvel can not always be healthy, fit and powerful in the long term. Life does not work so smoothly!
How does it work: live healthy?
Sure, that's banal. But it is also clear that today it is harder than ever to deal with this simple truth. Because more and more, the ideal of perfect health has crept into our heads. Representatives of alternative methods as well as mainstream medicine with their wide range of private "individual health services" (IgeL) keep reminding us that we can reach this state quite well? provided we apply the "right" methods. With the appropriate therapy and a corresponding lifestyle allegedly every physical breaking point should be kitten. Bad luck for us, that such promises of salvation often cause the opposite. Instead of giving us health, they only put pressure on us.
It is not that easy to soothe the quirks of our body. And at the latest, when the migraine reports for the third time in a month, our health is still under pressure from other sources. Because in professional life today is more than ever the motto "Do not just fluff!". Surveys by the Hanover Medical School showed that the burden on office employees has risen by about a third in the past 15 years. The body's warning signals are often simply suppressed as much as possible: According to an AOK survey, three-quarters of all employees go to work sick and two-thirds fear disadvantages in their jobs if they stay at home. The number of sick leave has been falling for years and has never been as low as it is today.
Between pressure to perform and utopian health ideals, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take one's body as it is and to accept that we can not completely control it and master it. This is a great opportunity. Especially our very own weak points are excellent guideposts to a, if not perfect, yet best possible health. They can do us just as good service as the predetermined breaking points in equipment and machinery: they are extra built in order to? like an electrical fuse? to signal a threat of overloading the entire system and thus to prevent worse damage. So let's enjoy the wisdom of nature. Let's use our built-in early warning system, instead of annoying us about recurring complaints: Our vulnerabilities show us that something is in the body and soul in imbalance. No more and no less. We do not have to turn them off and rush from one treatment method to another, but we should not ignore them all the time.
Often it is enough to downshift a few gears. Then our "inner doctor" can start his therapy. We have around 30 "medicines" available for use in our body's own "pharmacy": substances that can prevent or naturally heal illness if the brain-controlled immune system works well. Sixty to seventy percent of our symptoms heal on their own. Less is often more when it comes to our health, such as a cold. How relieving it can be, not immediately with expensive anti-immune-strengthening funds from the pharmacy, but something much easier to do: namely nothing. Take a hot water bottle off to bed, doze a little, suffer a bit, drink tea and wait until it's over. This is usually faster than when we tortured for days struggling through everyday life, and then to lie right on the nose.
Trust your own instincts, which will do you good
However, being able to deal with one's own health requires self-confidence. For one, so as not to be unsettled by health prophets. On the other hand, too, to refuse from time to time the hamster wheel of everyday life. But those who pay attention to their own body and their needs and who are familiar with their sense of what is good for one's own, automatically promote their health and well-being. In the long run, that does more than just circle around one's own body in constant self-observation and use every complaint as an opportunity to seek a new path to perfect health. Because who reacts to every "Zipperlein" anxious and runs from one healer to the next, creates only new harmful stress? and becomes more and more vulnerable.
Of course it is sometimes hard not to fall into this trap. It will always be a tightrope walk to deal with everyday problems calmly, without biting your teeth until real illnesses arise. And the older we get and the more frequently our weak points speak up, the more important our skill becomes on this fine line. But as the years go by, so does the chance to progressively master this balancing act more lightly. Because the longer our weak points such as head, back or stomach pain accompany us, the more familiar they are to us. This makes it easier to understand their warning signals and to counteract them in time. And it helps to differentiate harmless complaints from those that really require urgent diagnostics and therapy.
But one thing will always come back: to accept that complaints and illnesses are part of life. That's why they do not have to master it for a long time. Sure: nobody likes to suffer, and those who are in pain want to get rid of them. Unfortunately, it just does not always work. And out of this dilemma we are not saved by any miracle cure or superguru, no fearful lurking of any body emotion and no "head-in-the-sand-stick". If we really understand that, are not we always well? but definitely better.
To read more: Farideh Akashe-Böhme, Gernot Böhme: "Living with illness, the art of dealing with pain and suffering", 9,90 Euro, Becksche series 2005? Not a guide, but a life-like reflection that encourages you to find an individual way of dealing with illness (s). Werner Bartens: "The Sicknesses How Doctors and Patients Always Invent New Diseases", 8.95 euros, Knaur Taschenbuch Verlag 2005 and Jörg Blech: "The disease inventors How to become patients", 8.90 euros, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 2005? Both books describe critically, vividly and exemplary the problematic excesses of our health care system, in which doctors, therapists, the pharmaceutical industry, but also the patients have their share. Volker Fintelmann / Marcela Ullmann: "Warning signs of the body Understanding and holistically healing discomforts of body and soul", 16,90 Euro, Gräfe und Unzer Verlag 2006? Holistic view of a variety of everyday complaints. Manfred Lütz: "Lust for life - about risks and side effects of the health mania", 10 Euro, Droemer 2006? Polite, stimulating and humorous, Lütz takes to the grain what he rejects as a "health religion" and pleads for a (also Christian inspired) new lust for life. Johann Caspar Rüegg: "Brain, psyche and body? Neurobiology of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy", 34.95 euros, Schattauer-Verlag 2006? The Heidelberg scientist reports interesting findings about a holistic view of health and illness.
