This morning one of the fuses blew in our apartment.
Our house, built in the 1890s, has its quirks. The wiring was mismatched and confused, in not one, but three additions put on the house about 80 years ago. Luckily we are not frequent small appliance users and in the nearly six years we’ve been in our apartment I think we have only had one blown fuse, if that.
This morning one fuse, apparently number 3, took down the overhead light in the kitchen (but not fridge, stove, or any of the sockets), two of three hallway lights, some of the study, all of the living room and the extra freezer we keep in the front hallway, but not the overhead lights out there. Standing in the center of our apartment you could almost feel the anatomy train snaking through the center and right out towards the front door.
Yes, everything is about the body with me. I immediately was thinking of meridians and fascial trains as our landlord flipped the switch and all the lights blinked on.
I was still asleep when the lights went out, but there were no hairdryers going or breakfast preparations. In fact there was far less electricity being used than most mornings. So why did the fuse blew this morning? Does the fuse connect to something down in my landlord’s apartment and together we used too much electricity? Or did something outside happen that caused a jolt because of this rainy, slushy weather. The fact is we’ll never know. When things go wrong it isn’t because one thing was off, it is usually because a dozen or more circumstances aligned perfectly.
The body is like that. We don’t get sick because the person next to us on the plane was sick. We get sick because we’ve been working late for the last two months and our daughter is planning a wedding and our mother just slipped and fell on black ice. We get sick because we are also worried about money and haven’t been taking our vitamins and the telephone woke us up at 3am last night. And finally we sit next to someone for six hours who is coughing.
Our bodies have fabulous defense systems. The immune response allows us to know when we need to rest, drink more water, sweat more, get hot, get cold. And best of all we can keep right on working late, eating poorly and traveling without having to worry about any complicated strategies.
The amazing thing is that it isn’t just the immune system, but the structural integrity of the body. Ever notice you always get hurt when you are stressed, overworked and exhausted. Ever notice you always get hurt or sick at the most inconvenient time. That isn’t a coincidence.
We often get caught up thinking if we have one glass of wine something bad will happen. It is never the one glass of wine or the one slice of pie. It is always the combination of the sleep you get, how strenuous your workout was, what is on your mind, who you are taking care of, your diet for the last two weeks and the environment at work that make the one glass of wine or one piece of pie the final straw. We need to start seeing the whole picture, not just the silly details.
This is your friendly reminder how the body breaks down, now it is up to you to recognize the warning signs and make changes in the quiet moments before the storm. What if ten minutes of self-care prevented ten days of being sick? Would that be worth it?
Image credit: kentannenbaum / 123RF Stock Photo