Shhh….... LISTEN to what your body says !!!

Shhh….... LISTEN to what your body says !!!

Shhh….... LISTEN to what your body says !!!

Communication is fundamental to living. Each living organism has the potential to communicate in various ways to fulfil basic requirements for their existence. Like when plants dry they begin shedding leaves, and communicate their need for water, good soil and atmosphere. Animals communicate through their actions. And ‘us’ humans communicate with our speech, gestures, actions to fulfil our needs.

We as mammals are made up of a complex set of mechanisms, our body. Let’s consider our body as an assembled or combined unit of multiple systems and each system is made up of further small units called ‘cells’. The intercommunication between these cells leads to the proper functioning of systems in our body. Our body is extremely intelligent. It maintains its basic rhythm by balancing physical being, mind and spirit. This is done by interchange of some molecules of chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemical substances communicate with each other and also with the brain at special spaces called synapses where electrochemical signals are generated. These help an individual to adjust with the surrounding and changing atmosphere, with protective reactions through the body. For example, we observe an increase in the body metabolism to generate body heat in winters, as also a demand for more food as temperatures drop; whereas in summer exactly opposite happens. The body tries to lower down the metabolism, lowering the heat production and hence we observe lesser appetite. All these functions are maintained arduously and are very much needed for survival.

The more easy and smooth the communication of our body within itself as well as with the outside world, the better it can acclimatise with its habitat and nature. This is exactly what Darwin’s law of evolution states when he talks about the ‘ survival of the fittest’. Being ‘healthy’ is nothing but the proper synchronisation of body, mind and spirit (energy). If you have any conflicts in your mind, it reflects on your physique in the forms of restlessness, anxiety, fear. These eventually lead to the release of chemicals called Hormones inside our body, leading to our body expressing through ‘symptoms’- the language in which our body communicates with us. It says, “Hey, I am not comfortable. Please do what it requires to get back the equilibrium and regain Health.” Health is like a pendulum. It keeps oscillating between the states of fitness and disease. We need to work together with our body and maintain it to achieve enthusiasm for its optimum functioning capacity.

Our body speaks through subtle signs and symptoms like weakness, body ache, sleeplessness, lack of concentration, hair fall etc. These are some basic examples of our body saying ‘HELP’, and here we need to pay attention. These can be ‘ALERT’ signs, that we need to consciously pay attention to, and trust this language. By listening and offering the necessary actions to these calls, we can prevent diseases from evolving and making our body their home. One doesn’t need to take medications if the gravity of symptoms is bearable and fairly within the capacity of one’s control. In such cases, a small conscious change in lifestyle, diet, surroundings can help to restore our health. For example, sometimes we may fatigue from overexertion, and can be corrected by taking good rest with a refreshing diet; but quite often we tend to ignore the voice of our body and continue working. This in turn results in further deterioration of one’s health, severe symptoms further leading to a disease. Even in our diseased state, things may not get worse if we help ourselves with some lifestyle alterations and healthy choices as our body demands, taking help of our physician. I illustrate my point here with what is now becoming a global issue, and India currently ranks at the top with rising numbers of Indians facing this problem- ‘OBESITY AND DIABETES’.

If a person is slightly overweight in his/her childhood and slowly gains weight at the average of 1 kg per year, he would be near about 40-50 kgs extra over basic weight by his mid-50’s. This is extra weight, not the healthy that I have been referring to. If we listen in time, this is actually a protective part of our body telling us, “I am storing a good amount of extra fats, now it is time to get rid of these to prevent further diseases”; diabetes being the most common one we catch. We often miss this ‘voice’. This could be the stage where we intervene and alter our unhealthy habits into a lifestyle with healthy means. Not just through the medications, but with use of natural resources, appropriate mental and physical exercises, we can relieve the pain of our body.

If we keep ignoring these conversations until conditions are complex, it means that we are not listening to what our mind and body have to say, which actually may help us to prevent the disease.

So let’s be WISE enough to be alert and careful towards the LANGUAGE of ourSELVES’…shhh listen to your ‘body speech’!!

Dr. Vinita Deshpande