It seems that the effects of stress are not always mitigated by daily yoga and hefty amounts of green juice, counter-intuitive, but true. ENTER stage left (out of left field that is) HEAD COLD. Translate: stuffy head, a simultaneous stuffy and runny nose and restless nights. So, when I find myself with this head cold I am a little dismayed and lot frustrated but I know what needs to be done. Rest, hydration, staying warm and fasting or eating very lightly, are all part of natural order when needing to heal a head cold. Yet the modern day practice of forging ahead has given us the ethos :"Take some meds, stop your whining and get back to work". Well I'm an old school girl and meds aren't my way. So I stick to my guns, and my juices, and the sudden, fervent onset of the cold on late Tuesday night is now gladly on its way out. So what exactly did I do for the last 2 and a half days? A lot of nothing and some of this:
Tuesday night. I put a droplet of Oregano oil (liquid fire) in a shot of water and drink up. Then massage more Oregano oil and Thieves oil, a proprietary blend from Young Living Essential Oils, on my feet. Finally I bundle the feet up and sweat myself to sleep. Oh BTW I didn't say whomever you might share your bed with would love this route, but all the antibacterial oils are protecting your sleeping companion too. I highly recommend stocking up on oregano oil and thieves through the early spring to help bolster the immune system and as an anti-bacterial defense!
Wednesday. Morning Practice- yes practice. It might be counter-intuitive but it's not counter-indicated as long as there is no fever. After a hefty amount of standing forward bends, some ama, the lovely Ayurvedic term for GUNK, moved out of my sinuses (I didn't say my posts would always be sweet and savory). Now at this point many may be thinking why on earth would you turn yourself upside down with a stuffy head? Counter intuitive, but true, letting the head release down in poses like uttanasana (standing forward bend) and prasarita padottanasa (wide legged forward bend) and the classic adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog), actually relives pressure in the sinus passages. Now if you have a heavy infection going on I would recommend getting some tailor-made recommendations on this.
The rest of Wednesday was spent hydrating with lots of room temperature water, warm tea with lemon, honey and ginger. The lemon and honey (in modest amounts) help to break up mucous and ginger is warming and soothing to the digestive system. I also had a good amount of green juice and a spicy gingery citrus blend. When I finally did eat it was a light and super spicy salad of cucumber, cilantro, chili peppers and lime. These are my mad methods but chili peppers and other spicy foods do wonders to break up that mucous! Wednesday night was a repeat of Tuesday and a bit intensified. At this point Kirk was like, 'take the tylenol" and I'm like 'no way'. Did some more standing forward bends and went to bed to sweat some more.
Thursday was the most intense day, yet I knew it was the turning point. All day I was kind of delirious, feverish and had no appetite; sounds great right? Here's the thing, it's not about the discomfort of this cold. It's a choice I made a long time ago, before I even knew I made it. Whenever that moment was, I chose to trust nature and my body and I still make that choice today. So intuitively I knew these were good signs. The body wants to be left on it's own to heal and when you feel this way, when you allow it and don't suppress it, you intuitively do the right thing. It's inconvenient and yes it does involve putting things on hold at times, but who of us isn't so over scheduled and strung out that putting a few things on hold wouldn't actually hurt. If, instead of heeding the "warning signs", we continue to forge ahead and function with the help of decongestants, sleeping aids, alcohol and color filled syrups (you'd be better off having a true hot toddy and if I weren't practicing some abstinence right now, I probably would have done that), you need you understand that you are making a choice that is ultimately suppressing the natural function of your immune system, creating an internal environment that is more and more run down and out and therefore susceptible to chronic colds and maybe infection. Sounds like a counter-intuitive path to me.
Friday. I wake up, hydrate and brush my teeth. I taste the subtle fennel flavor of the toothpaste and I know the cold is about to exit, stage right, thank you very much. By noon I'm actually hungry and have to remind myself to go slow. A little juice, a little spicy salad and plan for some warm soup for dinner. If you saw me on Tuesday night you would not have thought I would be fine by Friday afternoon without some intervention. But that's the point, intervention with modern cures is often just suppression of our natural ability to heal.
Modern life is tough and filled with a lot more "have to do's" than even just 20 years ago, but nature herself is calling us to rethink how we are living on this planet, so perhaps by starting to take some simple steps to truly get in touch with what it means to take care of oneself we would also be taking the first step toward taking care of something bigger than ourselves. Now that seems like a pretty intuitive choice.
GINGER-CITRUS COLD BUSTER
for your blender
1 hefty quart of mixed organic citrus fruits, peeled
1 big knob of organic ginger, peeled, don't be shy, you know you like it
1-2 organic carrots, washed, optional
a droplet of oregano oil, go ahead, it's good for you
filtered water as needed or desired
Put it all in your blender and blend from low to high. Add the filtered water if you like to get a smoother consistency. Drink up to a quart a day when you are fasting to stave off or fight down a cold
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