Why Do We Get Sick?

Remember the last time you got sick? What caused your sickness? A virus? Too much stress? Generally, we can classify the root of all sickness into the following:

1.External disturbance such as a virus or a germ
2.Internal disturbance such as inability to cope with stress of intense emotions

If we want to classify it further, we can identify the culprit for all diseases in one word: IMBALANCE. The reason why we get sick is because there is an imbalance in the body’s system caused either by external disturbances or by inner problems we’re not able to deal with fast enough before the problem occurs.

Take a look at the following scenarios causing imbalance:

1.You eat only junk foods. You hardly exercise. You don’t get enough sleep. Hence, your immune system becomes so weak that when you encounter a virus, your body immediately succumbs to it. The imbalance in your body’s immune system causes your body’s inability to fight off the virus.

2.You’re always anxious. Your job is so stress-related you hardly give your mind and body the chance to relax. You also take in more and more coffee because it helps you stay awake and live your stressful lifestyle. As a result, you have heart palpitations. You also have digestion problems because your body is always in a fight or flight mode.

3.You sit infront of the computer all day. When weekend comes, you sit infront of your TV screen. You eat nothing but fries, burger and fatty foods. As a result, you get obese. Your arteries are clogged and you suffer high blood pressure.

4.You take in more drugs than prescribed. Your liver can’t process all those drugs and eventually gets affected.

The body was meant to be healthy and in balance. When it is in balance, the body is able to heal itself. Take away this balance and the body’s natural processes fail, its healing abilities hindered. This is the reason why we get sick.

Can you now see the many factors contributing to your body’s imbalance nowadays?

1.Pollution
2.Toxic food
3.Nutritional deficiency
4.Lack of rest/sleep
5.Lack of exercise
6.Stress
7.Emotional issues
8.Germs/viruses

Can you also appreciate the role of thought in keeping the very important balance of the body? It is our thoughts, our mind that rules the many functions of our body. Take away a disciplined mind, take away hope and the will to survive and the physical body would surely follow in disintegration. I leave you with an excerpt from the book of James Allen “As a Man Thinketh”:

EFFECTS OF THOUGHTS ON HEALTH AND BODY

The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty .

Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will sooner shatter the nervous system.

Strong pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it.

If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, and disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, pride.

I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into in harmonious contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other is the outcome of passion and discontent. As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.

On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion; who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher on his death-bed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived.

There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill-will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all–such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.

Check Jocelyn's books:

"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.

(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)