It Happened: I got sick

I don't even remember the last time I got sick. I actually have this invincible attitude that I won't get sick. So when the scratchy throat arrived, I was in total denial. This isn't happening to me! But within twenty four hours I was convinced otherwise.

In hindsight I know how it happened. High stress and anxiety reduced my immune system, and I was around sick people.

Acceptance: I was sick, now what? The old me would have run to the doctor for a Z-pack, started the Mucinex-D, popped Excedrin and thought I was doing the right thing. But in the last year and a half I have come to believe that our bodies are a miracle machine, and given the right opportunity it can heal itself, as mine has already done in many ways. Medicine, in this case, would just suppresses the symptoms, but it's the body that will actually do the healing.

I have been very fortunate to have made some amazing friends in the course of the last year and a half. One of those friends showed up at my door at 9:00 at night with a bag of remedies and suggestions.

 Here is what I did:

• I put eucalyptus in a bowl of steaming water and breathed it several times a day, and also put a few drops in the bottom of the shower. It was wonderfully soothing.
• I drank water with a teaspoon or two of apple cider vinegar
• I drank water with an oregano oil blend it came with capsules so I don't have to put it in the water and that is soooooooooooo much better!
• Elderberry syrup - that was actually yummy 
• A teaspoon of coconut oil. It melts in your mouth and runs down your throat - great for that annoying cough
• Salt water gargles
• Lots of tea - peppermint, ginger, and chamomile - with lemon and honey
• And I made juice. Juice is great for your body because it is digested with almost no effort, so your body can work at healing rather than digesting. My juice was made from carrots, celerey, tomatoes, apples, spinach, fresh ginger and lots of garlic.

Check out some of the links for the associated health benefits.

Result: it worked. I think I had a healthy jump start before getting this respiratory infection, and maybe that is why I got over it so fast. But the point is, I did it without medicine.

I love this quote from Hippocrates:

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Now that's food for thought!