I’m coming to realize that there are a bunch of people in this world who have normalized living with persistent underlying physical discomfort. I know this because I used to be (still am, to some extent) one of them. Our legs are constantly aching so we need to sit down everywhere we go. Our migraines are simply out of control so we always have a set of tablets or relief balms handy. Our appetite is completely unreliable so we’re nauseous pretty much during every travel. And we let out about 28 sneezes if the weather changes outside or a speck of dust flies anywhere close to our sad little body. And well, I’ll not get me started about how dry our skin is or how bad our fevers are when we catch them.
It sucked on an Olympic scale to live like that but honestly, there was no awareness about how bad it was. I realize now that we learn to live with bad physical health when our minds are kept busy. I had a friend who lived with cancer for about 10 years – when he passed away, his father told us that he lived with so much discomfort in his body that it was shocking to hear because his social accomplishments were so plenty that everyone seemed to overlook his fight with cancer. He practiced theatre every single day, came home late at night and slept with hot water bags on his surgical wounds. Never stopped working, nor ever gave up his art. And then he passed away from brain stroke that the doctors said are common among cancer survivors who don’t slow down after treatment. For people like that, the body is just a tool to keep accomplishing things that the mind wants – not something that is an independent entity needing its own share of love and care.
This awareness is dawning upon me now because, touchwood, I’m starting to notice that things are getting (arguably) better. I used to live alone so there was no monitoring what I ate and how well I took care of my body’s internal needs. But now that such things are monitored (by others) and I am obliged to make healthier choices in terms of food, sleep and medication, it is honestly delightful to notice that the body can be the mind’s friend; and not a necessitation that needs to be fed and kept satisfied. How right they were when they said that a sound mind thrives within a sound body. Now that I can see how my mind can mirror the efficiency of my body and perform better than before, I am fully dissatisfied with my former self for being so inconsiderate about the needs of my body.
That being said, I don’t infer that I am now the ‘healthy kind’. I still belong to ‘delicate’ category (for the lack of a better word) that needs constant monitoring when it comes to health. I still carry a small medical store on me that has quick medicines for general health issues. I tend to look up and memorize the names of every medicine I am prescribed for any health concern because my mind assumes that I may need it the next time. Everyone tells me “ee doctor aatodu” (I could have been a medical professional, lol) simply because I seem to have some surface level remedies for momentary health concerns. Who’s to tell them that the remedies come from experience, and not medical expertise.
It makes me happy to think, even for a moment, that life can be ‘normal’ for once without there being an ache or a pain or a cramp or a nausea or a deficiency in my body that I have no choice but to normalize. I don’t want to jinx it or anything but it is a good state of awareness to be of ‘normal health’. To be able to travel and actually enjoy it. To be okay with changing weather, and to be able to finally enjoy food. Life’s little joys, yeah?
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