Illness on Your Agenda?

Do you live in the city? Would that be the city of Cape Town?

Good decision, its a fantastic place to be. For a large city it has some of the cleanest air in the world. As a local you know that is because of the prevailing summer South Easter and some Stormy conditions in the winter that come through and blast all the gunk away, keeping our skies blue and helping us stay healthy.

What's that you say? You are not feeling very healthy at all, and in fact you are reading this from your laptop while sitting in bed sipping on some form of meds, to wash down some other form of pills, to battle that flu or cold that has been taking you down over the last few days. Well then read on as that's what this blog is all about.

Although the special city of Cape Town has super advantages due to the natural weather conditions (as mentioned above), the fact remains that it is a hugely populated megalopolis (that is not something you can eat, nor an extinct dinosaur or even teenage speak, but rather a cool word bestowed upon an urban place like ours once it reaches a certain amount of inhabitants) with over 4 million people calling it home.
With so many people about, there are bound to be more than your fare share of opportunities to catch some of those freely available germs and viruses that hop so efficiently from elevator button, to door handle to key board and then fingers and nose (or a myriad of other combinations your colourful mind may conjure up).
Add to this the relatively new found and ever growing popularity of Cape Town and the consequent influx of foreign tourists, and you can also add a whole new bunch of 'getting sick' opportunities.

This is certainly not a negative point of view with regards to tourism nor peoples hygiene habits, but rather a reminder that a reality of living in a place such as Cape Town comes with, what should be seen as somewhat of an expectation, that you will be exposed to the chance of getting sick.
It's not rocket science, although we do tend to fall into a comfort zone pretty quickly as our minds get lazy about these sorts of bothersome facts.

I am sure this is something many people can accept, the fact that living in a city you are exposed to sickness. What I find strange is our expectations of being able to shake these very sicknesses on our own agenda. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of positive thinking and general mindset and its' role in helping heal as well as helping to keep us healthy. However when I see how many people are so impatient about getting well I do feel we are loosing touch with what is real as apposed to what we have concocted in our own minds to be the-way-we-want-it.

Lets say you get ill on a Tuesday. Well it started with perhaps a tickley throat on Monday, but the sun was still out so you knew it could not be a cold so you put your concern on the shelf for another time.
Then Tuesday welcomed you with grey skies and blustery winds and you knew you were sick. Perhaps flu. So now you are thinking about the Doctor and what you are going to do to get well as you just don't have time to be ill and whats more you have a function to go to on Friday after work and another on Sat morning that you are dead keen to attend.

THAT I am afraid, is where we get it wrong.

By all means spend some energy on giving it a good go to get well, but how in the world do you really expect to let outside events and happenings on your social calendar dictate whether you are going to get over an illness? It really is bizarre behaviour by us human lot. Behaviour that I have little doubt many a species would shake their heads at if they could comprehend the self contrived supposed realities in our selfish heads.

The fact that you have a 5km run on the weekend or a soccer match to play in does not decide when you should expect to feel better.

Surely a better option is to do what you can to help yourself recover from the sickness as far as medication is concerned and to feel okay about feeling like %^*&, but to have a positive mindset to fight it like anything to get better as effectively as possible.

Let go of the stress of being sick, its bound to happen and you don't own it so don't expect to disown it. Catch yourself in the moment of trying to dictate your getting well clock and relax a little about being ill. It will be a far less excruciating experience.