Raised in the “east central region” of our beautiful country I am very familiar with all four seasons.  As a young girl growing up in a part of the country that has all four seasons it was a blessing and a curse having the need for four different wardrobes, especially if you come from a large family as I did.  Now living in Colorado I know my blessing was the creativity acquired from living with such an opportunity of experiencing each of the four seasons intimately.

During these years growing up never was there a mention of cold & flu season in the stores, magazines, or Fashion Week.  We would know to take care to dress warmer, keeping extra body parts covered, limiting ourselves to less time outdoors with more indoor activity. With that being said there was never anything more than the four natural seasons.

If you think about nature, the animal migrations, the weather cycles, and the agricultural schedules each has respect of the other as time marches through the calendar.  Each season with its own purpose, needs, requests, and limits.  These seasons aren’t a hindrance but a blessing.  From fun in the sun to slow and lazy by the fireplace.  I think there is a strong need to appreciate these gifts, which ultimately enable our body to heed to its natural needs and support its request from our constant challenging daily demands.

When there is no respect for the seasonal flow and the changes that occur we tend to also disrespect our bodies seasonal needs.  Late fall, winter and early spring are all a time of transition into traditional rest and hibernation period – a time to slow down, rest more, eat different foods, supplement our diets differently, dress differently. When we don’t respect this time of year and make appropriate changes our immune system doesn’t get what it needs to stay healthy and balanced, which may result as an inability to protect us from everything in our daily environment.  Our bodies natural protection becomes vulnerable leading to allergies, a cold, the flu and sometimes much worse; bronchitis or pneumonia, etc.

Believe me the body doesn’t lie, and it does have a voice, are you listening?  If you choose not to listen it will speak louder and louder hoping you may hear… if you still choose not to listen it will eventually make you listen. It will make you listen when sickness sets in and your life as you know it comes to a screeching halt.

So is getting sick an inconvenience or an opportunity?  I believe getting sick is an opportunity!  An opportunity to detox and re-set!  To re-set the body from over working, over stressing, over eating, over doing, over toxifying, over demanding ourselves which all eventually weakens our body system and decreases our quality of life.

Pending on how hard we push ourselves and how weak our system is, often determines how long we will be sick and how much time will be needed for an appropriate re-set to take place.  I always found it interesting how much simpler my life is when I am sick.  I can’t do my normal multi-tasking, with my triple A-type character, working on my mile long “to do list”; there is simply no energy for it!  Slowly by slowly I start letting go of all that non-sense minimizing to a much simpler me and life-style once again.

So next time you are sick, you’ll have all the time you need to reflect as you lie there with no energy to do anything, think back over the past few weeks or months… recall what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been feeling, what your body might have been sharing.  You probably have had warning signs.  Have you been listening???