Doing What Comes Naturally

Being healthy comes naturally to all of us. Believe it or not, in this we were all born experts - same as every plant and animal that shares this planet with us. The way creatures in the wild live and stay healthy, and heal when they're sick or wounded, can be an inspiration to all of us. In contrast to the risks of their subsistence lifestyle, we enjoy protection from the harsh elements and have medical resources that should improve our odds of living healthier and longer, relative to our species, than the fittest of them. Unless, of course, these advantages lull us into inactivity, indulgence of inattention to the healthy choices no one else can make for us.

Plants and animals, and we together with them, have an internal wisdom that attracts us all to what is healthy - which foods we need, what amounts of food and drink keep our bodies in peak condition, and how much to leave for later or for the others who share our space. Infants and small children, before they are conditioned by the adults around them, are great examples of this innate wisdom. Back in pre-Hee Haw days, the character Annie Oakley and her sisters in the musical Annie Get Your Gun sang the hilarious praises of "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly." At the time they happened to be highlighting a different basic instinct...but that song title could just as easily be a slogan for natural health!

Interestingly, the lives of both plants and animals are dominated by nourishing themselves while ours, particularly in modern times, are devoted less and less to food-related activities. This provides us with time and energy to channel our physical, mental, and social skills in many other rewarding directions. We seem to have all the advantages. So what is it, health-wise, that's sill working for plants and animals but isn't working anymore for us humans? Here's my take on this:

Plants and animals follow their inner guidance based on instinct and internal programming. Animals also appear to make some choices similar to our own although plants too have mechanisms for choosing, within limits, desired levels of light and moisture. We, on the other hand, often let our physical desires, social conditioning, and emotional cravings override our internal wisdom, creating habits that defeat our well-being. Ideally, our human consciousness and mental capacities would serve as tools to enhance our fitness and survival. What medical experts have observed, however, is that our ability to control and manipulate our environment - including our food supply and personal diets - is the very thing that is now threatening our national health. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot!

Do yourself a favor in the next few days: take a little time to get back in touch with your inner health wisdom. Follow the tracks in the snow of the wise creatures who share our prairie space. Nimble four-legged friends graze and criss-cross our landscape with grace and speed. No overweight specimens there! Feathered friends hunt and peck or fly to feed their young and fuel their intercontinental journeys. No unwillingness to exercise there! Green things, in season, put down roots and put out leaves that recycle what we two- and four-leggeds don't need or can't use. In an amazing cooperative refueling process - one that operates effortlessly in nature like a perpetual motion machine - the nutrients and carbon dioxide that plants thrive on are transformed back into the foods and oxygen the rest of us can't live without. How awesome is that?!

Stay tuned for more thoughts in future issues about staying healthy the natural way. Next time we'll look at how counting from one to six - the number of nature's essential health-bestowing gifts to us - can help us rediscover what we already know about being healthy and living fearlessly. Until then...Here's to your health!