Body, teacher

I tend to be a workaholic. But whenever I do take a break, I go down with some cold or flu.

It’s a debt I have to repay, because there were a few times I was going to fall sick in the past few months but I asked my body to hold it in because of work. I can’t fall sick when I’m the only one running workshops. It’s amazing how the body adapts.

So now that the projects are closing, the body is asking for repayment.

I’ve learned a similar lesson the hard way in the past.

If I don’t slow down, my body will get me to slow down, some way or the other. Chronic pains, weird ailments, unexpected injuries. It’s like it’ll play along for a while. But it can’t hold it in forever. Beyond a threshold point, it all comes crashing down. Hard. Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes, years. The crash after years are the worst. The ones where it makes you question your mortality. Where radical changes in lifestyle, diet, and work are desperately needed. For some people, it’s points of no return, like cancer.

The body is my harshest teacher. But it’s a teacher I’ve been grateful for.