Immune system as an evolving balance
“The state of well-being is something that has to be experienced before one even knows that it exists. Once it has been discovered, it needs to be nurtured and tended with care.” ~ Théun Mares, founder of Radiant Life Technologies
As I have shared in the previous article, there is no way to “cheat” with our immune system. We need to rely on the body itself and trust that the body is a most capable and evolved entity, that only requires our support and co-operation in assisting with its tremendous task.
Defining what is a good immunity
How do we know, if we have good or bad immunity, at any given moment? Is there a test or some kind of probe that can help us to uncover this information?
There is no specific gadget or lab test that will tell you, that your immune system is (let's say) 5 out 5, or that your immune system is 2 out of 5. But we need that, otherwise, any measure towards better immunity can not be weighted or understood, whether it leads to a desired result of the stronger immune system or not.
To come up with a solution we need to understand, that we are not just physical beings. We are psycho-physiological beings, which means our psyche (thoughts and emotions) influence our physiology (physical body) and vice versa.
How that can that be? Let us see some simple examples. Think of the lemon, a very very sour lemon. Do you feel your mouth is being filled with saliva?
The same happens in your stomach, it is enough just to think about the tasty food for that to happen.
But what if you experience fear, a real fear? Did you felt a rush through your veins, when you were frightened for a moment by something, that came by surprise? But then it happened to be nothing, but the rush in your blood is still there? What about blushing? And so on, we all know that on the level of common sense.
Our body releases various chemicals, not only based on the physical factors present in the body but also based on our thoughts and emotions. We have those 2 factors impacting our chemistry – physical and psychical. Which one is most likely to fail us, in terms of causing disease? Of course, it is our psyche! Our body deals with internal facts, from the time immemorial. But the way we think and feel is changing dramatically and our body has not yet adapted to those changes.
That is why the word “natural” comes. “Natural” means the way it used to be for thousands of years. But it is not only natural food, the natural level of physical activity, but also thoughts and emotions that we used to experience being connected with nature. Just monitor the way you feel when observing a natural landscape, be it a forest, a lake, a sea, a mountain, a valley, a pasture, sky, starry sky and so on. Do you feel like that every day? Can that have an impact on you?
Okay, but what about the other way around – when you have a disease what happens to your mood? Do you feel optimistic, energetic, focused? Clear?
It may all sound unscientific, but has a lot of common sense, right? But it is a scientific fact. There is, as one example, a huge body of work by former Soviet Union scientists and doctors, that explored how all those things connected.
They have been measuring various physical parameters, including certain blood composition formulas, as well as psychosomatic variables. And also how it is all connected to the speed of healing under various circumstances and with various diseases.
What they found is that some blood parameters correlate well with certain psychosomatic states.
They found 4 major types of mode: stress, training, activation, over-activation.
When a person is in stress psycho-physically: all recovery processes go slower than needed, the disease is taking more and more resources to cope with. If such a process continues long enough – there is no recovery possible.
When a person is in training: there are enough resources for the body to cope with the disease and slowly, but surely the body will recover, though it may have some long-term consequences.
When a person is in activation mode: the body has overwhelmingly enough resources to cope with the disease.
When a person is in over-activation mode: the body is coping well with a disease, but a lot of caution is required, any moment relapse may happen, and all progress is thrown back.
There was a special questionnaire designed to establish what is the state of the person now. Major description goes like this below, try to feel which one of the 4 descriptions fits closer to you today. For example, you may tick plus, if you agree with some statement. And then count all pluses in the block and see which one mode has the most pluses for you today:
A person in high activation can say this:
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I am radiating optimism and I am sure everything will be fine;
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I am hungry, I greatly enjoy eating;
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I fall asleep very fast; I sleep deeply; and I wake up rested;
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I can work at a very high level of focus and speed;
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I can work and be actively engaged from the time I get out of bed until the time I go to bed;
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I am calm. Only situations that are life-threatening or extremely important can make me feel anxious or alarmed;
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I will have some irritation if I am; insulted; criticised; ridiculed; wrongly accused; etc.
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I can do the most demanding work or have the most demanding day and I will not get tired. Or if for some reason I do get tired I recover very quickly and can go at it again full steam ahead;
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I do not experience depression. I am full of joy, my life is full of purpose and meaning and I am loving this adventure called my life;
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I am thirsty to work and do things.
A person in training mode:
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I am more optimistic than neutral;
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I have an appetite, though not too big;
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Good sleep and I am rested;
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I can work with focus although not too fast;
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I can work and be actively engaged from the time I get out of bed until the time I go to bed;
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I am calm, but I can be made anxious by daily occurrences such as troubles; nuisances; annoyances; unpleasantries;
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I am not irritable. Even if I am; insulted; criticised; ridiculed; wrongly accused, I will not get irritated or have any desire to get angry;
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I do not consider myself a person who has much of any fatigue on any given day;
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I would say I am generally more upbeat than down;
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If I were to guess I would say I have some desire to do some things.
A person an over-activation mode:
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I am optimistic enough;
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I have a hearty appetite, I would eat with much pleasure;
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Not enough sleep, although I do not feel much tiredness;
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I can work with a lot of speed and focus;
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If I had to guess I would say I can work for a long time;
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I am calm at this moment, but feel like I could certainly become anxious due to an occurrence or situation on any given day;
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It does not take much to irritate me or make me angry and upset. And once I am I will often make sure the other person or people know it by giving them a piece of my mind;
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I do not consider myself a person who has much of any fatigue on any given day;
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I want to work and do things.
A person in a stress mode:
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I am neither pessimistic or optimistic, neither is prevalent or dominant;
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I have a moderate appetite. I would eat my favourite dish;
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Not enough sleep, although I do not feel much tiredness;
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I can work with a lot of speed and focus;
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I can work or engage in any activity for many many hours without getting tired;
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I am calm at this moment, but feel like I could certainly become anxious due to an occurrence or situation on any given day;
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For as long as people are friendly with me and we are getting along I am not irritated;
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I consider myself a person who gets fatigued from what I do on any given day, but only slightly;
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I am not depressed. Though I do not find I have much joy or feelings of lightness in my life either;
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If I were to guess I would say I have some desire to do some things.
Self-assessment and feeling your place in those 4 modes, can be done even without pen and paper and it is an important step that lets you constantly assess your state of being. Such an assessment is necessary to answer the next question:
How to get better immunity
“Is it not enough just to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and have more sun and fresh air to have excellent immunity?”
There is no in fact straightforward answer – because each person is different, each person has a different environment and other factors in their life. And what is enough for one person, may not be enough for another person. So the real question is how do you feel and what works for you?
Now we are getting closer to the core of the problem. The same way as the immunity system itself is a sequence of balancing acts, that carefully assesses every new (or existing) factor in our body to decide whether it needs to be supported or discarded.
The same way, a path to getting a good immunity is a sequence of balancing decisions, that take into account how do we feel as a result of the impact of each decision in our life. Especially about our health choices. And assessing if it works for us or not. The only way is to trust our feeling, assessment and see if we are getting closer to what we understand as well-being, how it feels like. And, need to stress here, it is not what the doctor says to us or what another knowledgeable person says to us. Because everything is connected, because of everything I mentioned above, it is only me myself that can judge and assess if something is good for me or not. It is only me who knows if any particular course of action is a balancing act for me or an unbalancing act for me.
This, in turn, means we need to be conscious and open. Open to new things, open to being honest with ourselves. Honestly seeing if something works for us or not.
So we can not be hooked on one diet or one remedy, just because we trust the source of that knowledge, or because it seems to be logical. And discarding other things because they may seem irrational or unproven.
Our immune system is a result of an ongoing dynamic balance, that is synonymous to constantly evolving our understanding of what is good for us. It is an un-ending process, there is no limit. Because for a very dynamically balanced system (and our body is exactly a dynamically balanced system) there is always possible the next step, a further development of that balance.
Now, why is that important to further develop our immunity? There are two reasons – one is that sometimes come factors, that are stronger than everything we have encountered before. And the second one is quality of life.
For the first factor, the analogy can be made like this. Do you remember that Lord of the Rings scene where they were defending a city-fortress? First, they fought besides city wall in the field, then they have abandoned the field and went behind city walls, then they have abandoned the outer city and went to the inner city, then inside that city they went inside the central citadel, only then they were able to stop the horde.
So building your immunity further and further is like expanding into the fields and creating some space there, and more reserves. So that your body can tackle if the horde comes. Because otherwise, it will wipe out your defences in the first moments of the battle.
Now second factor – the quality of life and also old age for that matter. Each one of us wants to enjoy life and also feel energetic enough to do that when an older age comes. And this connected to the immunity system as well.
Part 3 is coming …