Did you know that between 1999 and 2017, the global pharmaceutical industry garnered 1019 billion euros in profits? And that more than 90% have been redistributed in dividends and share buybacks?
Did you know that France is the European country that breaks all records in terms of prescription drugs? 90% of medical consultations result in a prescription to go to the pharmacy and therefore consume a drug.
Beyond economic, political and ethical considerations; this development has had a direct impact on our daily behavior.
Many of us pay little attention to our vitality and well-being. Because we know that we can go to the doctor whenever we are sick; while waiting for a drug that will cure us. We trust medicine because science has made colossal progress! And we are fortunate to have one of the best health care systems in the world.
What bothers me there is that we have gone from an ancestral logic of prevention to a logic of “I fall ill and the drug will cure me” which has totally destroyed our common sense which wanted us to take care of ourselves. daily ; thus avoiding the development of diseases and discomfort.
I think that this logic of “I’m sick> I’m taking a drug to get everything back to normal” has allowed a form of passivity to interfere and has made us feel less responsible for our state of health.
All ancient civilizations, whatever their geographical locations and their differences, integrated the care of body and soul into daily life.
For example: hot water baths and massages releasing tension and restoring flexibility to the tissues; were an integral part of everyday life in Iceland, around the Mediterranean and as far as Japan.
Taking care of yourself regularly is neither more nor less a matter of survival!
All the more so in our time when we have to deal with very many sources of stress, with thousands of concepts which are views of the mind from the imagination of humans and which considerably complicate our lives. Globalization has made us emotionally absorb the disasters that take place on the other side of the earth. Our conscience and our unconscious no longer face only the events which affect us closely but rather the whole of the misery of the world, as long as it is filmed and relayed by the media.
Whether it is bad news, violence in pictures or lived, negative thoughts that devalue us, that compare us to others, that distress us; we know that all the information we capture has a real impact on our body. They put our nervous system in tension.
Our nervous system is made to quickly go on alert and secrete adrenaline and cortisol which give us the means to act quickly in the face of danger. The problem is that our western, urban lifestyle keeps our bodies at this stress level almost permanently and we are not built to function that way.
Some medical researchers go so far as to say that the onset of a disease such as cancer or chronic disease sometimes occurs more than 10 years after the onset of the sudden biological or psychological imbalance.
In many ancestral approaches to health, it was already taken for granted that illness is the last warning signal telling us that something is wrong, that there is an imbalance, tension or abuse.
Each of us has a unique body to live our earthly experience. It offers us a panel of extraordinary sensations, it allows us so many things that we should perhaps pamper it more and hear the ancient medicines which already advocated prevention through attention.
Regular maintenance of body and mind allows you to take full advantage of it.
What does “take care of yourself” mean?
Taking care of yourself is providing your body with what it needs to function properly. This is what allows you to be healthy, to feel full of vitality and energy to do what you want to do with your day and therefore with your life.
Taking care of oneself also means creating the conditions that are favorable to our mind and avoiding subjecting our body to what gradually deteriorates it; very often without our noticing it.
Taking care of yourself therefore cuts across many subjects. As a living organism, we are an ecosystem that is part of a larger ecosystem. And since we are part of a system, taking care of yourself definitely involves taking care of more than yourself. This leads us to take care of the Earth, to live with greater respect for nature and what it offers us.
What I call “personal ecology” is in my opinion at the border between interior ecology and exterior ecology. It is the intention to act on oneself, starting from oneself by having a positive action for more than oneself.