Know what's good for you.
We are so removed from our instincts that we have forgotten what is good for us.
Today I want to tell you a short story. Some of you may have already heard me speak about Sparky but I expect most of you haven’t. I’ll start by giving you fair warning - it’s a sad story, but it’s a sad story that has inspired something new, exciting, and important.
When my son was five, we got him a guinea pig and the guinea pig's name was Sparky. Sparky lived in an idyllic location in our back garden, under a willow tree with a waterfall running by. He had everything he needed in terms of healthy food - carrots, lettuce, and the odd guinea pig pellet to munch on. Not to mention some lovely succulent grass.
However, Sparky was always trying to nibble a little plant that grew nearby called plectranthus. One day, I took pity on him and I took a bunch of the plectranthus and I just popped it into his cage as a treat. The next morning, my son came in holding this poor little, cold, dead guinea pig in his arms.
I felt really dreadful, both as a mother and as a doctor, that I had harmed this poor creature. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought how remarkable it was that one of God's creatures could be so domesticated in a way that it was so out of touch with its instincts and intuition. Sparky had forgotten what was good for him.
The more I pondered this, especially recently, the more I have thought it's where we now find ourselves as human beings. We are so removed from our instincts that we, too, have forgotten what is good for us.
Last week I shared five tips to move from worrier to warrior. While I do these five things regularly, all of which are good for me, I still do plenty that is bad for me. As I continue to grow and learn, I discover more about what truly is good (and bad) for me and adjust my choices and habits accordingly. I am now feeling more confident than ever that I know what is good for me and feel empowered to take control of my life and my health. I hope that you all will soon experience the same if you don’t already.
This tragic experience with Sparky has now taken on a life of its own. As dreadful as I felt when it happened, I can now see that the loss of Sparky can serve as much-needed inspiration moving forward. This is why the World Council for Health has begun a new campaign inspired by Sparky called Know What’s Good for You.
I invite you to learn more about it by visiting the World Council for Health’s website. I also hope you’ll view the short animation below done by Jordan Holden. I am also including a short clip of my sharing the story of Sparky at the Covid Conversations Conference in February.
Progress from paradise.
"We had seen the first automobiles reaching Tahiti and a single one kept as a curio between the palms at Takapoto. They symbolized one of white man's pet philosophies: Any device that saves us from using our own muscles is a blessing. To save physical labour we add motors to bicycles, to dinghies, to lawnmowers, to razors and tooth brushes. And we sit. We sit and do overtime to pay the bills for these gadgets, and run to our doctors because we are overworked, overfed and stressed. The doctor presents another bill and tells us to do exercise, and then we buy a bicycle without wheels or a rowing boat without a bottom. There we sit cycling and rowing without getting anywhere, trying to regain the shape and health of our progenitors before the motor was invented." - Thor Heyerdahl
I think we have become lazy consumers. I have a mate and no matter what ails her she is off to the doc for antibiotics - its ridiculous. I have said to her many times, take Manuka honey, drink water to flush out the system etc but she thinks there is a magic pill for every ailment under the sun.
The Gov adverts don't help the situation as they appear to want dependent citizens, for example, the smoking ad to stop smoking: their first words are, 'we know its difficult but you can do it.' They are telling you its difficult and people believe this and use patches as a crutch. Others are workaholics, their work being their crutch. Its sad really that we can't rely on our own instincts and get back to basics and enjoy the beauty of life. The Dalai lama sums it up succinctly:
“The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered "Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”