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Do What They Doby Kathy Sinnett, RN, CHTP/I, CHN |
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Well, I have a favorite new book given to me by a friend in Austin, TX. I don’t know if you can still get it. Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care from a noted Vermont country doctor, D.C. Jarvis, MD, Fawcett Crest Books, 1958. Published in 1958? Surely there must be something newer than that. I’m sure there is. There is another quote from a much later book that you may grow into: “Wisdom comes with age. Observe and be quiet, for that is where the power is.” That’s exactly why I like the folk medicine book. What Dr. Jarvis did was to observe nature in its natural state and see what we could learn from it. Take sleeping with the windows open to be healthy. Lotsa folks do it. Good old-fashioned advice. Right? As it turns out, wrong! Jarvis was called to do a research study. It was in relation to a study of Tuberculosis in the Dusty Trades. He examined 500 granite cutters from many nationalities. One of the questions was, “Do you sleep with the windows open?” Of course, many of them did. At the end of the study the conclusion was that there was a relationship between open windows and frequent head colds. Move to a private college prep school where he was in charge of the medical care. They had recently set the standards that all would sleep with their windows open to avoid the common cold. All followed the orders except two lads from a farm that slept with the windows closed and were the only ones without colds. When questioned, the boys said that they were imitating the chickens. When the chickens were sleeping they fluffed their feathers and then put their noses, OK beaks, into the feathers. They didn’t sleep with their heads out in the cool weather. They put them into this nice warmth that was coming off their bodies and let the fresh air come through the filters. And so the good doctor watched the hens and saw this was true. Foxes curl their tails over their noses as they sleep in the cold and horses stand with their head close to each other with the cold wind at their backs. Common sense. And, he says, that were we to take a leaf out of the animal book we would also walk more, just as they do in search of food. The origin of leisure time was the resting of the body so that it might be in readiness to seek food or fight to defend itself. He goes on. Animals don’t eat when they are sick. They know that they have body reserves to maintain themselves in time of need. The first twenty years are spent eating a lot, as good building materials are needed to build a strong structure. (I don’t think he had McDonald’s in mind.) By the age of 50 one needs to begin building the body anew. Not to gratify the appetite, but rather selecting the foods that our somber second thoughts tell us represent the elementary composition of the human body. If you’re thinking about having a strong house when you’re older, you probably need to put good building blocks in now. Consider who you know that looks and acts now like you want to when you are that old. Notice what goes into their mouths and out of their mouths actually too and what they do with their bodies. Tony Robbins, motivational speaker, is forever saying, how you become successful at anything is to find out who the master is and do what they do. That is pretty easy to do especially when you are looking just at healthy bodies. But what about the rest of it? How can you be successful? At what? Anything! A lot of it has to do with your self talk. Remember, it’s like another favorite book, The Little Engine That Could. “I think I can, I think I can.” If you are forever telling yourself that you can’t do something and that everyone else is better, “you” listen. “I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” And, you have to be willing to do what it takes. Are you ready to do what is necessary? Are you committed to what is needed, no matter what? As I write this, there is the story of a young man who was doing canyon climbing and stuck his hand into the crack of a boulder to be able to climb higher. Suddenly, the boulder shifted. His arm became trapped. Eventually, after several days of trying everything else he could think of to free himself, he had to do what he had to do to be free. His water was gone, along with the other options. He determined that he couldn’t wait for others to save him. He had to save himself. He used his pocketknife to cut off his trapped arm. He thought it out, placed a tourniquet around the arm and set himself free. And then, with what was left of his arm in a makeshift sling, he let himself down the side of the mountain 60 feet and he proceeded to walk out. This young man made a plan. I wonder if he ever doubted himself. I suspect that he did at some point, but he didn’t dwell on the “I can’t.” He did the “I can.” So can each of us. Decide how you want your body and your life to be. Get a model. Think it through. And, as you watch and read what others have done, you are training your own mind and psyche and your life. In reality, what you think is what you get. You manifest whatever it is you want in your life. Energy goes where your focus is. You absolutely can create your reality. And, it’s usually a lot easier than cutting off your arm.
Kathy Sinnett, RN is a Certified Holistic Nurse, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor. She is available for holistic treatment of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges through traditional and nontraditional
means. She can be reached at
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