| 14 December 2009
So many times I hear of stories of people getting sick anytime that they slow down or go on holidays. This may actually be a sign that your body is getting healthier...
I use to end up coming home from holidays more exhausted than when I left. I used to get frustrated that my wife would just laze around doing nothing at our holiday destination. “We can just lay around when we are at home, so why do that on holidays,” I said as I tried to cram every day of my holidays with various activities. But one Easter my wife, Angela took me to her family’s beach shack in a sleepy seaside village. The first few days I nearly went out of my mind with boredom and I was at a loss to understand why this tiny country hideaway held such a special place in Angela’s heart.
On the fourth day I finally succumbed to the pedestrian pace of this quiet coastal nook. I went for long aimless walks along its pebbly shores looking at nothing in particular. During the afternoon I began to feel tired so defying my feelings of guilt that I should be productive in some way, I indulged myself in a 2-hour afternoon nap. I have to admit, I didn’t feel very refreshed upon waking so an early night to bed soon followed.
The following day, I woke to a continued feeling of fatigue despite a 10-hour sleep. As the day went on, bouts of sneezing became more frequent as my sinuses became more congested. Great. I was coming down with a cold.
For me, the next two days I was a misery as I just slept and sat around doing nothing. I thought that my body must be allergic to being inactive or unproductive but my surge in energy following our holiday proved just the opposite.
On return to work after the Easter holidays, so many patients commented, “Boy, you must have had a great holiday.”
“Why do you say that,” I asked.
“You just seem to have so much more spark about you,” was the common reply.
And they were right. After feeling so miserable on holidays I certainly had a greater spring to my step. I realised that often when people break unhealthy addictions they can have an initial detoxification period when they feel awful. So I began to ask myself if my being ill during my holidays was my detoxification as I went cold turkey with my addiction of continually being busy. Stress can be very addictive.
When you are stressed your body releases adrenalin that helps to divert blood away from our organs to our muscles so we can escape from any signs of physical danger. In addition, pain relieving chemicals are also released. This is done so we can still run like an Olympic sprinter to escape danger even if we are injured. We can feel better even if we aren’t.
Stressed out workers can become addicted to these powerful chemicals that give us greater strength and less pain but there’s a downside...
Your bodies stress response of continually diverting the blood away from the organs can lower the organs function and lower your immunity. Some of us become so chronically stressed that your immune system is so weak that it is too tired to react when it should.
Consider colds and flus like an opportunity to have a big clean up of your body. If you don’t have the energy to clean up your house regularly, what happens?
It will end up becoming a rundown mess which no one can properly live in.
When chronically stressed people eventually do rest, they often complain that they get a cold or flu whenever they do rest. Let me say that it is a good thing for your health. When you do begin to rest, your body begins to have the energy to clean up the rubbish within your system. That’s why many chronically stressed workers get a clod or flu when they rest. So if you are the type of person who seems to always get a cold or a flu when you slow down and have a rest, it is not a sign that you should stop taking vacations. It is a sure fire indicator that you have run yourself into the ground.
