Natural Immunity
The magnificent human body grows from conception with seemingly miraculous intent, and is designed to be self-regulating, self-maintaining, and self-healing. Its innate, divinely guided intelligence is beyond our mental or scientific comprehension! It is always directing itself toward perfect health, always doing the very best it possibly can in the conditions provided...if you really think about it, doesn’t this make the most sense? Why would we be designed to malfunction and fall apart? Just imagine the miracle of plants for a minute – a cactus naturally thrives in the desert, and a palm tree in the tropics. Any plant, in its proper climate and at least mostly given its preferred amount of sunlight, water, and other nutrients will automatically thrive for its natural lifespan, with no interventions needed. The conditions and nutrients humans need are somewhat different from those of plants, but the laws of life apply with equal power.
To the extent that the causes of harm are removed, and the proper conditions of health provided, all organisms thrive. This includes humans! Why would we be exempt from this natural law? And yet we live as though we have forgotten, as though we don’t trust the intelligence of our bodies or the wisdom of our natural intuition. Our forgetfulness has led us down a very treacherous and dangerous path. I believe our healthy recovery as a species depends upon us remembering and re-applying the basic laws of nature. We collectively have become afraid, and untrusting of ourselves and our magnificent intelligent design.
Personal experiences with dis-ease in my twenties caused me to seek to reconnect with the healing powers of the divine spark in me. And the wellness journey I embarked upon helped me to realize later an unflinching trust that my children were divinely designed to unfold and blossom beautifully and organically, and that my primary responsibility as their parent was to protect them from true harms while providing them with the natural conditions of health, to the best of my ability.
I was organically thus attracted to an ‘unschooling’ path, as I intuitively felt it would best facilitate their unfettered emergence as sovereign beings. Sincerely, this was the easier path as a parent! My children were generally more relaxed and enthusiastic than their schooled peers. And without teacherly intervention, they all learned to roll over, crawl, walk, talk, read, write, learn, build, create, and so much more! As they grew and developed, they knew my trust in them, knew my faith in their ability to decide for themselves and choose their own preferred paths. I saw my role as that of a loving facilitator. I kept a healthy homestead and provided a richly interesting environment, loved them wholeheartedly, observed them closely, and helped them access the resources and community mentors they needed to pursue their emerging interests. And I delighted every day in watching them blossom into the amazing, kind and confident adults they all are today.
All the fancy technology in the world cannot out-design nature’s magnificent blueprint. Just as a sun-ripened, fresh organic mango cannot actually be improved upon by mixing it into a recipe invention, our human design is already complete, the way it is intended to be. I am not arguing against all formal education or technology, nor against all medical or pharmacological interventions. We have lived unnaturally for so long now, certain unnatural interventions have become sometimes needed now to help us. And some technologies may actually improve upon our lives, so long as they don’t cause us to forget or forego our natural requirements for vibrant life.
“Nature vibrates on a different level. It is a pure and powerful force. It induces the mind to settle, to generate space, and to begin harmonizing with its own pure and subtle vibration. Breathing regulates, heart rhythm stabilizes, blood pressure is reduced, feelings of acceptance, forgiveness, and well-being blossom. In an instant, you have traveled the distance from the head to the heart.”
- Doc Childre et al, 2016, Heart Intelligence.
So many so-called ‘authorities’ and ‘experts’ have emerged in our modern society, to the extent that most of us have at one time or another held them in higher esteem than our own innate wisdom. True, if an individual has deeply applied themselves to studying a particular topic, they may well have valuable information to share with us, and we benefit from giving our attention to their discoveries. Ultimately though, there is so much information so easily available to us now in the outer realm, that we each must find a way to go inward and sort out what rings true, and what is actually potentially helpful. So how can we do this?
“The first thing to do is to lift your foot. Breathe in. Put your foot down in front of you, first your heel and then your toes. Breathe out. Feel your feet solid on the Earth. You have already arrived.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
We need to reconnect deeply with our Source, before we can know what is true for us. I watched an interview with a woman who had a near-death experience. She said it’s as if we each become unplugged at birth when the umbilical cord is cut, and we then spend the rest of our lives carrying this disconnected plug around with us, desperately trying to plug it back in but we can’t remember anymore where the socket is. We try to plug ourselves into other people, or things, jobs, houses, food, drugs, sex, ideas, projects, etc., but we don’t know how to plug back into the Source which gives us life. She also expressed that if we all only knew the all-encompassing LOVE that is available to us (which she felt in an indescribably, completely healing way in her near-death encounter), we would all live so differently.
One of the most powerful ways I ground myself and ‘plug in’ is by frequently walking barefooted outdoors on earth’s natural surfaces. Every wild animal does this all the time! We are the only creatures who have invented shoes that disconnect us from the magnetic vibration of the earth’s surface. It is a beautiful experience to shed unnatural shoes, and to connect my naked feet gently with the earth, remembering with profound gratitude and awe that I am walking softly upon a living being, one that is supporting all of life. Here is a wonderful barefoot-walking mantra I found in a little book called “How to Walk,’ which helps to maintain this sense of mindfulness and presence:
“With every step, arrive.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
It helps to walk barefooted in silence, either alone or with other people, but not talking much. Talking distracts and puts us in a mental space rather than the more sacred heart-space we can touch when we get quiet and reverent. It is also extra important to stay mindful and aware when we are barefooted outdoors, so that we know where we are stepping. I have rarely injured myself while walking thus, though I have injured myself many times with shoes on, or cruising around barefooted and distracted in a building full of furniture!
“When we are pushed and pulled in many different directions, we lose our sovereignty. We’re not free. Don’t allow yourself to be carried away anymore. Resist. Each mindful step is a step toward freedom. This kind of freedom is not political freedom. It’s freedom from the past, from the future, from our worries and our fears.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
I delight in experiencing earth’s many varied surfaces, textures and temperatures with my naked feet. From bare soil or sand that might be wet or dry, cool or warm, to hard rock that might be smooth, slippery, rough or jagged, to squishy mud or dewy grass, to sticks, leaves, pine needles...or my favorite, soft padded moss. The subtleties and dramas of surfaces are infinite, and endlessly fascinating to the sensitive nerve endings on my feet and toes. And I know that I am also absorbing energies from the earth, air and sunshine (or moisture) that are integral to my well-being.
Of all my children, my daughter Hannah particularly loved connecting her body with the earth, and her 12-year-old birthday request was for her whole family to walk barefoot with her along the muddy river-bank trail near our home. It was May in Michigan, and the mud was cooold. But what fun we all had! For a teenage birthday, I gifted her a ‘mud-wrap’ at a salon. She was excited for it, but afterwards said it was no where near as joyful as playing in the real mud.
As I walk mindfully, whether barefooted or not, my mind inevitably calms and my breathing regulates. On one health retreat I was leading in Costa Rica, as we hiked up a steep mountain there was one rather overweight man in our group who was lagging behind. I held back to check in with him, and learned that he was feeling fearful about his heart-rate, and worried that he could not make the summit. I walked behind him, and coached him to give each in-breath 3 counts, and each out-breath 3 counts. “In 1-2-3; Out 1-2-3; In 1-2-3; Out 1-2-3.” Steadily, rhythmically matching steps with breaths, we proceeded together in silence. He became calm and focused, and reached the summit with no further issue. It was a very empowering and unforgettable experience for him. And so simple, truly. Reconnect, and relax into trusting the body’s abilities.
Nature also offers us the glorious sunshine to boost our immune systems and help us maintain vibrant health and wellness. If we can put all the ignorantly fearful voices on a shelf and allow ourselves to freely enjoy the sun’s radiant warm rays, we benefit immensely! And if we are mindful and tuned-in, we know instinctively when we have had enough sun and we will avoid sunburn. Eating what we are designed to eat gives us another layer of natural protection from sunburn. In addition to offering the best way for us to produce vitamin D naturally, which is absolutely critical for healthy immune function, sunlight boosts the effectiveness of our T-cells, another integral and crucial part of the immune system (please see “Embracing the Sun,” listed below).
“I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more.”
- Henry Ward Beecher
It feels sublime to turn our faces to the sun, and to feel the skin on ALL of our body-parts being touched by gentle sun-rays. Nude sun-bathing in the right conditions is absolutely delicious! (We are, after all, the only creatures who wear clothes.) Our unprotected eyes naturally turn toward the sunrise and the sunset, and gazing at these gorgeous transitions satisfies a certain unspoken longing in our hearts. I have learned that the sun’s natural light in our eyes even helps us to digest food. It is healthiest to enjoy our natural foods outdoors, in a pleasant climate, during daylight hours.
In these hectic modern times in which we have shoved nature into crevices, to be enjoyed occasionally and carefully in little slivers of our ‘spare time,’ it may require a great deal of un-conditioning and unwinding in order for us to really reconnect with all the gifts of health and wellness nature freely offers. Of course, there are many requisites of true health and wellness, including loving relationships and supportive community, sense of purpose and authentic self-expression, to name a few. But frequently reconnecting in deeply present and consciously mindful ways with nature, is a very effective and accessible way to drop into the wisdom of the heart, the soul, the intuitive knowing. Connecting with our natural design is a key that unlocks the forgotten knowledge of a divine blueprint that knows how to maintain life in the most intelligent, efficient, miraculous and beautiful way. We need to learn how to get out of the way, and trust the loving guidance that is automatically supporting us.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh
Embrace the Sun: Are you dying in the dark? by Marc B. Sorenson, Ed.D. and William B. Grant, Ph.D.