The Joy of Illness and Body Exploring

Ever after overcoming post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome a few years back I have had an enhanced bodily awareness of when my immune system is faltering from its, now, resolute defenses.  Most often I catch the early warning signs (which I will talk about in a later post), change my plans for the day, and begin the methods I've found help my immune system recalibrate. 

I'm quite happy with my success rate as it stands, and am always researching and trialing new methods to enhance this, but alas - sometimes life has other plans and you can't get in the rest and rejuvenation time needed.  Last week this very thing happened, and I got the early stages of the cold virus that is doing the rounds at the moment.

Firstly, this is not a problem! As a body explorer I am interested in what happens in my body in all the different states on the health spectrum.  I actually have quite a fun time these days when I get sick - different, novel areas inside the body get tight and sore, and I play a game and see if I can relax them.

If you have a working Sitting (or other mindfulness) practice, it's reasonably simple to dis-engage from the rambling 'woe is me; this is the worst cold I've had in years; blah blah blah' style internal dialogue, and get down to the fun bit - feeling the sensory landscape in the body as it is being afflicted by whatever virus is in this season.  You can learn interesting things from this, IMHO.

Another fun (ok, I find it fun) thing to do is see what muscles and soft tissue structures have tightened up due to the virus.

I usually use a single acupressure ball (my favorite super-firm tennis ball) and explore around a bit, RollStretch style. Travell & Simons' talk about the links between viruses and myofascial trigger point phenomena in their epic two volume tome; and there are various maps of the body from oriental medicine and Ayurvedic perspectives that can be fun and interesting to refer to for this, also. 

Most important to me are the enormous, personal (subjective-experiential), somatic differences I notice in my body when it is ill versus doing the same thing when I am healthy.  From my explorations, I also find it interesting that different viruses/bacteria lead to different patterns of internal tension and sensation.

I'm sure I read this in Job's Body, or somewhere like that; but it is fascinating to explore how much of the feeling of being sick is actually these altered tension patterns and sensations + the mind complaining (the story of 'me' being sick). Surely there are viral particles within you, but you are feeling your bodies' response to that, are you not?  If you watch a really great movie, or are doing something else fun when being sick, the feeling of illness quite often momentarily disappears as you focus on the event - only to return when you are no longer fully engaged in whatever fun activity you were doing.  

I'm back to health again now, so I'll leave it there.  Don't take this as a recommendation to get sick either!  It's more a game to play when you find yourself ill.