Thoughts about 'The Flu'

Several months back when I had what is commonly known as 'The Flu' - I was reflecting and learning some things - 

1. The word 'Flu' comes from the Spanish word for influence, originating from when we previously believed that this was caused by alignment of the stars / astrology.   The words we use matter, and I no longer call my symptoms 'The Flu', I am not under the influence of any external negative force or person or virus, my body is just doing what God has designed it to do, and so I only say "My body is getting rid of something that shouldn't be in there" and thank God for that.
   
   
2. As I lay in bed totally congested I was thinking why would God design my good nose to totally block when nose breathing is so good for you, and I was asking God to teach me something through it. Then as I lay there I swallowed and felt the yucky feeling of swallowing with a fully blocked nose and I realised - I felt the congestion move slightly. I kept swallowing, maybe 20, 30 or 40 times until my nose was clear enough to breathe through it again!!!   There is some mechanism by which swallowing causes drainage of the nose / sucks it out through pressure, incredible!   I wanted to know how this works and couldn't find any answers on google. I was looking at the anatomy of the nose to try to understand how this works, and kept looking until I had an idea ! See below video for my guess at how this is working. The eustachian tube is the key :) 
   Note in 10% of people the eustachian tube is apparently either always open or always closed so for those 10% of people I'm guessing this technique to clear the blockage may not work
   
   
   
   
3. Don't blow your nose - I used to aggressively blow my nose and go through a few boxes full of tissues, my thinking on this now is that my body wants to have this material present, so if I forcefully evacuate it all as quickly as I can, it's just going to stimulate it to keep producing even more, which will increase congestion.  So I just dab at my nose to catch the drips and limit nose blowing, using the previously mentioned swallowing technique to clear it enough to breathe.
   
   
4. Don't think woe is me I'm sick, just take it as an opportunity to rest, read, relax and slow down for a couple of days.
   
   
5. "If you don't choose to make time for your rest, you'll be forced to make time for your sickness"

Upside down language

The words that we use matter... and it's common in society to flip the meaning of words upside down. The tongue has the power of life and death, so there are tactics built in by the enemy to society's language to try to shift our words from life to death, good to bad.

This is a list of some upside down meaning words or just things that I think are unhelpful language to use. 

 From listening to some bible teachers and talking to friends and catching some in my own speech here are a few

- wicked = really good or awesome.  I even remember a children's song it's great great brill brill wicked wicked skill skill to have a friend like Jesus.

- sick = really good or awesome

- positive = sick with covid.  Positive is meant to be a good thing.   'He was the most positive person there' and one child replied "has he got Covid?" That has invaded society that positive = sick and negative= healthy

- "It was meant to rain today" - who meant it to rain today?  God meant it to be sunny, that's what's happened and what he has given us!,  the weatherman predicted rain.  

- "killing time" implies wasting, instead say 'using time'

- "Staying apart keeps of together"  this one should have been obvious but it wasn't to me until someone pointed out "no - staying apart keeps us apart!

- Sure - sometimes used to only express doubt 'are you sure?' when actually it's a word of certainty!

- "my bad knee" don't call what God has made good bad.    I choose to call it my good knee! It may be injured or sore yes but it is still good!

- Phones - reinforce that your identity is tied up with your phone.   iPhone I am not my phone.   Realme is a brand I had,  the phone is not the real me!  Xiaomi （小米） means little rice,  but if you take the Chinese meaning of little and the English sound 'me' it can subtly sound like the phone is the little me.   Samsung Galaxy - limitless place to spend all your time exploring the galaxy.  

 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Ephesians 4:29

Benalla

A morning walk through Benalla Botanic Gardens with my new 50mm f1.2 lens

 

Out of Control

 We like to blame something which is out of our control.

Because then - there is no personal responsibility to actually change our ways.

Ever since the beginning - man has tried to blame his problems on others.

"The woman you put here - she gave it to me"... "The serpent deceived me"

By blaming something external it "hides" the guilt, and attempts to hide the truth that we are the ones to blame for the predicament we're in.

In the context of the medical system - we deny our own responsibility for our own health and say "this happened totally at random, nothing you did could have prevented it or changed the outcome", or "this is a virus out of your control"

And this blame of the external means we can't do anything to fix it ourselves - so we inevitably enter a symbiotic relationship with the medical system:

- The pharmaceutical companies gladly take our money
- We gladly receive a pill - an easy 'cure' which makes us feel better for a time

And everyone is happy with this arrangement, each receives what they want, but if we haven't found the root cause - we are often still sick.

Man would sooner die than change his habits.

The Magpies Still Sing

The Magpies still sing

The plants still grow

The sun still rises

And the bees still dance

Why should I mourn?

Why should I weep?

Why despair?

When my heart is free

Kettles and micro plastics

This week I upgraded my kettle to a beautiful yellow stainless steel one from Aldi.

Pros which are reason I bought the new one:

Doesn't spill water on the bench every time you tip it!

- Protection against running with no water inside (maybe this works the same amazing way that a ride cooker works!? 

- Beautiful colour 💛

Extra bonus!

- Stainless steel so reduces micro plastics ingested!  This wasn't the reason to buy it but now I've learned that I'm very glad to have changed !!!

I found a study where they managed to photograph all the micro plastics with a microscope and a high speed camera!  

Between 6,607 and 29,194 particles of plastic in every millilitre of water on the third time boiling a plastic kettle!!! 😮

That's between 6.6 and 30 million particles in just one litre of water 😧

So many things around us which could be harmful or may be having effects we won't fully realise for years to come, but no use stressing about it, just keep making one positive change after another, on the journey to better health 🙂

Study Showing Micro Plastic Released in Kettles

Better Health Advice

For the past 16 months all the health advice has centred around 5 things: 

Social distancing, sanitiser, masks, staying inside and vaccines.

But health is more than just avoiding a disease, and in fact many of these things may be harmful to your health in other ways. If we strengthen our overall health then whatever comes along we will be able to deal with !

Here's 6 positive things to be doing to look after your health.