Several months back when I had what is commonly known as 'The Flu' - I was reflecting and learning some things -
- 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.
- 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 - 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.
- 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.
- "If you don't choose to make time for your rest, you'll be forced to make time for your sickness"
