By Eileen Weilbacher
Our environment affects who we are, how we think, what we appreciate and how healthy we are. Chemicals—fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, food colorants, artificial flavorings, cleaning products, exhaust—all contribute to the pollution on Earth. Did you ever wonder how this pollution affects our lives? Our children’s lives? The entire ecosystem?
Our body is like a microcosm of our planet. We have the same minerals and chemical makeup, and we are both equally affected by pollution. Our liver and kidneys filter pollution, but when they are overloaded, they don’t function as well as they should. This allows toxins to build inside our body. These man-made chemicals are foreign to our body and must be eliminated. However, our body doesn’t recognize them, doesn’t know what to do with them and tends to store them in fat. The accumulation of too many toxins can cause internal irritation or dis-ease (meaning ill-at-ease).
When the immune system becomes overwhelmed, or is compromised, it doesn’t work as efficiently as it was meant to. Eventually we catch a cold, or flu. If our immune system is constantly overburdened, we will catch any bug that’s roaming around. If our immune system goes into hyper-immune drive, we end up with auto-immune dis-eases like asthma, allergies and inflammation (which is at the root of all dis-ease).
People don’t think about prevention. I guess it is human nature to think we are exempt from dis-ease and that it’s best not to focus on it. However, it’s even better to make the effort to prevent it. When dis-ease is prevented, we never know it was an option, and many people don’t appreciate this gift.
As we age, we see our peers weaken. Suddenly they’re on medication for high blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes. This is not necessary. When we exercise, eat local and organically grown whole foods, eliminate processed (packaged) foods, reduce our simple carbohydrate intake, reduce artificial sweeteners and flavorings in our foods and drink purified water, we do ourselves a huge service. Taking a pro-active lifestyle approach to your health is the greatest gift you can give yourself because health truly is wealth.
Now that we are preventing internal imbalances, we must take the time to step outside—literally—and clean up the Earth’s imbalances. These environmental imbalances become the internal imbalances that the immune system must fight off. We all need to use less plastic and chemicals. We need to replace disposable materials with reusable materials and use biodegradable cleaning products.
Let’s all make a bigger effort to pick up after ourselves. Everyone can participate in cleaning their town. Try creating a friendly gathering to clean up a local park or beach. The Earth is an amazing planet. Like our body, it can cleanse itself. If we simply stop polluting it, and give it a little tender loving care, it will give us so much more in return!