The Stram Center for Integrative Medicine

By Christopher Reilly, L.Ac

“Haste makes waste” is an axiom that has largely fallen out of style in the fast-paced world that we live in.  We expect results quickly and with very little cost or effort, whether that be cheap hamburgers at a drive-through or cable TV on-demand movies.  We don’t even have to read books anymore- we can just see them acted out on the silver screen.

When this tendency towards “instant gratification” behavior comes into contact with how we take care of ourselves, the outcome can be a little worrying.  Who of us wouldn’t want to be able to just take a pill and not have to worry about eating healthy foods, avoiding yummy treats and sweating it out at the gym?  Would anyone refuse a simple pill that can cure all of our ills in a moment without any work on our part?  I know I wouldn’t.  That is, if they existed.  Unfortunately, that’s not how things work.

Think about how things work in real life.  Suppose you have a partially clogged drain leading from the kitchen sink, and now it’s starting to leak.  Ignore it, and it simply becomes more backed up.  Give it a quick cosmetic fix, and we all know you’ll soon be having to fix it again in addition to water damaged floor boards.  Maybe you have a well-meaning neighbor who offers to take care of it for you.  You’re immensely grateful until a month later you notice the basement ceiling is buckling because he successfully cleared the clog, but failed to seal the leak.  Most of us bite the bullet at the outset when we realize we have a plumbing problem that we can’t fix ourselves, and call in the plumber to avoid damage to our home and the investment that it represents.

Do we take care of ourselves with equal care?  Taking pain relievers for a chronic pain is sometimes necessary.  To do so without at the same time doing everything we can to fix the underlying problem, and to support the body as a whole can lead to more pain and dysfunction down the road.  Taking cholesterol lowering medication is often recommended, but doing so without at the same time changing our diet and lifestyle is simply fooling ourselves into believing that the cholesterol was the problem, and not the result of underlying issues of diet and lifestyle that will inevitably lead to other difficulties.

We really do reap what we sow.  If we want quality time from our lives, we have to slow down a little and invest quality time into our lives.  Exercise can be thirty minutes walking outside watching children play and the clouds dance their slow dance.  Eating well can be the adventure of picking a new recipe and having the whole family take part in gathering and preparing the ingredients.  Treating the root cause of a problem can be as pleasant as a massage, as relaxing as acupuncture or as rejuvenating as a series of vitamins and herbs.  It may even be as awe-inspiring as a sort of renewal of the self and spirit, and a reaffirmation of the value and wonder of our own lives.

“The size of our life is in direct proportion to the size of our courage.”  I can’t remember the exact saying or who said it, but it strikes me as being very true.  It takes a lot of courage to scoop ourselves out of our old habits, and drop into new and unfamiliar ones.  But the reward for such courage can be a bigger and greater life, and what could be more amazing than that?