Over the last month or so I have run into many people, myself included, who have complained about nagging coughs, congestion or other cold symptoms that just won’t seem to go away.  All of these people that I have had interactions with have said that they have either had the symptoms for 2 or more weeks with no change or have seen them subside only to ramp back up again.  All of these people could not seem to understand why these annoying symptoms would not just go away.  

The funny thing is that I knew exactly why this was happening, and in spite of this had the same experience.  I’ve actually done experiments with myself over the years and without fail the “secret” has always worked!  So why don’t I just use this trick every time I’m sick?  Because just like the rest of the world, I get stubborn, I forget about myself and become convinced that everything else is more important.  In addition, I tend to forget that taking the small amount of time now will eliminate the continuous pain and suffering that seems to linger.  

I’m not really talking about a tincture or concoction or anything like that.  Although my husband and I do swear by my lemon/ginger tea when I have a cold, this is even EASIER!  Without fail, when I let myself get run down and start to feel wiped out with a tickling cough or stuffy head, this one things works wonders - and it works best the earlier I implement it.  

Although you may hear this all the time, unless you have ever really put it to the test you will never know how well it actually works.  The secret is rest.  And I don’t mean work from home and do your Christmas shopping online at night.  I mean completely, totally resting. 

Our body is so amazing that it knows exactly how to heal itself from the common cold.  It does it perfectly even.  The caveat is that it cannot heal efficiently when we are placing so many other demands on it such as stress of the holidays, digesting lots of fat and sugar or trying to regenerate on the less than optimal sleep that it needs.  You see, when we are sick, and we stop everything except minimal physical movement and digestive demands, the body can focus 100% on healing and that is exactly what it does.  

So I said that I have tested this theory multiple times and it has worked.  The gotcha is that the longer you wait, the more you may need to accelerate the healing process.  I was sick a couple of weeks ago and of course did not want to put off clients or miss out on my son’s school holiday events.  I was experiencing the nagging cough and stuffy head.  I made it a point to go to bed early 1 or 2 nights and started to feel a little better.  Sooooo, I just kept on pushing myself against the calendar and the Christmas task list.  Guess what?  Yup, I started feeling crappy again, no surprise at all to me of course.  So I did what I knew I should have done the first time.  I went to bed and did not get up, except to nibble something nutritious and use the restroom.  I slept and/or stayed in bed doing absolutely nothing for 2 days.  This is where people freak out.  It is extremely difficult for our culture to do nothing.  But as I said earlier, this is what the body needs in order to focus completely on healing our illness.  It is similar to trying to do too many things at work at the same time.  What quality output will you get?  How much longer will it take to get one thing done?  Our bodies are the same.  It can try to use any minuscule resources it may find for fighting our sickness or it can use all of it’s resources and get it done in a fraction of the time.  When you really think about it, the 1-2 days in bed is MUCH FASTER than the 2 or 3 weeks people end up fighting and feeling miserable.  And you probably miss out on much less and enjoy much more once those 1-2 days have done their work!

I cannot even tell you the difference that time in bed made to me.  I felt completely rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of my week.  

So the next time you start to feel under the weather, try this little experiment with yourself.  Let your body do the work it is meant to do so that you can continue along with your very important life!  :-)