sovereignty over our body

Health is a tricky thing: we have tricked our mind into believing we are out of health. Bankrupt: physically, emotionally, spiritually. Because of this belief we have embarked on a quest for health, actually chasing after it and enumerating all that we are lacking. If salt is missing in a dish, we add it. In the same logic, we condition our body to believe that we have to add the missing elements to restore balance. Aiming to recuperate all that we (believe we) have lost, we experiment. No wonder we are confused. When we are truly unwell, who do we run to? What do we do? What do we do to ourselves or let somebody else do to us? Just watch a finger heal, it needs no encouragement on our part. We apply some iodine and a Band Aid and we think nothing more of it. Isn't that the point? To think nothing of it? Healing occurs. It is neither induced nor provoked. The body asks nothing more. Medicine is a rest from the chasing, since health is something we inherently have. It does not need to be purchased, and neither does it need to be pursued. However, it does need our trust. It requires us to listen. And it demands rest. If the ability for our self to communicate with our body is eroded, we will have lost the last remaining vestige of our humanity: our sovereignty over our body. In this age, we have lost our relationship to land, which Indigenous cultures and peasant cultures continue to uphold despite the pressures. We have lost our connection to the community of peoples whom we live amongst. And we have lost our connection to knowledge, that which is passed down by ancestors. What we have left is our body, which speaks to us and which supports us. And, we have our sanity, the capacity for discernment. If the health of our body is put into doubt and we are asked to relinquish the sovereignty over it, then we are more vulnerable than ever. 

Silvana Tuccio November 2017