Beyond Vaccinations, Fear, and Helplessness: The Path Ahead for Humanity

While the virus continues to slowly destroy humanity, taking human lives, putting magnificent pressure on health and infrastructure, bringing society down to its knees, scrambling for oxygen, running for bed space, doctors, and medication, for the second time in the span of one year, what are we learning from this? Are we going to talk about being resilient and bouncing back with a strong face like we always do when faced with adversity?

Yes, it’s great to have an attitude of resilience. However, now, the time has come to not just be resilient but smart. We need to be accountable and take action for what we’ve missed for the longest time because we put our faith solely in medicine and science. These two are undoubtedly great and much needed as they save lives and help in life sustenance, but now one must look beyond all this and look closer home.

Faith in the medical system was shaken last year when people were furious with the system. “How can we have nothing to treat this virus at a time and age that we live in right now?” People stuck in chronic illnesses with lifestyle diseases like diabetes, COPD, and heart issues woke up to a rude shock and horror to see how they were more vulnerable to the virus and death. Till then, they believed what society made them believe, “Take your pills and don’t worry. You can have a drink, enjoy life, diet doesn’t matter, there is no research stating sugar is bad, enjoy your life.” There was zero focus on lifestyle. It’s just prescription after another, with no emphasis on addressing the root cause and addressing a change in lifestyle so people could actually have a chance at recovery and healing.

What has happened has happened. While we sit back and watch the news and social media for more and more fear to fill us up, we need to take a couple of steps back to reflect on how we are living. Why is it that some people are asymptomatic, some people suffer terribly with the virus, some can heal from the comfort of their own homes as advised by their doctors, while some need a ventilator and oxygen?

Of course, everyone is different, but it is so clear that your innate and adaptive immune system, how you have lived your life – health-wise and lifestyle-wise, play a significant role in your well-being and recovery through these dark times. While the world may sell us ideas from medicines, turmeric, ginger, garlic, superfoods, steam inhalation, saltwater gargles, home remedies, and lots more the important question we need to ask ourselves is,

What change are we going to make to build a robust immune system in our community and world?

We have pollution on one side, putting tremendous pressure on the lungs from kids to the elderly. On the other side, we have people disabling their immune systems with extremely poor lifestyle choices. While the importance of diet, exercise, sleep, emotional wellness with the functioning or the suppression of the immune system, is clinically and scientifically recorded in several medical journals, we continue to ignore these powerful tools and live without using them to their total capacity. We forget that all of us have an intelligence within us that is designed to work for us every second of the day to protect, repair, heal, regenerate, detoxify, reduce inflammation and rebuild us. We compromise this through our poor lifestyle, self-medication, and immense stress that we put our body and mind by not allowing our intelligence to work the way it was meant to be. We are constantly being sold quick fixes to make us feel happy and help us move quickly through life without rest, taking a day off, and taking some time off to allow the adaptive immune system to work its brilliance. We have compromised our mechanisms, and yes, while we will need vaccines and medical treatments, it’s time we wake up and ask ourselves “What are we doing over and above medicine to prevent COVID, build a strong immune system, and thrive?”

After all, we are responsible for ourselves, and we are responsible for protecting, respecting, and nurturing this sacred vehicle – Our human body. Many of us have outsourced our health and the responsibility of taking care of it either because we don’t care or we are too busy. Some of us take it for granted, that there is a pill or treatment for everything that breaks down in the human body. Unfortunately, the data is different. At a time in our world, when we have so much medicine, technology, advancements in the medical field, the numbers and deaths of people with chronic lifestyle disease and other ailments are at their highest. Does this make sense? Cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes plague the world today. Does this mean medical treatments and medicines are not working in the right way? Could it also mean that it’s not enough? Does it also mean that we need to address the root causes and change our lifestyles to get better?

For the longest time, we were sold this lie, and today it’s taken a virus to shake the world and open our eyes to see the mess we are in. Now, the only way forward is your medication (if you need it), your doctors, and your LIFESTYLE.

We need science, and we need to respect it, but we don’t need it to blind us from common sense and action. After all, there is good science and bad science, like there is good nutrition and bad nutrition. The same science that told us things that are good for our heart, brain, and cancer is the same science today that tells us the opposite. Science and research can also be rigged, controlled, purchased, and sold for profit and private benefits. So yes, we need science, but we also need common sense and a mind of our own to break things down and then take action.

We are at a point in life where I predict preventive medicine and health becoming the center of attention and action because people are getting fed up, angry, tired of losing loved ones, and being sold lies. The truth is and will always be that we are products of nature, so we must operate within biological, physical, and chemical parameters that best define us. We must operate in alignment with nature and its circadian rhythm. When we move away from nature, we create disharmony. When we realign, we create harmony at a cellular level and achieve homeostasis naturally.

Do you expect a body and mind burned out with the constant hustle and grind to really support your immune system?

Do you expect a sleep-deprived body to have a sufficient amount of energy to drive its complex immune system? 

Do you expect a body riddled with inflammation and lifestyle ailments to support your immunity the way you expect it to? 

Do you expect your lungs burdened with smoking and substance abuse to really support you in this crisis?

Do you expect a liver abused with alcohol to suddenly kick in to save you as and when required? 

Do you expect a stressed-out mind to have a positive impact on its physical self? 

Do you expect forgiveness when you can’t forgive, (or expect love, appreciation, and respect without returning them)? 

Do you expect a sedentary body to be physically fit? 

It’s time we introspect to see how our expectations and beliefs are false, built on inaccurate platforms, and then take the required action and make the required lifestyle changes.

While we will always need medicine, the time has come to holistically look at and assess our lives and lifestyles. Wake up to the truth and the fact that medicine, nutrition, exercise, meditation, and so on, all have their limitations, pros, and cons, but when integrated and combined together with the way it was meant to be, it becomes the most powerful tool for prevention and recovery.

The future of prescriptions will no longer just be medicines and drugs, but also food, exercise, sleep, emotional wellness, spirituality, and nature. These prescriptions will bring about true change. And those that just continue to prescribe pills and nothing else will result in the breakdown of human health, health care, and society. This model has consistently failed to work in isolation. It’s great at keeping people sick and at chronic suffering. The time to change is NOW. We must rise above our egos and first respect and take responsibility for our health, and then use a holistic and integrative approach towards prevention and recovery.

• Avoid worrying. Fear and anxiety solve no problem for us.
• Wear a mask.
• Stay at home.
• Maintain social distancing.

When it’s time to take the vaccination, let’s take it with an open mind and heart, with faith that it will work and serve us in the best way possible.

Let’s seek advice and ask as many questions from our doctors to reduce fear and doubt.

And, let’s start to change our lifestyle. Today, it’s the virus. Next year, it could be a different one. Let’s avoid going back to a life of poor lifestyle choices and let history repeat itself because we didn’t even do the basics that were expected from us. Let’s build our lifestyle and our planet. They go hand in hand to create an ecosystem that protects us.

The human body doesn’t demand too much to do its best job.

All we need to do is:

• Address the root cause of our pain, ailments, and disease.
• Consume food (nutrition) that is wholesome, in balance, and that suits our body type
• Exercise regularly and remain active throughout the day
• Sleep deeply and soundly
• Become emotionally strong
• Manage the side effects of medicines (if we are on medication)

And also, let’s focus on “beyond medicine”, which consists of:

• Faith
• Prayer
• Belief
• Love
• Togetherness
• Forgiveness
• Nature
• The power of our subconscious mind

Maybe it’s about time we, as humans, started to optimize all of this to build stronger communities.

Remember, most of the money to be made is for material things, products, services, and entertainment, leading us to live poor lives, hence poor health. It’s a vicious cycle which only we can change.

–        Luke Coutinho