Living life: Body, Mind and Soul

Healthy living has never been as important as it is in our generation. Our forefathers did not mind about keeping fit or warding off lifestyle diseases like we have to because their lifestyles and feeding habits were in sync with mother nature. They ate a lot of green vegetables to keep the bodies strong against infections and a sprinkling of proper roasted meat without too much bad fat in it, or the good fish. They kept themselves fit by their daily routine of life, hunting or tilling, walking long distances, fetching water from the river and the like. Their minds were the temple of social morals. Children grew up in communities that had more doors than fences. They played with their neighbours not their computers. The village shrines and later churches were important respected wells of social good. Virtues were engraved in families, clans and whole communities. They were taboos that had to be obeyed. Institutions of marriage, transformation to adulthood, birth and death were celebrated and given meaning. Man’s body, soul and mind were in equilibrium, to borrow from physics. Today man faces the conundrum of modern lifestyle. The body becomes lazy and fat because of the comforts of modern lives like cars. Our minds are full of stress related to our jobs and so to ease ourselves out of the stress we fall into habits that dupe the mind like social drinking and others which may have long term effects on our lives. Sex has been reduced from an expression of intimacy between man and woman to a tool of pleasure in which both parties just want to get the thrill of it and forget the stresses of this world. It is a pitiable situation but that is what man calls civilization, and yes we want to be in a modern world, with televisions, ipods or are they now ipads or iphones? We have learnt to discard religion which simply sought to give guidance to man and his faith and are heading towards either to this new faith which promises wealth, nice flashy cars, beautiful women if you tithe every month or atheists where we live our lives by the guidance of our own minds and not believe that anything supreme that man’s mind controls our destinies. But this civilization has not killed the sense of humanity yet. In art and music, we become younger and innocent. We re-enact the state of mental virginity by how our brains understand and feel at peace with nature. The rich want to holiday in exotic beaches and resorts where nature is celebrated. They build holiday homes in seclusion form modernity and in the middle of the wild natural world. Women still dream about their wedding day and want it to be the biggest day in their lives. Perhaps it is just a circus, a cycle of civilization and primitivism by man. This Sunday, go native, walk bare feet in your compound, listen to good music and sounds of nature and don’t forget to drink lots and lots of water. kelviod@yahoo.com