The French prescription
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
John Bunyan, preacher and author (1628-1688)
During my malaise of the past week, I picked up a copy of a magazine exemplifying the "health is hard and then you die" approach to wellness. Life Extension magazine bills itself as "The ULTIMATE source for new health and medical findings from around the world."
There were 97 pages of almost interchangeable advertisements and articles detailing the methods and benefits of micromanaging your health with an arsenal of high tech supplements, vitamins, minerals, and other esoterica. The mind-body approach showed up in only one paragraph about treating chronic insomnia without drugs and two short paragraphs about the benefits of exercise and positive emotion on cardiac health.
According to this hard working approach to health, at the first suggestion of flu symptoms, I should have started dosing myself with various antioxidants, upped my intake of specific vitamins, increased my levels of certain minerals, consumed quantities of garlic processed to isolate the active health ingredients, gulped down some growth hormone, and added a multitude of arcane supplements guaranteed to boost my immune response and send those viruses packing. I felt tired just from contemplating this laborious approach to health, so I picked up a good book and got back into bed under a heap of healing cat poultices.
Although the idea that your body will naturally heal itself if you rest and relax is alien in the United States, in France it is assumed that illness shows you need to take a break, pamper yourself, and get away from your daily routine. Doctors there actually suggest such treatments and patients gratefully accept them. France has spas and resorts that cater to those who come to recover their health, and in France the words "spa" and "health resort" do not conjure images of people eating abstemious and carefully balanced meals while working hard to get or stay well, the way they do in the U.S. A French health retreat is often more cozily soothing than ostentatiously luxurious. The idea is to do as little as possible, take plenty of naps, and eat satisfying meals, out of the way of the demands of everyday life.
So if you're feeling a little under the weather as winter wears on, instead of rushing down to the health food store to stock up on the latest fashionable health aids, pretend you're in France. Imagine that your doctor has ordered you to slow down, stop working so hard, and make some time to indulge yourself. You'll be much likelier to feel better if you're focusing on ways to feel good than you will if you're preparing to battle feeling bad.
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