If you buy a television, a car, an iPod, a blender or pretty much anything these days, you can be sure of one thing – an accompanying ‘user-manual’. A book or leaflet which tells you how to ‘drive’ your new acquisition. Yep, even a carton of milk comes with specific and detailed user instructions on the side. Who would have thought that pouring milk could be such a complicated and potentially high-risk process?
One of the many ironies of our world is that the most intricate, amazing and complex ‘machine’ in existence (the human body), comes with no instruction manual. “Here yer go Mr and Mrs Harper; one loud, screaming, kinda slimy small human – enjoy that. Er, him. I know you probably have lots of questions, but just take him home; you’ll figure it out. You’ve got a while.”
Sure, there have been numerous ‘manuals’ written on the most effective way to operate a human, but if you invest the time and energy to read them, you’ll find that, as user-manuals go, they’re mostly kind of confusing, somewhat contradictory (to the other manuals) and really, really, long. And the reality is that sometimes, in certain situations we don’t have the time to go and refer to our manual anyway. Then what?
If only the human body had some kind of inbuilt feedback system to tell us what it needs. That would be cool. Kind of like an interactive, living, breathing user-manual. It could tell us things like when we need to eat less or more. Or when we need more sleep or rest. Or when we’re dehydrated. Or injured. Or when we’re over-trained. Or unfit and unhealthy. Or when we need to change a behaviour or habit in some way. It would give us some physical signals maybe. We might call them symptoms. If that were the case, then we could simply interpret these signals and adjust our behaviour accordingly to create the desired outcomes. That would be easy and efficient. We wouldn’t need to rely on a written user-manual because ours would be inbuilt! An automatic and instant feedback system of sorts. What a concept. Wouldn’t that be amazing? A machine that tells you what it needs. How advanced.
For example, we could interpret obesity as our body’s way of saying “er, excuse me, I think you’re feeding me too much and moving me too little”, and we’d simply eat less and move more; bingo – fixed! Or we could interpret our yellow teeth, stinky breath and decreased lung capacity as our body’s way of saying “hey, I’m really not a fan of this smoking thing”! Maybe we could see the on-going headaches, the lethargy, the white crap on our tongue and the irritability as a sign that our body might want to drink something other than coffee, coke and alcohol every now and then. Water perhaps. Or maybe we could consider our typical poor health to be an indicator that we need to change something significant about the way we live, rather than pop another pill. Crazy stuff I know, but just imagine if this were reality. We’d all be so healthy and functional.
Well, fortunately for us, in 2008 we have the luxury of talking ‘user-manuals’. Phew. We call them ‘experts’; doctors, psychologists, dietitians, personal trainers, physical therapists, dentists and a whole bunch of people (mainly medical folk) whose job title ends in the word(?) – ‘ologist‘. How lucky are we? Yep, these experts can tell us how to most effectively operate a human. How to eat optimally. How to treat injuries and illness. How to talk to other humans (can be tricky). How to exercise a human body and make it work more efficiently. And most importantly, how to make a human look good. Apparently, how a human looks is more important that how it operates. Not sure why though. I’m still researching that. Although there is much public debate about what is visually appealing. When it comes to dressing a human, it seems that there is no real consensus. Sorry, I digress.
But what if talking user-manuals are not always the answer either? Sure, they have some knowledge and they sound smart enough, but what happens when we ask ten different ‘experts’ the same question? Brain-ache, that’s what. Confusion and despair. How are we non-experts meant to sift through the ever-expanding sea of conflicting ideas, schools of thought and philosophies on how best to operate a human, if they can’t all agree?
If only someone would invent a human body which would provide us with constant feedback about what it needed. Then we’d be set. Then we’d all be healthy.
*Now, before you ‘experts’ get all precious and write in and tell me how irresponsible I am, listen up. I am not for one moment suggesting that professionals with specialist knowledge, skills and expertise should not be an integral and valuable part of any overall health strategy – when necessary. I refer people to a wide range of specialists often (apparently I’m meant to be one).
What I am saying (if you missed my rather obvious and sarcastic point) is that this marvelous machine that we call the human body is constantly ‘telling us’ what it does and doesn’t need – how to operate it. Unfortunately, over time we have trained ourselves not to speak it’s language; to ignore its voice. If we would simply listen to, and act upon, the constant stream of information that our body sends to our brain (our very own inbuilt user-manual), we would be a much healthier population and some of us ‘experts’ might have to find a second job. I’d be okay with that. I could always start a blog.
Today’s take-home Message: Stop ignoring (neglecting, abusing, compromising) your body.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re very funny Mr. Harper…..
Why would I want to listen to my body, when I can just sit my fat ass on my fat couch, and eat chocolate smothered in custard and cream and do nothing except whinge and complain about how unfair the world is to me!!!
Geez…. any of that stuff you’re talking about might actually involve work, or finding out about myself… and besides… there’s nothing wrong with me! I’m fine!!!! If I don’t acknowledge it, it’s not real then!!! RIGHT??????
If someone else can tell me the answers to all my life’s questions, and how to live, and perhaps give me a magic pill to take away all my pain, then I wouldn’t actually need to take responsibility or think or do anything at all!!! That’s soooo much easier!!! Surely you’re not saying I’m not to blame for my crappy life???? Everyone else is at fault!!! My parents, my teachers, the idiot who just cut me off in traffic, the next door neighbour who smokes out the front of my house!!! Why can’t I just be a sheep and follow the rest of the crowd!!! Then I’d be NORMAL wouldn’t I???? Living by their rules???? No, I think I’ll just get in my car this morning and sit in traffic for an hour and a half to go to my job and sit there staring at a screen for 8 hours to sit in traffic for an hour and a half to come home again ….. and why is it that I am always tired, and my head hurts, and I have this pain down my left side… and what’s going on with my knees… oh man… I think I really should go see someone about that????
But then, I might actually discover what emotions I actually have going on inside of me, and why I have a need to eat chocoate and drink coffee and bottles of wine at a time!!!! and that could be just waaaayyyy too scary to think about!!! and besides…. chocolate is my only salvation!!!! It has it’s own food group!!! Doesn’t it!???
No….. it’s much easier just to think that some people have a need to do all that stuff! Good on them… but I’m fine… nothing wrong with me….. I’ll just keep on keeping on, and go back to my coco pops and ice cream.
KK
XXXXX
You speak much wisdom Master. If only your fellow humans would listen, you may have a common sense revolution on your hands.
Kate, Kate, Kate.
Coco Pops and Ice Cream… stop putting ideas in my head. You know I have food issues.
Well thank you Grasshopper Yung.
Hi Craig, I would like to group everyone into the following if that’s alright with you: We have a few groups. 1: The ones that blaze away knowing they have the user manual just in case. They have some exciting short term success, but have a little sneak at the manual from time to time and then realise if only they had of … they would have got there a lot quicker and without complications that appear to exist and now have to backtrack to fix the problem. 2. Those that follow the manual to a point to get the basics or what they want to know or are interested in. Things go along sweeeeeetly until they hit a bump in the road and don’t have knowledge with how to deal with this unexpected clitch, they have thrown out the manual because they had that brief moment at the recycle bin thinking “why I am keeping this for again?” and they day after it’s gone and they now need it, what am I going to do now. 3. And lastly those who follow the manual to the letter who learn a lot, probably to much. If life was only a manual, things would be black and white, but boring as. We all like a little of colour in there, don’t we. Just at the right times I suppose. Which one are you? I am the middle one. Trying to be the last one but sometimes I blaze away. It is timely as we have just gotten over christmas and being new to the IPOD generation, I encountered all of the above. Thanks for your time and keep up blogging good work. Danny
When I first saw the title, I thought it was “How to operate on a human.” And I thought, interesting. That’s something I’d like to read about… only then to realize that’s not what the post is about.
Machines come with users manuals, eh? More and more often nowadays, they are just linking you to PDF files instead of including user manuals nowadays.
People have in-built user manuals, it’s like the machines with artificial intelligence to fix themselves, only that they are not artificial, and that some people have no intelligence.
Hi Danny.
Definitely not 3, Mostly 1 or 2.
I also got an iPod for Christmas! I have NO IDEA how to use it. Apparently it does everything.
Except when it’s in my hands!!
Cheers.
You make some amusing but insightful points Kelvin.
Love your work.
As usual.
A wonderful tongue in cheek article on the health of our body. What a pity we don’t take more notice of all those tell-tale signs.
Imagine all of the people that would be out of work and food, cigarette, advertisement and drug companies that would go bust if we all listened to our bodies.
Bleh.. i need to exercise and start eating better. Don’t we all? lol.
I stumbled across something today while randomly browsing online that shocked me and scared me very much —> Thinspo… it’s people who are pro anaorexia… :S What the hell is going on?
Thanks Lori.
( )
Hi Sal.
Yep!
Hi Belinda.
That’s call kindsa messed up.
Peace.
Hey Craig, GREAT article. I was so guilty of this for years — I chose to listen to doctors and their newest prescriptions instead of just listening to myself and my body. Funny thing, when I stopped telling myself how “sick” I was and stopped taking these pills that were supposed to “make me not hurt” I felt better. Yes, it was more involved than that — I found gratitude, limited my exposure to the energy vampires in my life — including the media, meditated and “found my inner self”, started setting goals but I SURE coulda used one of those User Manuals to tell me my dis-eases and pain were a call from my inner self to “fix” stuff I hadn’t dealt with in my life and START listening. Ah but life is a learning experience and I am happy I found all this out at 37 instead of 97! I’ve got newfound health which is the best kind cause you DO appreciate it and LISTEN so you never go back to “the way you were”. I love your articles! Stumbled! Gratefully, Jenny
Hey Jenny.
Thanks for the kind words.
I love you loving my articles.
So to speak.
Peace.
Awesome article Craig! I got lots from it!
Pip
Good topic…
nice spin…
yep, seen the anorexia is chic stuff…
aka: ana-mia
horrific stuff, worse than any Saw movie.
Some claim to be a support group and others give actual tips for having a “successful” eating disorder!
Can an eating disorder be successful?!
Anyway, for a while, my manual was in bodiese (the ancient language of Body, duh)…
after some linguistic classes, supplemented by some yoga meditation,
so 1/2 the time I listen to what it is saying,
Unfortunately, the human brain only retains 25% of what it hears…
so, if I pull out my calculator,
it would seem that I am still missing 87.5% of by instructions.
Well, at least that leaves a definite margin for improvement.
(my cup is always 3/4 full:)
()
Tami
Gooood morning trouble,
All the way from sunny Kalgoorlie.
Its not that hot today, so can’t complain.
Thankyou so much for taking the time to talk to me yesterday and for giving me the kick in the proverbial ass (even tho its to big right now). It was just what I needed. So I went and trained last night and I’ve been ever so good all day.
This is the start of the journey, I’d cross my fingers that I’ll keep it up, but I couldn’t type then.
Lisa Jane
Hey Pip.
Thanks.
Hi Tam.
I may have to read that a few times….
( )
Hello Lisa Jane.
Trouble?
Am not, you are.
Don’t make me come over there and kick your ass.
Do what you need to do.
Or else.
But, but (no pun intended)
Maybe I want my butt kicked. Kalgoorlie is lovely this time of year. LOL
I’m sitting here eating my grilled chicken and salad.
Do I get a gold star?
LJ
You’ll get a gold star when you’ve been good for 365 days.
CH
Great post once again! Makes me want to compare myself to my old truck. The older it gets, the more maintenance is required to keep it running. Because maintenance is a lot cheaper than repair, I’m more than willing to do it.
Hi Steve.
I feel like that old truck sometimes.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers.