Anyone familiar with the role of the Thymus? It’s an Endocrine gland and here’s a description which alludes to its location and purpose, “Gorillas and Warriors beat their chests prior to battle to stimulate the natural defences of the body for immediate healing in the event of an injury.” The Thymus is situated just over the breastbone and it is the gland associated with immunity and the creation of ‘warrior’ T Cells.
I am off on holiday so you would think I would be blogging about something like rest instead of immunity. But the thing is, often the arrival of downtime is accompanied by a dip in health – we go on holiday and immediately take a bad cold/ we plan a long weekend then feel too exhausted to really enjoy it. You see such is our attitude to ploughing through copious tasks and stresses that we may as well get up in the morning and beat our chests as if we are about to do battle! On these days {which often turn into weeks} the Thymus has to ramp it up in order to keep us well. Is it any wonder then that when the Thymus perceives a lull in our frenetic activity that it takes it down a gear – our body is clever, it knows it can’t function on full tilt and stay healthy. So your poor old Thymus packs its bags and heads for the sun and you spend the first week of your much anticipated fortnight in Spain dosed with the cold.
What your body is doing is showing you that you cannot keep putting it under pressure, it will try its best to adapt to the various stresses you throw at it but it is not meant to function long term in ‘battle’ mode. And really when you think about it why would we expect it to? Why would we think it is ok to place ourselves long term in an environment that makes us feel ramped up and embattled – does that sound like a recipie for good health? The simple solution is to learn to diall it down without having to take a holiday. Think back to your childhood and times when you were tucked up in bed or on the sofa and told you needed rest in order to feel better. It worked and yet in adulthood we do not feel entitled to this type of tlc. Well last night I had dinner with friends who reminded me of the importance of not over doing it. So, let me pass on that same reminder to you – your days should not always exhaust you and if they do, think of your Thymus, it can’t do its job unless you pull the brakes on a bit.

*Quote taken from ‘Reflexology The Definitive Guide’ by Chris Stromer