Health2O - Tap into the Healing Power of Water
Sebastian Kneipp, a poor weaver's son, was a student priest at a seminary in Bavaria in the fall of 1849. He came from a small Bavarian village and was first exposed to the unhealthy, crowded conditions of city life when he entered the seminary. The once sturdy young man had become very ill at the seminary and, in fact, he was dying. He was emaciated, a cough rattled him, he often found blood on his pillow in the morning, and every night his sheets were drenched in sweat. The reason for the decline in Sebastian's health was the change from the rural Bavarian village in which he was raised to the crowded conditions at the seminary. The lack of fresh air, fresh food, and exercise in his new surroundings took a tremendous toll on his health and Sebastian succumbed to consumption (tuberculosis), a disease that was rampant and incurable in the nineteenth century.
When his physicians had given up on him and he was near death, Sebastian desperately searched the seminary library for a cure for consumption. By chance, he unearthed an old tract describing a cold water cure. Having nothing to lose, Kneipp followed the advice of the booklet and jumped into the chilly waters of the Danube River three times a week. He dressed without toweling off (he did not own a towel) and walked home to bed. This barbaric treatment cured him, astonishing his fellow students, teachers and doctors. From there, he went on to develop a complete system of health, which he called The Five Pillars of Health. This nature-based system swept Europe and the world. The Washington Post called Sebastian Kneipp one of the three most influential men in the world at that time. For my patients, I have adjusted Kneipp’s system to the 21st century and to busy American life. But the system is still based on the life giving properties of water, using what I call The Five Water Essentials:
Water: Life came from the ocean, and still today, our cells still carry the sea within. Water makes up about 70 percent of our bodies and is far from being an unimportant filler. Because of our ocean past, water inside and outside our bodies heals and rejuvenates.
Movement: Gravity pulls our bodies down until we are old and bent. To rest is to rust. To keep healthy, we have to keep our bodies as supple and fluid as flowing river water by moving the water inside us.
Nutrition: Foodstuffs are the building blocks of our body. When we eat fresh--not artificially dried and processed--victuals, we fill our cells with water and life.
Herbs: Water pulls minerals from the soil into every plant cell, and we can harvest this healing power in the kitchen and in herbal medicines as teas and infusions.
Life Balance: When we follow the rhythms of the natural ebb and flow of life, our bodies and minds can relax, rejuvenate and heal.
Incorporating water and the water-based essentials of natural health into our daily lives is as effortless, fast and inexpensive as the water that comes out of your faucet when you turn it on–effortless because water works naturally with our ancient biology, fast because these health-promoting measures take only minutes to include in your life, and inexpensive because the Five Essentials use only what the Earth provides.