Perspiration
Briefly, if I may, I'd like to make a case for sweat.
I do not understand those of you who fear sweat. You know who you are.
Point 1: It's water. That's WATER - the source of existence as we know it. Essential to all known forms of life. The universal solvent. Well, sweat is mostly water. It’s actually sodium chloride (salt), carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. But for all practical purposes, it’s water.
Point 2: It's an indication that your body is functioning. It’s the way your body regulates temperature, in case you didn’t know. So when your body gets hot because it’s hot outside or when your muscles are getting worked up, you produce sweat as a means of regulation. You can sweat too simply as a result of being nervous or nauseous. That is lovely: Independent of your body, your mind can determine you’re a little too worked up and try to regulate your physical reaction. By means of sweat.
I would even say that it’s your body's way of releasing energy and toxins and I daresay nasty karma (like the bad karma you create for yourself when you fail to appreciate the beauty that is sweat).
Point 3: Your sweat does not stink. Sweat is actually almost totally odorless. If you associate sweat with stink, I think you're missing the point. I could be wrong, but if you stink when you sweat, it's not the sweat that's stinking but the toxins that go along with them. I have seen yoga teachers and dancers sweat until they are absolutely drenched with water, but they did not stink. And that's because they sweat daily, as a matter of their own beautiful personal ritual. They eat right and so the toxins they release are not unhealthy (stinky). Conversely, if you never sweat and you feed your body full of things that are bad for you, then you walk a flight of stairs, I imagine you might stink. That's not the sweat. That's the processed crap you've got trapped in your body that is desperately trying to escape. If you’d sweat a little more often, that wouldn’t be the case.
That's my argument for perspiration. Fairly short, sweet, simple, ripe and wet with karmic goodness. What's a little water gonna hurt you?
Give it a go. Sweat a little.
I do not understand those of you who fear sweat. You know who you are.
Point 1: It's water. That's WATER - the source of existence as we know it. Essential to all known forms of life. The universal solvent. Well, sweat is mostly water. It’s actually sodium chloride (salt), carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. But for all practical purposes, it’s water.
Point 2: It's an indication that your body is functioning. It’s the way your body regulates temperature, in case you didn’t know. So when your body gets hot because it’s hot outside or when your muscles are getting worked up, you produce sweat as a means of regulation. You can sweat too simply as a result of being nervous or nauseous. That is lovely: Independent of your body, your mind can determine you’re a little too worked up and try to regulate your physical reaction. By means of sweat.
I would even say that it’s your body's way of releasing energy and toxins and I daresay nasty karma (like the bad karma you create for yourself when you fail to appreciate the beauty that is sweat).
Point 3: Your sweat does not stink. Sweat is actually almost totally odorless. If you associate sweat with stink, I think you're missing the point. I could be wrong, but if you stink when you sweat, it's not the sweat that's stinking but the toxins that go along with them. I have seen yoga teachers and dancers sweat until they are absolutely drenched with water, but they did not stink. And that's because they sweat daily, as a matter of their own beautiful personal ritual. They eat right and so the toxins they release are not unhealthy (stinky). Conversely, if you never sweat and you feed your body full of things that are bad for you, then you walk a flight of stairs, I imagine you might stink. That's not the sweat. That's the processed crap you've got trapped in your body that is desperately trying to escape. If you’d sweat a little more often, that wouldn’t be the case.
That's my argument for perspiration. Fairly short, sweet, simple, ripe and wet with karmic goodness. What's a little water gonna hurt you?
Give it a go. Sweat a little.
Comments
Cool take on sweat. I definitely agree that it’s not an ugly thing to be despised.
I think that when our bodies sweat from stress, it’s actually the body sensing an upcoming need for performance as opposed to a current state of physical arousal (which is just as cool). The endocrine system also sends a flood of endorphins that prepare us to do the whole “fight or flight” thing. Unfortunately if we don’t use these endorphins in a productive way, they become toxic inside out system, especially for the heart. I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all but this is one thing that causes a lot of firefighters (such as myself) to have heart attacks later in life. A career of waking in the middle of the night to bells that make you feel like your heart is going to jump out of your chest (only to realize it’s not your truck going out, at which point you roll back over) causes damage if not worked out via physical exercise with in 24 hours. I’ll never forget the funeral of a coworker that I attended in Colorado after suffering a myocardial infarction while on duty. The guy was pretty fit too, early 50s and with out any previous history.
Dan