The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 22 November 3rd - Following the Doctors Orders. "Just as we commonnly hear people say the doctor prescribed someone particular riding exercises, or ice baths, or walking without shoes, we should in the same way say that nature prescribed someone to be diseased, or disabled, or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor, prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone's healing. But in the case of nature, it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny" - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.8 From the Author: "... When it comes to external events, we fight like hell if anything happens contrary to our plans. But what if, Marcus asks, a doctor had prescribed this exact thing as a part of our treatment? What if this was as good for us as medicine?..." My understanding of this is what makes us grow. Taking responsibility makes us grow a sense of self preservation, perhaps. Being forced to take a look at what you're doing, via some illness of sorts that come from a life of certain lack of activity, nature, nourishing food, is the same thing. Illness is often no more than a cry from your body to reassess the environment you're in, the thought patterns and beliefs you entertain all day, and the people who's ideas are pushed onto you in some way or another. "We fight like hell" if we become sick in the middle of an important timely event in our life, so that we can successfully navigate through stresses and deadlines. But why do we only fight then, and not in every day to ensure our bodies are in best physical and mental health? Lessons to be learned are medicine for the growth of our self.