Listening to the body

This morning, while brushing my teeth, I made a mental list of my realisations of genuine constraints on what one can do, as the physical body simply doesn't cooperate with the mind. My list starts with a vanity issue. I prided myself on having nice teeth which saved me the need (and money) of putting on braces to get that million dollar smile. But now at age 29, I have a tooth implant and a missing tooth! It's a long story, which I have told repeatedly so I shall not belabour. I used to gobble my food down (in some unfortunate cases, lunch in 5 minutes?!) and got away with it. Until I had several bouts of bad gastrics, went to doctor and was embarrassed when I was told it could simply be me eating too quickly on an empty stomach. I had thought I could at some point in my life run a full marathon if I had wanted to - it was just a matter of getting down to train for it. Until I abused my body by running a half without proper training (and proper shoes), over strained my knees in the process such that my left knee still creaks each time I extend my leg. I remember thinking that people who slept at 9pm were not maxmising their productive time, or maybe even strangely anti-social. Not too long ago, sleeping at 2 or 3 am was the norm for me. But just yesterday, I had to endure a full day of headache due to sleeping at 3am the night before (oh no, the morning). The whole was kind of in a blur and I could not do anything much except hope that the discomfort would go away. Thank goodness, after forcing myself to sleep at an earthly hour (not 9pm though!), I feel much better now. Well, probably these are signs of natural deterioration associated with ageing. But more importantly, it is a reminder that we don't have all the time, money and energy in the world - (of the three, money may increase but not time or energy) - and that we'll have to do what counts instead of wanting to do everything.