Recovery from an illness or injury can take place slowly or quickly, fully or just partially. The rate and extent of recovery says a lot about the state of a person's health. While it’s true that a person can sometimes function well enough having only partly recovered from a bout of flu, or that one should expect to have lingering pain and decreased mobility for months or even years after a serious injury, the fact is that for many of us, if we take the time and really try to meet the body's needs following the acute phase of illness, recovery can take place more quickly and completely.
The danger we face when we make do with only partial recovery from an injury or illness is that we can become accustomed to a lower state of functioning in the body. Months can turn to years, years can turn to decades, and the memory of what it felt like to move well and feel good in one's body eventually fades.
A period of poor health can serve as an opportunity to revisit the state of one's physical well being and renew an effort to raise the level of functioning of the body. Eventually we are fated to succumb to the loss of functioning that comes with aging, but for now everything we can do to help raise the level of our physical well being benefits us as well as the people around us. The body has stood by us faithfully for so many years, so it's the least we can do for it in return.
