It’s nearly impossible to go for you to take short drive in Charlotte without seeing a self-storage unit (or two). In fact, there are 5 within a 5-min drive of my office and another 2 being constructed while you are reading this!
Do you ever wonder – why there are so many storage units? It all boils down to 1 thing – human beings have a hard time letting stuff go! Rewind the clock to your parent’s era and they would have a heart attack at the idea of paying a monthly fee to store things outside of their home – that’s what the small nooks and crannies of your attic or basement are for!
I understand sentimental value of holding onto your children’s first stuffed animal or set of shoes, but the amount of stuff we are harboring today has created an industry that is booming (yes, self-storage is expanding – thus the reason you see them being constructed in so many locations). I spoke with the owner of Go-Store-It, asking them indirectly about business. She mentioned that within 1 year of being open they were at 90% capacity with monthly contracts and were already looking for another location for expansion. (If you are unfamiliar with business, its considered the “holy-grail” to become profitable within 3 years! – so imagine my shock when I heard they were beyond this in just 1 year). When I asked how they did that (advertising, social media campaigns, door-to-door flyers) she simply replied – “when you build it, they will come!”
Ok… where am I going with this and what does a self-storage unit have to do with your health? Here goes: A healthy home, one which has everything it needs, has access to immediate supplies and built in storage for the small amount of additional items it needs for future use. These storage units include pantries, closets, cabinets, crawl-spaces, garages and attics. Under normal circumstances, (i.e. day to day functioning) the daily needs are met directly and reserves are tapped into under times of additional need/stress. Once these additional needs are met, storage spaces are replenished for future use/needs. Using this model, the home is self-sustaining.
Take this sustainable home and push it into moments of tremendous excess – large shopping sprees at Costco/Sam’s Club, a never-ending amazon.com credit card, inheritance of family heirloom furniture and other items due to a death in the family, children exiting for college, and the average Americans need to “keep up with the Jones’” etc. One can quickly see the need for more storage space in this scenario.
Some will opt for a larger home purchase (“we just need more space”) while others will opt for a monthly contract and an additional locker for their items (self-storage).
Please understand, I am in no way condemning the practice of self-storage – in fact our office wouldn’t be able to exist with- out our own 10×10 space at the facility up the street – but the analogy of storing items in excess is what I want to talk about. What does your house (your body) do with all the non-essential items it’s faced with on a daily basis? There are only 2 options: 1: USE IT (i.e. burn it for energy) and 2: STORE IT (i.e. burning it for energy at a future date). The challenge… most Americans do not have a future date set in their schedule to create a time of need that requires their body to tap into their self-storage units!
Your Body Is Your Temple (aka Home) – Are You Taking Care to Clean It Regularly?
Corinthians 3:16-17 (msg): “You realize, don’t you, that YOU are the temple of God, and God himself is present in YOU? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and remember, YOU ARE the temple.” (The boding emphasis on YOU is something I did).
Most of us know that our bodies (aka Temples) can handle a lot. In addition to the daily energy requirements (oxygen, water, fats, proteins and carbohydrates) and normal daily stressors a human living in today’s world is bombarded with toxins (the EPA estimates there are now over 80,000 unique made-chemicals that a person living in 18-1900AD would have never been exposed to). What does your body do with all these additional items…? It “self-stores” them.
How and Where Your Body Stores Toxins
A common misconception about exposure to toxins is that they simply “pass through” the body, after all it’s so easy to be exposed to toxins so wouldn’t the body have an easy time getting them out? If it’s a non-synthetic toxin – yes (bacteria, virus, pathogen etc.). Your body has natural cleaning mechanisms for those. Synthetic, man-made toxins, like 2,3,7,8-Tetra- chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (yes, it’s a real thing) do not have natural mechanisms for removal. Yet, God, in his infinite wisdom and ability to be omnipresent in time, did create pathways for your body to remove such chemicals – however, the rate at which this happens is much slower than natural toxicity’s. Any additional man-made toxin that must “wait” for your livers capacity to clear will be stored in specific “self-storage units” for your protection. These units are known as FAT CELLS.
Like the self-storage units being constructed all over the city, most human bodies are busy at work expanding its self-storage business – after all, there’s a great need for storage in this temple of yours.
Not All Storage Units (Fat) Are the Same
Most body fat is distant from vital organs and central nervous system (i.e. those fat cells found under your skin (subcutaneous fat) and within your muscles) These fats can accumulate and, while unsightly, are not as dangerous as the accumulation of organ fat (i.e. visceral fats). This type of fat is in and around your heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, GI tract, brain and other organs. The reason excess visceral fat is detrimental to your health is the toxins stored here are exposed/absorbed directly into the neighboring organ affecting their function and performance There is research showing a link between the amount of visceral fat and significant increase in diabetes, heart disease, dementia, Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Yet another downside of toxicities stored within fat is the fact that your brain is made of between 60-80% fat, which means the brain tends to fill up with toxicities. Fat also surrounds every single nerve you own (your wiring) by providing insulation and improved signaling. This means certain toxins could literally be touching your brain/nerves interfering with body signaling which is the very cause of brain fog, headaches, tingling, numbness and various mood disorders (anxiety, ADD/HD, depression etc.).
What happens When Fat Reserves Are at Maximum Capacity?
Once your excess fills the fat self-storage unit to the brim, it’s time to “buy” another one, yet this time they are located inside other tissues, like bone, the lymphatic system and your connective tissues/joints. Most people assume bone is a solid structure, when in reality it’s considered a “nook and cranny” in storage terms do it its porous nature.
Once your bone storage is maximized, your lymphatic system will open to begin to “hold” toxins – which is a strange thing for lymph to do as it’s naturally flowing through your body. Lymphatic congestion however is quite common in people and results in swelling of parts of your body (ankles, lower legs, face, arms, fingers etc.) due to stored toxicities.
The final resting place for increased toxicity/storage is your blood. Due to its presence in nearly every square inch of your body, blood toxicity can often be fatal (i.e. the reason it’s a last resort storage method). What I find interesting is that the medical community only acknowledges a toxicity-connection to cause of illness when they are detected here (in your blood work). Medical doctors do not examine bones, lymphatic tissues, or visceral fat for toxicity – simply because storage in these locations requires years (sometimes decades) to manifest into a physical symptom that would raise their suspicion.
Now it’s time you focus on your own detoxification plan and pass this along to someone you know who isn’t detoxing their temple as the very solution to their problem includes removing items from storage and downsizing their current home 🙂