There was a place called River Village. It was beautiful, serene, with a grand river flowing just next to the village.
Which is how the village got its name.
The people of this village were their usual happy selves, and their days flowed smoothly, just like a symphony.
Not much unlike the river, that had a steady smooth stream.
But then something happened. Some foreign men arrived at the village, and at first they did nothing, they just lingered around, noticing the villagers.
They saw how healthy, and at peace everyone was, and that wasn’t going to help their agenda. For they had arrived there with an unethical profit making motive.
They wanted to sell something to the villagers, but seeing that everyone was already doing well, they knew they will have to do something about it.
And so they did. The chief who headed the group of these foreigners, met the head of the village.
As they sat and spoke, he praised how nice the village was, and how wonderful all the people were, but then he said, you are missing something.
You see the water that you drink, could make you sick.
The head of the village was a little startled, for this wasn’t something he had heard or considered before.
The foreigner told him, I know you have sentiments attached to the river, but here’s proof that drinking water like that can make you sick.
And he drew out a paper, that showed numbers about people falling sick in other villages.
As the man saw that the head of the village appeared a little concerned for his people, he told him, not to worry. For this is the reason he had come to the village, to save people from possible water borne sickness.
He was quick to call one of his men, to bring a device that would help filter water, and rid it of harmful contaminants.
He said here, this is the answer to your problem.
Have everyone in your village filter their water using our filter, and you’ll get clean, safe drinking water.
The head of the village wasn’t sure what to do, but he sure cared about his people, and if there was any truth to what this man says, then he will have to consider the offer.
And so he did.
They signed a contract with the foreigner and within a few days, enough water filters arrived in the village, for everyone to start drinking clean fresh water.
People in the village trusted their head, and didn’t feel the need to question his decision. So they all signed up, and got themselves a pretty little water filter.
Now here’s where things started to get interesting.
Within a few days, the people started becoming more easily irritable. But no one took notice, and people just went on with their life.
They started feeling exhausted easily, and needed to rest longer hours to feel better.
In a way, the once joyful bunch of River village, had started to become gloomy and depressed.
After about 6 months, the local doctor, who was known as the Vaidya, approached the head of the village.
He went to him, and reported a strange phenomenon that had come to his notice, and thought it was better if the village head learned about it, so something can be done.
The vaidya told the head, that I am noticing a huge uptick in the number of people visiting me since past few months.
This is unusual, and I haven’t really needed to attend so many sick people, with so many different kinds of sicknesses before.
I am really not sure what’s going on, but whatever it is, we need to do something, for things appear to be going out of hand, and people in our village are getting sick.
Taking note of what he had just heard, the head of the village took a deep breath, and told the vaidya to give him some time to review the situation.
So he called upon the village council to discuss the situation.
They tried to review if there was anything out of ordinary that was happening in the village. If there was anything wrong with their farms or other food supply.
When one of the council members brought up the water filters.
He said, sir, I can’t remember of anything except for these water filters that we started using, and I am not sure if we’re doing the right thing. For we’ve been drinking water from the river with our natural filtering process, and we’ve been doing fine.
The river has been a life support for us and our ancestors since hundreds of years, and I don’t see why, drinking its water any other way, but how we did traditionally would make us sick.
The head immediately understood what he was saying. And a decision was taken in the council, to stop using the water filters supplied by the foreign men, and just use their usual process, to see if that would make a difference.
He said, the council will meet again in 3 months to review the situation, and adjourned the meeting.
In a month, the head of the village sent for the local doctor, for he wanted to see him and ask if there was any change.
The local doctor quickly arrived, he had a smile on his face, and told him, that things have started to change and now the number of people visiting him has gone down by a lot.
This was a good enough indicator for the head of the village, that the water filters were the most likely cause of the increase in sickness.
In 3 months, he met the council again, and seeing that everyone was starting to feel much better, and that their good old cheery days were back, they decided to trash all the filters. And barred the foreign men from entering their village.
And so they lived happily ever after.
This story is not real, but a metaphor to illustrate an important point.
Are we paying attention to the water that we drink?
The water from the river represents natural, mineral rich water, that is essential for life.
Given that a huge percentage of our body is water, is it not obvious that we must be attending to it more carefully?
But just like the village men, we’ve perhaps been a far bit too cautious in filtering our water, ridding it of vital minerals that help our bodies and minds function better.
While we can’t control the water that comes to us in our taps, we can control the water that goes in our bodies.
One of the easiest ways to make our water richer, helping us be healthier, is by adding minerals.
Usually the water that we get in our taps has an unhealthy pH balance. And lacks minerals, that would otherwise be naturally present in water.
Drinking water which is more acidic affects our health far more adversely than we realize.
While quality minerals can be hard to find, I highly recommend these minerals that come to us right from the Great Salt Lake of Utah, USA.
I’ve been in search of quality mineral drops for quite some time, and my quest ended when Vestige launched CMD.
Concentrated Mineral Drops can be added to usual drinking water, and get the same benefits as you would drinking directly from a mineral rich water source.
There have been innumerable reports of benefits reported by people consuming this water, including returning of healthy thyroid levels, blood levels improving, joint pain and inflammation reduction, and feeling more energized and active, just to name a few.
This one change, of paying more attention to the health of your water, can lead to a healthier and happier life.