In
the design phase of a machine, the designer takes care of all possible use of
that machine and incorporates built in mechanism for protection from any
misuse. But this experiment is done inside the confined walls of laboratory and
effectiveness is limited to the knowledge & skills of the designer. When
the machine is put into use in real world environment (out of the laboratory),
at times, it get subjected to misuse by hostile circumstances. An intelligent
and aware user can minimize this misuse by adhering to proper maintenance
practices. These practices often forms part of the usage routine. However,
under pressures of workload, these get neglected. A prolonged negligence will
limit the capability of the machine and may lead to critical situation which
may compel emergency attention and unwarranted expenses.
The
method and periodicity of the maintenance is not important so much, as the consistency
of its use. The consistence maintenance practice gives better pay offs. The
same principles of maintenance are applicable to our body too. For example
personal hygiene is a common maintenance practice in use. It is done in
different forms and up to different extents in different sets of cultures &
work environments.
A
very common part of such practice is taking daily bath. If it is used by a
healthy person, his/her chances of remaining healthy improves manifold. It is
not important that the bath is taken with hot water or cold water or what soap
is used for it. The user is the best judge for such details. The important
thing is that it is followed regularly.(occasional omissions may be acceptable
if one is too tired to do it or the facility does not exists in the work
environment).The problem creeps up when long spells of non practice are there
due to laziness or any other reason. The small amount of dust/dirt which is
washed away on daily basis starts accumulating on the body and may attract more
dirt. It may also become a breeding ground for harmful agents. There are fair
chances that the negligence may convert to a medical problem after several
days/months/years
The
point here is that regular practice of some simple methods by an aware
user of the body/mind machine can help tremendously in the maintenance of
health of the system. Even the methods may appear very trivial on the
face of it; a consistence practice makes the life easy.
The
routine maintenance practices also give us opportunity to personalize,
adjust or customize our body/mind instrument. You may have noticed a guitar
player adjusting the strings of his/her guitar before every use. This is done
to ensure that the strings are neither too loose that these will not
produce the required sound nor these are too tight that these will break
on use. A matured guitar player will fine tune the tightness of strings further
as per his/her liking for the type of songs which he/she has decided
to play. Similarly, we, as the owners of our body/mind instruments are the
right persons to fine tune this wonderful gift from nature to us.
