I sit here in the Emergency room waiting for a doctor for my wife.  It appears that she’s having a severe bout of appendicitis or an ovarian cyst rupture.  Persistent, worsening pain in her right, lower quadrant, pain that comes in waves.  Touching her abdomen sends her through the roof.  She’s cursing at me like a sailor.

How ironic is this?  Me, one who is extremely critical of the medical system is knee deep in it—and turning to it for help.

Medicine’s genius is in FIRST Aid.  Emergency care to prevent impending doom is where the magic of the profession is.

People come from all walks of life in to see me, and a lot of them are in acute care… sometimes even emergency situations… A great majority of them, we as chiropractors help them along, make them feel better, teach them to live in better ways, and sometimes miraculously after an adjustment, or a series of adjustments, they feel like a new person.

But in this case, I feel powerless. My wife, now resting, was screaming, writhing in pain, so I have no choice but to turn to the First Aid experts to do what their major strength is—help prevent impending doom.  And I humbly step aside for them to work their magic.  This is likely going to be a surgical case.  Ironic that I make my living provide the means for my patients to avoid drugs surgery at all costs.

As I sit here in the Emergency unit, I’m surrounded by people who are at their worst.  As my wife is now high on morphine, she’s fast asleep, and I’m constantly interrupted by beeps and coughs and sounds of vomiting and moaning patients.  The staff here appear to be miserable.  I don’t blame them.  The long hours, the suffering they are surrounded with.  Our environment does have a great deal to do with our pain.

From my research, I know statistically that 75-90% of all problems that people are in here for are lifestyle related.  These are conditions related to how we eat, how we move, and how we think.  The major killers?  Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer, and Adverse Reactions to Medications.

I can’t help but think of how that means that about 8 out of every 10 people who are in here could have prevented their need for being here. What’s worse is that the majority of people who are around me are already on copious amounts of medication—I overhear them listing all the medications they are on.

Our doctor’s offices are jam packed every day because people aren’t taught the why’s and how’s of what keeps them healthy and what makes them sick.   That’s because the system isn’t equipped for that.  While there are many places to go to get a diagnosis and a treatment, there aren’t too many places that will teach you why you got there in the first place and what role YOU have to play in getting yourself out.  That is too time consuming, and it’s not very profitable for the drug industry.

Doing research, attending health conferences, changing my own lifestyle habits… I was made aware that the only way our healthcare system can survive is to have LESS SICK PEOPLE.

This, fortunately, is not in the hands of the sickness care “health care” system.  It is entirely in your hands.  It is in the choices that we make every single day in how we eat, move, and think that will determine if you will be dependent on the system (drugs and surgery) or you will leave the system to what it is really there for:  First Aid.

My focus has now changed from “treating symptoms” to “teaching and helping the individual create health.” Using the logic of turning on light to remove darkness instead of focusing on the dark, I teach classes now in my office about lifestyle—how to eat, how to move, and how to even think– because people still live under the illusion that their genes control their health.  Even though it’s now been proven in science that your genes are not your destiny (as was the “Central Dogma” of Medicine).  It’s now undisputable in the literature.   Your environment, (how you eat, move, and think), not your genes, determine how your body expresses health or disease.

Let me give you an example:  When you are under any stressor, from family, to work, to even dietary stressors like too much processed foods; your body goes through a “fight or flight” response, liberating a great deal of energy triggered by the lower brain into an emergency protective mode.  Like a tiger chasing a gazelle, the only thing on the mind is survival for both lion and gazelle for that temporary time—just until the chase is over, and the gazelle returns to safety.

The gazelle, 20 minutes later, returns to grazing, and the tiger returns and rests shortly after, but we humans are so intelligent that we have the ability to re-live that lion attack

over and over again, day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

Now, we don’t have to worry too often about being chased down by a tiger here these days—unless you’re on a safari… But we are programmed to react exactly the same for our own version of tiger attacks—Family stress, work stress, lack of feeling of control of our environment, insecurity, divorce, financial pressures, low self esteem, resentment, anger, victimhood.

We re-live these emotions and repetitively wire our nervous systems with this damaging biochemistry, year after year, and our health falls apart—and we run to the doctor for an answer.  We line up in hospitals and in doctor’s offices.  And we end up spending more and more money, year after year. We’re reaching a breaking point, and simply can not sustain what we’ve created.   We call them chronic “medical conditions”, it’s but I can show you beyond the shadow of a doubt that 75-90% are simply the body making a

normal response to our lifestyle and thoughts.   And the system is designed in such a way that the only solution is in the form of a test, a pill or a knife, which has been proven to do a little to deal with the symptoms, and NOTHING to deal with the cause.

So what’s the solution to our long hospital waits (it’s now been 6 hours already and we haven’t seen a doctor—let’s hope her Appendix doesn’t rupture in the meantime–if it’s appendicitis)?  Simple:  LESS SICK PEOPLE.  And that, my friends, is not in the hands of a doctor.  It’s in your hands.  Everyone knows they should drink less alcohol, stop smoking, exercise more, eat more veggies, control our stress, etc.  But the problem with our system is that it doesn’t teach us the why or the how.

When you realize that you simply can’t express your health potential without exercise, and you are taught how to slowly incorporate it in your sedentary life, change becomes easy.

When you realize the processed foods we are eating are toxic, and how our cells respond to the deficiency of proper nutrients in our fast-food diets, and then we are shown how to overcome our food cravings, change becomes easy and the pounds start to fall off.

When you realize that just as your thoughts have the capacity to make you sick, your thoughts also have the capacity to help make you well—once you’re shown how to get out of survival mode and into creating the life you want, change becomes easy.

Sitting and talking endlessly about our problems re-creates the emotions, biochemistry, and physical illness patterns.  When we are taught how to overcome our fears, guilts, anxieties, and depressive patterns of thinking with some simple tools, we can heal the mind (and then the body) from all sorts of dis-eases.   Instead of blaming our current misery on what happened weeks to decades ago, we can learn to be grateful for what we have NOW.  And our biochemistry begins to change.

Far less costly on the system and far more effective than anything the system could offer, If these lifestyle changes could be bottled and sold in pill form, it would be the next blockbuster drug.   These changes have been shown to cure diabetes, reverse heart disease, and heal cancer.

But they’re not available in pill form.  They’re choices that require empowering yourself rather than being a victim to your environment or heredity.  A difficult choice for most of us, but without taking action personally on this STARTING TODAY, our collective physical, mental, and financial health has ZERO chance of survival.  It’s that serious.

It’s the reason why I’m dedicating my life to teaching how to create wellness and avoid the use of drugs or surgery, rather than treat disease.   The biggest challenge my patients face is not how to change–  It’s making the time to do it.  The hopeless cases are all the ones who “never seem to have the time”.  Even though they have all the resources I may offer at their disposal, from wellness chiropractic spinal care, to exercises, to attending classes on posture and stress:  “I’m just too busy.”  And then eventually their body seems to force them to make the time.  And I watch them deteriorate year after year.  So it fuels my passion to teach.  “Doctor” in Latin doesn’t mean “pill pusher.” It means “Teacher”.

Side note:  It’s now 2 in the morning, and the doctor has just come in and narrowed it down to 3 possibilities:  Kidney stone, or Appendicitis, or Ovarian Cyst Rupture.  Since CT scans have high levels of radiation, we’ve elected to do an Ultrasound in the morning.  Took us 8 hours to get to this conclusion—and now we have to wait another 7 hours for another test to determine the next course of action.  I’m staying with her in the hospital and I write this amidst the moans and screams of other suffering people.  My heart goes out to them because I know many of their problems are preventable if they only took the time to learn how. Here’s a list of how most of them could have avoided being here in the first place:

1)   If you want to be more alive than dead, eat foods that are more alive than dead.  Find resources to teach you strategies how to overcome your food addictions.

2)   When you wake up in the morning, don’t get out of bed without first thinking about all the things that you are grateful for, and what you would love to create in your day.  If you don’t take time to do this, your day will be filled with things you will be ungrateful for.  Guaranteed.  Re-program healthy brain/body biochemistry by THINKING WELL—Think better than how you feel.  Learn strategies to deal with the inevitable adversities of relationships and of life.  Everything begins with a thought.

3)   Keep your spine moving with exercise.  50% of all body movement nerve pathways are in the spinal joints and if it doesn’t move sufficiently, or it gets stuck, you could be in a great deal of trouble.  See your chiropractor regularly to keep it moving properly.

4)   Balance your movement and rest.  If you don’t get enough movement and exercise in your day, or you don’t get enough sleep—your cells become resistant to insulin—which has been shown to be the underlying root cause of all chronic degenerative illness—diabetes, cancer, heart disease, aging, osteoporosis, even mental disorders like Alzheimer’s and depression.

The hospital is a horrible place to be, but thank God it’s there in emergency cases like the one Maria finds herself in right now.  Doctors and nurses can be heroes.  But when we turn to doctors and nurses to treat diseases caused by poor lifestyle choices—we are playing with fire, and it’s a game we can’t win.  I’ve dedicated my life to teaching strategies on how to dramatically reduce our need to ever play.

P.S.  Turned out to be a ruptured ovarian cyst, and Maria is home recovering beautifully.  We elected for no surgery, and it turned out to be the right decision.  Many thanks to the doctors and nurses and Paramedics at Burnaby Hospital, and to our friends and family for their support.

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Walking among the Great Pyramids in Egypt, I realized that what was built over 5000 years ago has stood the test of time because of vision and a goal, mixed with action and deliberate intention.  We forget that in order to get anywhere or accomplish anything worthwhile like the Pyramids, all the souls involved in such an endeavor have to go through fears, frustrations, health issues, anxieties, dramas, family issues, and disappointments.

We forget that just because we’re going through some turmoil, these experiences aren’t just nuisances… they’re part of the things that create our story, what makes us interesting, what makes us who we are.

I had my own fears to face when I left– I had fears about leaving the office for a couple of weeks– that leaving would deter me from the million things I had to do, planning my talks, patients who needed follow up, etc.  I have been afraid for so long that I didn’t go on a honeymoon because I didn’t want to leave the office!

Little did I realize that simply leaving the comforts of my home, getting a rampant case of what the Brits call “runny tummy” that affected us all, having some great (and sometimes not so great) experiences with my family and friends and meeting some of the friendliest (and yet most pushy, most aggressive, and sneaky buggers) people in the world would cause me to grow and learn so much about myself and others.

The highlight had to be witnessing with my own two eyes what the ancients could accomplish because of devotion to their beliefs, their mission, and their purpose.  Walking amongst the Pyramids inspired me to share some of my thoughts of what we can consider when thinking about what we want to accomplish in 2010.  And it made me grateful for the comforts of my home, my patients, clients, students…..and solid bowel movements (in no particular order).

If anyone is thinking of visiting Egypt, my suggestion to you is to be extra cautious when crossing the streets of Cairo!  And get comfortable bargaining and negotiating!  Thanks to Nazila, James, and Mo for making our time so memorable.  Please watch this footage from the Pyramids and if you watch it till the very end…There’s a message for you from a friend we met at the Pyramids… Looking forward to your comments.

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Every day, because of the choices we make in our thoughts, our foods, and our activities, our bodies are either getting stronger or weaker. Over a lifetime of poor choices, our bodies accumulate stress, toxins, and deterioration and start aging faster than they actually should. We have been trained to see a medical doctor in those cases where the body breaks down due to poor lifestyle choices. While extremely important in emergencies, medical care doesn’t solve a problem caused by our choices of thoughts, foods, and activities, and a poorly functioning Nervous System.

Here are some testimonials of how people can recover back to their natural state of health, simply by changing what they put into their bodies, how they move their bodies, how they think and what they believe about their health, and most importantly clearing their Nervous system interference through wellness-oriented chiropractic care. These are true stories. These people are not actors and they have not been paid to give their testimonial. If you’ve been told that you have “_______” (enter diagnosis here), and “there’s nothing that can be done for you, “you need to take these pills”, “go do physio” you DO have another option. If you’ve been scared away from seeing a chiropractor, you’re not alone. Several of our patients report being discouraged from seeing a chiropractor by their GP or specialist. At the same time, we get many referrals from medical doctors who have been keeping current with the research supporting chiropractic care.

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Thanks to Science and Technology, we have made some incredible advancements in the field of Medicine. We have scans and tests that can see through the body and detect serious or fatal illnesses, acute overwhelming infections, and allow for the skilled physician or surgeon to make interventions that SAVE LIVES. Medicine’s genius is in it’s Emergency Care of extremely sick patients. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that science and technology has gone too far. We have put the medical system on such a pedestal that we have neglected to realize, as a society, that medicine DOES NOT CREATE HEALTH– and that we ourselves are responsible for it.

“Diseases of Civilization” which used to be unheard of are on the rise each and every year, and they are not due to a lack of medical science, technology, drugs and surgery. They are simply caused by making poor lifestyle choices as our collective health continues to decline and become a burden on financial system.

Today, our disease-focussed “health care” industry has come to the point where we are being marketed (literally to death) to “ask your doctor about” a new pill that is designed to manage symptoms created by our poor lifestyle choices. And more and more people die each day because of adverse reactions to PROPERLY prescribed drugs which don’t make you any healthier. Enough is enough. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back in balance. Even MD’s are speaking out about this: There IS a science to being well that doesn’t involve drugs and surgery. It all comes down to questions we ask ourselves, and the choices we make each day in our thoughts and beliefs, our nutrition, our physical activity, and how well our brain and body communicate with each other through our spine. I share these tools knowing full well I am likely going to be criticized and labelled an “unscientific quack” for doing so.

I am not bashing medical doctors. Many of my family members are MD’s and I love them all dearly. My goal is to help you win the health game by STAYING OUT OF THE MEDICAL SYSTEM and using medicine as a LAST RESORT rather than turn to pills and surgery FIRST. It is my mission and purpose to create a Wellness Centre where people can come for safe and effective alternatives to dangerous drugs which only mask problems, and MOST IMPORTANTLY to learn tools to get healthy, stay healthy, and to move towards getting off their medications that have been proven again and again to wreak havoc on the human body and mind.

There is no quick and easy fix to health problems and being healthy takes a some time and effort. I intend on sharing my research on mind and body health by teaching people to become an active participant rather than only a passive recipient, and taking control of your thoughts, your actions, and your nutrition. Health does not come from a pill, and it never has. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to take a pill for the rest of your life. For more information or to register for upcoming workshops, classes and courses offered at Westgate, please log onto http://www.westgatewellness.com, or go tohttp://www.drnima.com/workshops and if you want to learn some health tips and learn about other crazy stuff on my mind, feel free to sign up for our newsletter/blog update.

I am greatly indebted to Dr. James Chestnuthttp://www.thewellnesspractice.com, Dr. Kevin Donka http://www.kevindonka.com, Dr. John Demartini http://www.drdemartini.com, and Dr. Bruce Lipton for who’s thoughts, ideas, and research I have taken from and integrated to form my own. I stand on the shoulders of giants.
-Nima

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Do so many things that fall onto your lap each day seem like hurdles, or am I the only person who sometimes feels that it’s an upstream battle?

Upstream or Downstream?

When you are the owner of one of Greater Vancouver’s Largest Alternative Healing Centres, there are many opportunities thrown your way to divert you from your high-priority activities.

My favorite, high priority things to do:  To adjust and consult my patients, to teach educational classes, workshops, and courses, to research natural thought and lifestyle strategies on getting and staying well in the mind and body, to exercise and to spend time with my wife, my dog Lucy, family and friends.

For the most part, I try to do ONLY those things.  I run a busy chiropractic practice seeing patients, I sign around 20 paychecks, I have coaching clients, I teach classes every month in posture, Exercise, Nutrition, Stress, Law of Attraction, and teach a course 3 times a year on Personal Transformation.   I research, write,  dance (not as much anymore ), and on top of all those responsibilities, I’m renovating my office.  These are all things I love to do–but each day, I have more lower priority stuff I gotta take care of to make sure all that stuff above gets done.  Luckily, my amazing staff takes care of most of it, but there are always decisions to be made and fires to be put out.  I could easily get stressed every moment of every day– somedays I even do– you can’t help it sometimes, with computer crashes, phone lines down, equipment issues, etc…

Luckily, I have learned some amazing tools that enable me to step back from my life and take account of my thoughts each day for the type of day I’m having.  With these tools, I can make mid-course corrections and end my day the way I am inspired to live…

But I can see how not having this awareness can cause some serious trouble.  You can turn a temporary sad situation worse, and allow it to escalate into weeks, months, sometimes years of hopelessness and self-neglect.  Anger, frustration, anxiety, and depression could result from not coming to terms with the accumulation of these stresses and upstream battles.

When these repressions compound and overlap one another, it’s easy to see how we can get illnesses of the mind leading to the body, and vice versa.  Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, to name a few, can be reversed if the desire is there.  You can only do so by first turning downstream.  It can be the result of the study of healthy thinking, healthy eating, healthy balance of movement and rest.  And it helps to have a clear neurological connection between your brain and the 100 trillion cells of your body.  Without that, successful, happy living is impossible.  And you’re at the mercy of a pill to make you calm, content, and peaceful.

Here’s a little something to try today.  Watch this video and just try to keep in mind the simple analogy.  It’s by Esther Hicks.  You may have a problem with how she refers to herself as “We” in the third person, or how she believes that the Prophet Abraham speaks through her.  I agree with you—it’s a pretty weird and tough one to put aside.  Just give it a chance… This chick is right on the money with this analogy.  This stuff actually works.

Enjoy.

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“WORK ON YOURSELF HARDER THAN YOUR JOB.”  – Jim Rohn

I had a patient who started coming in a few weeks ago for headaches, neck pain, and low back pain.  Also, as a side note (that is not really a side note), he is taking anti-depressant medication.  His symptoms originate in the neck, move upwards into the jaw and head, and also downwards into his shoulder blade.  When the stress gets severe, he also notices it going down his arm.

I can’t tell you how common this is.  I see it almost every single day I am working in the clinic as a Chiropractor in Maple Ridge, BC.  With a good regimen of chiropractic care, the aches resolve quickly, and given the appropriate exercises, stretches, and regular checkups and adjustments, the symptoms can pretty much dissolve into nothing and stay there, but the adjustments unfortunately don’t address an underlying daily conflict:  He hates his job, doesn’t feel that he is paid enough, and the stress of it all is consuming him.

Anti-depressants are quickly becoming the most prescribed drug in North America.  According to Reuters, Since 1996 the use of psychotropic drugs like anti-anxiety and anti-depressants have gone up 73% in adults and 50% in children.  More and more I am hearing from my patients that their doctor has told them there is a “chemical imbalance” in their brains so they “have to take these drugs for life”.

My dear friends.  This is a lie.  Plain and simple.  I’m sure that if I stayed in the same work conditions, I’d have to take those drugs for life as well.  While many have allowed their frustrations/resentments/fears to slowly accumulate to the point where they are unable to function without these medications, it’s important to know something:  Our genes have not changed since our pre-historic hunter/gatherer days.  Our LIFESTYLES have.  We have been led to believe that an appropriate lifestyle is: Go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, get a mortgage and continue to work 9-5 for someone else and get paid for your time between 50-75K/year if you’re lucky, keep going until you’ve gathered enough pension and retire at 65.  Then just sit back and wait to die while playing with your grandkids.  If this is the idea of  the “American Dream”, I think I need an anti-depressant MYSELF.

Heart attacks occur most often in the morning (probably monday morning) for that reason… too often we wake up with high anxiety about the day we are about to embark upon.  Our minds have the ability to convince our bodies that we are in “Survival Mode” and it reacts accordingly with a cascade of events that take us away from balance and homeostasis.  The body then can change it’s chemistry based on our thoughts!  This is now well documented in medical literature.  It seems that the drug companies are quite embarrassed at the fact that placebo’s work just as well as anti-depressants.

More and more research is coming out demonstrating the fact that there are pro-active things we can do to help “cure” our physical and mental disorders.  If we rely on our “health care” system (which basically means “treatment of symptoms by drugs and surgery”), we are totally missing the boat on what our bodies are trying to tell us.

The majority of my patients view their work as a major stressor in their life not just because it’s hectic and demanding, but because it’s so unfulfilling and doesn’t pay what they think they are worth.

I have been working on developing myself, my mission, my voice, and my vision intensively for the past 20 years.  I can see that it is unfolding beautifully even though I’ve overcome some serious fears, anxieties, and stresses.  Do I have bad days?  Absolutely, just like everyone else.  Do I experience moments of sadness?  Yes, I do.  But luckily because I’ve been working on mastering my own emotional state despite my environment, I’m able to take a difficult event, a conflict, or a stressful encounter and change the way I think about it within a moment’s notice.  I can feel that when I make that shift, my physiology changes from “stress response—fight or flight” to “rest and relaxation, and balance”.

After working on these tools and skills for so long, I get a huge satisfaction when I share those tools with my patients and my clients.

I started incorporating them into my practice because of their amazing value in lowering people’s stress response and allowing their minds and bodies a proper environment for healing and wellness.

The first, and most challenging task is to awaken people to the fact that their “diagnosis” or “label” they’ve been given by their doctor is not necessarily true, nor does it have to be their reality.  Too often, these labels hold us back from taking responsibility to make changes.  I see how some use the label to sit back and allow their lives to be governed by others.

Only by empowering ourselves can we open the doors to changing our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical state.  This can not be done by sitting back and waiting for change.

What can we do about some of the feedback our body is giving our mind? (otherwise known as symptoms)

Well, if you are having aches and pains… chances are that your body is telling you that you have nerve interference.  Like my patient mentioned above, get checked and adjusted right away and maintain it (shameless plug) with your Chiropractor.

What can we do about negative feedback our mind is giving our body?

If you are feeling sad, angry, resentful, depressed, anxious… then START WORKING ON YOU.  You heard me.  You’re not a label.  You have some challenges that you have to face and walk into.  Welcome to life.  And when you have overcome this particular challenge…. You’ll be happy to know that you will run into another one.  I have yet to meet a living thing that doesn’t go through this same situation.  Here’s where you begin:

• EXERCISE.  I can’t “stress” this enough.  Exercise at least 3 days a week.  Get your heart rate going.  Exercise stimulates the reward centers in you lower brain and increases blood flow to your higher brain centers.  Exercise has been shown to lower stress hormones and anxiety, reduce cravings for the substances you’re addicted to, increase mental alertness and memory, sex drive, feelings of control of environment, and ease muscle tension.  If you are depressed, take it as feedback that you probably haven’t been moving nearly enough.  Depression and anxiety are great feedback tools to wake you up to the fact that you need to be moving more.

• Start working on YOU.  Depression, fear, resentment can’t be eliminated by focusing on them.  Trust me, I’ve tried it… it doesn’t work.  Depression is not something you “catch”.  You don’t go somewhere and acquire it.  Depression creeps in when you lose touch with who you are, and you compare your current reality to someone else’s reality—someone you’ve given authority to, and you beat yourself up.  Depression can not exist in an individual who has acquired a high value of himself/herself, is clear on their values, have found themselves to be part of a cause that’s greater than themselves, feel they are contributing to society, to the economy and are getting rewarded in some meaningful way to them (financial reward, reward by recognition and appreciation).  Where can you start to build that?  Simple.  By taking the time to focus on you, your goals, your aspirations, reading, taking classes, seminars. You need to work on YOU, to “bring value to the marketplace.”  One of my hero’s Jim Rohn puts it beautifully, and I recommended this youtube video to my patient as part of his wellness plan.  He’s on the road to improving himself, and attending some classes to learn how.  I share this video with you.  To help yourself grow more value in the marketplace and in your health– a great place to learn some tips are during our upcoming “Health and Wealth” summit coming up in Downtown Vancouver on October 18th.

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Our system in crisis can be broken down to the choices we make every single day as individuals

President Obama has one heck of an uphill battle to fight.  I really wouldn’t want to be in his situation.  Everyone has their own vested interests in the “health care reform” debate.

Doctors don’t want to get paid any less, heck I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t either.

Insurance companies don’t want their profits cut by generic drugs coming across international borders…I don’t blame them either.

People who are faced with life threatening illness don’t want to be turned away from the BEST POSSIBLE CARE because of a lack of funds.  I don’t blame them either.

As a Chiropractor in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, who’s services are not covered by any governmental assistance (except for those low income who get a small $230/year to go towards their choice of Chiro, Massage, Optometry, Podiatry, or Physical Therapy, Acupuncture, or Naturopathic Care), I see too often how people who are in need of my care can’t afford to have their families come in and get checked on a regular basis for wellness (some call it preventative) care, and opt to go to a medical doctor instead and take pills, or even elect for surgery, because it’s “free”.  These patients don’t end up getting to the root cause of their problems:  Poor lifestyle choices.

It hurts for me to see all this around me, because I see all to often that it’s a lack of understanding of who they are, what their bodies and minds genetically REQUIRE to perform at optimum levels.  And this lack of understanding and ignorance of their lifestyle choices in how they eat, move, think, along with a poorly functioning nervous system over a period of decades leads to major health problems, which become a burden on society.  Of course these sick people need the best care available to them, but look at what these lifestyle choices are costing us.

Our “health care” system is far from “free”.  42% of all provincial taxes goes to fund our system under crisis.  The British Columbia Government’s website says that the spending in this province has gone up to 15.72 billion this year, up from 9.36 Billion back in 2001– which is an increase of 70% in less than ten years.  They’re projecting it should go up to $17.51 billion in 2010/11.  We’re spending more on “health care” and we’re getting sicker.  And what are the main conditions people are seeking medical treatment for?  Obesity, Heart Disease, and Diabetes, Cancers, digestive disorders, mental disorders, and a handful of other chronic illnesses that are becoming more and more common.  And now that our Government is proposing to raise taxes by implementing a new “Harmonized Sales Tax” totaling 12% for all purchases, restaurants and many services, people are getting extremely angry.  My question to those people:  What the heck do you expect?  How are we going to pay for the declining health of our society and the increasing costs?  Do YOU have a better solution?

Deepak Chopra, who is a Harvard-graduated physician, writes a lot about this dilemma that’s happening as we speak to our neighbors in the US.  While he applauds Obama’s desire for change, he’s quite skeptical about how raising taxes and throwing more money into a system that isn’t working won’t really change the state of health of nation who’s health is already on the decline.  While it’s much better to take money that the Bush Administration threw into war and put it back into the well being of the country, his article tells us why Obama’s system won’t reform our health unless Americans take responsibility.

The best, most “funny cuz-it’s true” article in response to all the people demanding the government pay for healthcare is from Bill Maher.  Not very politically correct at all, but you really can’t deny the validity of his sarcastic take on the debate.  Michael Moore should really pay attention to this one.  It’s called “New Rule:  You can’t complain about Health Care Reform if you’re not willing to reform your own Health”.  It’s a gem.

With all the debate, I present you with 3 simple videos that, if properly understood and embraced, and taught to young children in schools, we could raise a new generation of people who take responsibility for their own health, reduce the burden of the tax payer, and take our health and health care system to the next level.

The first is quite an inspiring story of what proper lifestyle choices can do to add a higher quality of life.

It breaks my heart to watch that video, because I see that my grandmother is only a few years older than this woman, but because she didn’t have the same lifestyle choices, she looks and feels much older, is at the doctor’s office every two weeks, has had surgeries and I painfully watch her health decline.

This next story I suggest you take the time to watch was inspired by a book by Dr. John Ratey, MD– who happens to be a psychiatry professor at Harvard.  I’m right in the middle of his fascinating book called “Spark–The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain”.

A teacher in Saskatchewan with students who had “oppositional defiant behavior”, who half the class was labelled “Attention Deficit Disorder” and put on Ritalin, read this book and decided that before class she was going to put these kids on a treadmill for 45 minutes.  The results were miraculous.  These kids started learning, behaving, became happier, and went off the Ritalin.  Everyone knows exercise is good for you and helps your mental alertness, but when a Harvard Psychiatric professor publishes research on it– now the implications are HUGE, especially now when we are faced with a health-care crisis, which also includes medical treatment of mental disorders.

Click Here to watch Brain Gains

And this documentary is a must watch.  It’s called “Food Matters”. Here’s the trailer.

So it’s pretty clear.  I know.  The debate will continue.  People will get sick, the pharmaceutical industry continues to rake in massive amounts of money hoping that you don’t catch on to what I’m trying to tell you:  You are responsible for your own health– not your doctor.  It is not his job description to teach you how to be healthy.  His concern is more about what he has been trained to do:  To take your symptoms, and categorize them, label them and to come up with a diagnosis.  Often, to help him/her, expensive tests are performed, all to determine which drug/surgery to administer.  This is the nature of our “sick care” system, and as long as you are in that system, you will never result in a higher level of health.

As my mentor, Dr. James Chestnut states, Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well.  I would add that you must make sure you have a clear neurological connection between your brain and body.  If we all just put our focus on these simple solutions, our country would not be under the crisis that it’s in.  I’ve spent countless hours researching ways to help the body not only stay youthful, energized, balanced in mind and body, but to actually “cure itself” of many mental and physical ailments that most people think are only managed through drugs and surgery.  I’ve dedicated my life to helping to educate the world on these methods that the drug companies don’t want you to know about.  Stay tuned for more.

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Fear is an incredible thing.  Sounds crazy, I know… but think about it.  Your fears can be the driving force in your life.  Fear of failure drives many to succeed and go the extra mile.  Fear of poverty makes us become better savers of money.  Fear of going to a “hell” or a “hellish” afterlife can cause us to become very kind and generous to people.

In my case fear of chronic illness, getting obese and unattractive, and fear of early aging all serve to drive my mission and purpose:  To research and find ways of getting healthier, stronger, happier, more balanced, more fit, and more youthful.

In my own quest of running away from my fears, I serve others and make a living by teaching, treating, adjusting, coaching, and speaking to others about how to avoid the things I fear.

THANK GOD FOR MY FEARS.

But fear has it’s downside–I’m sure you’re well aware.

Fear, in it’s extreme cases, can cause such a level of anxiety that instead of pushing you forward, it holds you back.

It holds you back from being the best you can be with all the talents you’ve been given.

There is something you know you really want to be doing—would LOVE to be doing with your life RIGHT NOW.  I know because there isn’t a person who I have met or coached that doesn’t have an inner voice that propels them to do something very cool with their lives, whether they’re aware of it or not.

Not only that, but add on the daily fears— fears that are so constant, and so part of who you are that you walk through your life in a constant state of panic, as though your life is in continuous danger.

The problem with this high level of anxiety is that if left unchecked and unresolved, it could build up to the point that you have a panic “attack” where you suddenly feel like you’re at the end of your rope.

If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone.  Everyone feels varying degrees of fear, anxiety, and depressive states.  It’s all part of the human experience.

The question is, what are you going to do about it?

If you’re like most people in North America, you could end up in a medical doctor’s office, who has training in recognizing signs, symptoms and labeling states of disorders and different states of adaptive physiology.  But be aware…. the only treatments they are trained to offer in medical school are MEDICAL ones.

My biggest challenge in my chiropractic practice is seeing patients in chronic pain, who also happen to be on anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication.

Though they come to me to “relieve their pain”, I find myself wanting to delve into their underlying emotional root causes in addition to their symptoms because I’m seeing more and more how the two are intimately linked together.

Luckily there is help for those seeking to start their inward–bound journey to awakening their own inner healer.

We have a “Law of Attraction for the Advanced Manifestor” seminar that will make you go inward like you’ve never gone before.  Please do not attend if you expect a “here’s the secret to happiness” seminar.  There’s no such thing.

But if you are one of those seeking an awareness and a path to overcome whatever fear that stands in your way to fulfilling your relationships, your career, you mind and body health, and your finances–that’s basically our target audience.

I was lucky enough to discover at a young age that our coping mechanisms for our fears, anxieties and stresses aren’t skills that ever get taught in school.  In school, I learned how to type, but I didn’t learn how to handle relationship conflicts with friends and family, and most importantly, myself.

What happens when we allow our fears to take control of our lives.

My mission is to teach these skills to children and adults around the world in one-on-one and one-on-many form to empower people to realize that their thoughts, perceptions, lifestyle choices, actions, and foods that they eat play a more significant role in shaping their health than anything else in the world.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep using my fears to my (and your) advantage.

So what can YOU do about it?

Aside from going inward and learning more about yourself in courses and seminars, it would be wise for everyone to take the time and ponder on some empowering questions:

1—What is my greatest fear?

2—What are the benefits of me living with this fear? (They wouldn’t be there unless there were some benefit you’re getting out of it)

3—What is this fear costing me in my relationships, career, in my physical, emotional, and financial health?

The problem is, we seldom take the time to ask ourselves these important questions.  And our mind/body health can deteriorate because of it.

Click here to see date and location of “Law of Attraction for the Advanced Manifestor” class (scroll to bottom)

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“Hey boss!”

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

The word itself is enough to make me cringe.  Although people have a natural fear and public display of respect for whoever is the boss, you can’t help but resent anyone who holds the title.  As my career has developed into manifesting the ownership of one of Greater Vancouver’s largest Multi-disciplinary Alternative Wellness Clinics, I look back on the past 2 years of being “the boss” and I realize something:

No matter what books you read, or seminars you attend, you can never be REALLY ready for the challenges you face in that position.  Here’s what I have learned.

1)   Everyone is going to try to “get away” with whatever they can.  You can’t blame them, because we all are the same.  All you can do is to be clear on your boundaries and make your expectations clear.

2) Speak up when those boundaries have been crossed, or suffer the consequences later.

3) Become aware of your weaknesses, and delegate those tasks to others who are good at them.

4)  If you don’t prioritize your day with productive activities, then non-productive, energy draining tasks will take over your day.  Guaranteed.

5)  Become extremely comfortable not being liked.  No matter what you do… I repeat… NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO… people will like you and dislike you.  So embrace it and do what you love to do.  Side note:  Most people can’t handle not being liked, and thats why being the boss is not for the faint of heart.

6)  If you pay peanuts, you end up with monkeys.

7)  Humans require inspiration to take massive action.  People have blown themselves up and crashed airplanes into buildings because they they had something they believed in.  Become inspired, share your vision, and you’ll be surprised at how others will catch that inspiration and jump on board with your vision.

8-  Life is a struggle to stay in the present moment.  Every day, you will be bombarded with 30-50 opportunities to take you into past remembered guilts, or future imagined fears.  Learn the art of recognizing they are just illusions and all that matters is what is in front of you NOW.  Once you have mastered this art, write a book about it and make millions.  And please send me royalties for giving you the idea.

9)  The most successful people in the world are those that have understood how to combine their spiritual nature with their material nature, and kept both in harmonic balance.  Fall out of equilibrium, that is– try to give something for nothing or try to get something for nothing, and the universe will let you know by giving you a few gifts to make you aware of the disequilibrium.  Those gifts are: Stress, resentment, frustration, anxiety, and depression, fear, and guilt.  What better way to remind you to balance your give and take with the world than to make you extremely uncomfortable?

10)  Everyone is replaceable in your company except YOU.  Appreciate your co-workers, but never infatuate with them or make them feel that you are worthless without them.  Give anyone that power and they will eat you alive.  Put the needs of the company FIRST.  Nobody has a job without the company being healthy FIRST.  I used to think the opposite.  The school of hard knocks taught me otherwise.

11)  Being the boss is not as easy as you think it is.  My respect for successful entrepeneurs has skyrocketed because I KNOW how difficult it is.  The higher up you climb up that ladder, the more people can see your butt.  And it’s so easy to take shots at the one who’s at the top.

I know these are specific to “bosses” but when you look carefully at each of these and they can relate to us being the “boss” of our own lives.  These principles are universal, and they all address how important it is to respect and honor ourselves when we relate to others.  Failed businesses, failed relationships, and deteriorating health all result from people who don’t love themselves enough to put themselves on equal ground with others and speak up when they have needed to.

Any other pearls of wisdom, feel free to comment.

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