Archive for the ‘Chiropractic’ Category

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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Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people in my office come in with severe pain caused by injuries while working out.  Others come in with huge postural distortions, especially in the upper back and chest, all attributed to 2 main problems:

1) Working out with a spine that doesn’t function properly

2) Not being aware of the correct stretches and exercises to correct your postural distortions.

I’ll address #2 first.

Look at this picture:

I had a patient come in yesterday who has a similar posture to this photo.  Does this look familiar to you?

He has had a 5 year history of burning pain in his upper back and neck.  He was hoping I could fix it.  We talked about exercise, and he said he worked out religiously.  Hmmm.  Interesting.

I asked him what exercises he did.  Can you take a wild guess what exercises he’s been focussing on?  The classic ones people do when they haven’t really had the training to know what to be working on.  Chest ,arms, and abs.  That’s about it.

As a result, his pecs are strong and tight, and his scapular muscles in his upper back (rhomboids, levator, traps) are loose and weak.  Result?  Well. Just look at the picture.  Or maybe look in a mirror.  I would say that 90% of people who don’t exercise or live consciously are to some degree in the same boat.  Why is this?

Simple:  Lifestyle.  In school, we sit 8 hours a day in a chair.  Not exactly what our bodies were designed to do.  Our Ancestors sure didn’t sit in chairs the way our children do.

 

Then, we finish school.  We go to work.  Most of us sit again, on our commute to work, then we sit at work, commute back home, and then sit again in front of the TV.  When we are living these movement-deficient lifestyles, our spines, which house our central nervous system gets stuck, and mal-aligned.  This puts a great strain on our discs, nerves, and muscles.  Slowly, as we deteriorate, our bodies fatigue and start to scream at us in the form of pain, numbness, tingling, and dis-ease.  Slowly, as a result of this lack of motion, arthritis sets in, and so does degenerative disc disease, all are which use up our health care system dollars by being “treated” with drugs and surgery.  Since our parents lived the same lifestyles and developed the same conditions, we can easily be convinced that our problems are “genetic”.  I see so many patients who consult me as a last-ditch effort after they have been convinced by another health professional that they developed this problem from their parents, it’s almost like a broken record when I see them.  

Solution:

When working out, focus more on doing rowing and upper back exercises to counterbalance the effects of gravity and poor posture.  

 

These exercises are also to be done in combination with stretching your pectoralis muscles to assist in loosening them up and bringing the shoulders back.

This exercise I showed him, using a simple rubber band he could use at the office, holding the bands on both ends while pushing it against  the soles of his feet, all the while sitting at his desk.  You pull on the rubber bands or the pulley at the gym so that your shoulder blades pinch together like in this picture.

(Note, an advanced version of this exercise can be done with dumbells while leaning forward with a straightened lower back, pulling the shoulder blades back)

This must be done consistently, and to a greater degree than his chest exercises.  I then showed him a stretch he could do in a doorway, by leaning forward through the door while his arms and elbows leaned against the door frame:

These two together, done consistently each day (back exercise every other day) will bring your posture back to normal within a short period of time, especially when performed in combination with chiropractic care.  I have now put my patient on a 6 week exercise program, combined with a game plan of weekly Chiropractic care to get him there quicker.  Spinal adjustments help by loosening up the stuck (subluxated) joints in the upper back so the joints and muscles can move more freely and hold in the correct position easier.  Not to mention re-connect his brain and his body again.  His pain will be gone within the next 4 weeks.  

Can I just correct my spine with exercise?

Last week, a lady came in from an injury sustained while doing yoga.  While I’m a huge proponent of yoga, I send you to Yoga with a warning.  If you try to bend, twist, or move in any direction on a spine that doesn’t function properly, you could be in trouble.  I’ve seen it too many times… People wanting to “fix” themselves with exercise end up injuring themselves.  Remember to keep this in mind while exercising:

Your entire spine needs to be moving freely, especially one vertebrae with respect to another.

Look at this picture.  The model on the left shows a normal spine.  The one on the right shows a subluxation– a joint in the spine that has a deficiency of movement.  Subluxations are interesting in that they both cause injuries, and injuries/overuse can cause subluxations.  Please note, this picture is an exaggeration for illustration purposes.  Subluxations are often more subtle than this.  God forbid, if you allow yourself to get to this point, there’s no way you’ll be exercising.  You’ll be flat on your back.

They can be both excruciating, and more often than not, painless.  Either way, subluxations disrupt the normal functioning of the body.  Subluxations are an interference to the brain’s attempt at communicating with the body.  

Your body is composed of over 50 trillion cells, and health can be considered as all these cells working harmoniously together in concert.  Your brain is the conductor.  How does your brain do the conducting?  Through the nervous system.  

Exercise is critical to keep you healthy… and you also need to maintain a healthy lifestyle– eating real, whole foods that are more alive than dead, maintaining a positive focus in all areas of life, to grow, to learn, to expand your consciousness in some way, to make a contribution to the world, and to make sure you are getting plenty of rest, and healthy movement in the form of exercise.  Just make sure you’re doing them properly, focusing on the right areas mentioned above.  

Keeping a clear neurological connection between the brain and cells of your body is critical to ensure that each and every day you are growing stronger rather than weaker, and you are able to get the most out of your healthy lifestyle choices.   It takes time, effort, and a deliberate focus to be healthy with correct posture.  It’s not luck or genes that determines your health!

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So you know you need to make some changes.  Gotta lose the gut for the summer, gotta quit smoking, gotta exercise.  Gotta start saving money. 

I’m going to share with you 101 tips to help you make a shift in your life to make the changes you already know you “should” be doing but haven’t gotten around to… in every area of life, not just physical.  Even some tips that will help you in financial and social situations.  I will be expanding on these tips on future blogs.  

Since true health requires a balance of all areas of life, I will give you tips on every area of your life.  I will share pearls of wisdom I have learned from my teachers and my research.  These are tools that I have applied and have been proven to be reproducible– that means that if they work for me, they will work for you.  I am in no wise an expert in all matters.  I’m a student of Health and Wellness.

 You may not agree with everything I say.  I don’t expect you to.  If I challenge one of your beliefs, by all means, stand up for yourself and make a comment.   By the way– all these tips are just as much for me as they are for you.

Eating Well:

1.  Drink more clean water.  Your mother was right.  Instead of FIRST focussing on cutting down the sodas, try to just drink more water.  Drink water all day and watch your energy levels rise. You like the sodas a bit too much? No problem…  I’ll show you an easy way (#5) to get over your soda addiction.

2.  Add raw fruit and vegetable content to your meals gradually.  And make sure you eat it before the cooked stuff.

  I used to eat 10% raw, now I eat 33-50% raw, depending on the meal.  I’ve lost weight and haven’t hungered or deprived myself at all.  It was so easy I’m going to write an article about it.  Stay tuned.

3.  Give in to your munchies.  Don’t deprive yourself.  You’re not an idiot, you know junk food is bad for you….Just make sure you start out with fruit or veggies.  Have plenty of frozen grapes prepared.  Have baby carrots and dip, with broccoli and cauliflower ready for your munchie cravings.  Cut up apples and throw some lemon juice on them, sprinkle some cinnamon.  Have an orange.  Eat those foods FIRST.  You’ll be amazed after a while you will be craving those healthier foods.  You actually survive if you don’t eat junk.  Amazing discovery for me.  You’ll crave less wheats, carbs, and glutens.

4.  When making your meal choice, stop and think.  Ask yourself “how am I going to feel 2 hours after I’m finished?”  Nobody eats a grilled chicken salad and says “oh man, what the hell did I do to myself?”

5.  Stop Drinking your Calories.  Increasing water is one way…. Wanna know how I got over my soft-drink addiction?  Just watch this video and you’ll see how.  

6.  Get a juicer or blender.  Yes.  It’s a pain in the butt to clean.  I’m telling you it will save your life.  In the morning, throw in carrots, apples, beets, strawberries, oranges, you name it.  You drink a tall glass of all that…, you can feel your cells saying “ahhh… finally some nutrition.  We don’t have to work as hard, you jerk.”  Your blood sugar levels go up gradually, and you won’t feel a crash.  Your food cravings will be GONE.  You can last until lunch with that. Try it for a week.

7.  Treat yourself as though you are a child, animal, or automobile that you love.  You would put in only the best food and fuel and care, time, energy, resources, and money.  Why don’t you do the same for yourself?

8.  Take a high powered multi-vitamin supplement.  That’s one thing you don’t go cheap on.  Even if you eat organic, chances are, the food you are eating has been in transit for a long time and they lose their nutrients.  Those in tropical climates have an advantage, but you gotta get your anti-oxidants.  Email me if you want suggestions for the products I use.  

9.  Remember the good fats!  Essential Fatty Acids are not ingested in sufficient amounts in our diet.  We REQUIRE it in sufficient amounts to avoid skin, hair, and nerve-related ailments (among a zillion others).  There’s great research out there that EFA’s in the form of  fish oils have a great results in “treating” depression.  The truth is, it’s not a treatment for that!  If you have a deficiency, you could easily become depressed.

10.  Drink alkalizing agents like alkaline water, and pure fruit and vegetable juices.  When at a restaurant, ask for a lemon and squeeze the juice into the water.  The citric acid acts ironically as an alkalizer after it passes into the stomach.  Our acidic PH in the blood is responsible for a series of health problems.  Balancing it out is important.

Getting Moving:

11.  Consider daily exercise as a nutritional requirement.  For the sedentary, start by adding a 1/2 hour walk a day.  Nothing is as cheap and effective, and boosts your serotonin levels so easily and naturally.

12.  Get a trainer if necessary to help motivate you.  First, motivate yourself by seeing how getting healthy will help you attain your family, hobby, and career, and financial goals.  Otherwise, you won’t ever do it.

13.  Start your program with postural exercises.  Your mom was right about that one too, although she probably needs help with it as well.  Bad posture and poor general health are linked together in the research.  Have 2-3 simple postural exercises you can do in 5 minutes every day as a break from work.  Your energy will skyrocket.  (Check for future update blog on posture coming up at a later date.)

14.  Play a sport that requires cardiovascular endurance, fun, and a moderate to high level of skill.  Not only is it good for the heart, but good for the brain as well.  When you are in the pursuit of mastering a skill, you are feeding your brain and nerve system and protecting against advanced deterioration.  Golf (without a cart), hockey, basketball, and climbing are great examples.  Use it or lose it.

15.  Meditate.  Meditation, to me can be defined as any shift in awareness that brings the mind a state of re-connection with the body in the present moment.  You can do that even sitting on a bus.  It has been shown to lower stress hormone levels with no side effects.  There’s always a meditation class going on somewhere if you need, or CD’s and DVD’s you can get for that.

16.  DO YOGA (or pilates).  I haven’t come across another practice that challenges the mind and body in such a manner.  I’m fascinated with it and now want to learn how to teach yoga. You look at a person who has been in the regular practice of yoga or pilates for several years… Even before Lululemon existed… They all have one thing in common.  They look and feel better than most of us do.  They’re in better shape.  They’re more integrated as human beings.  They’re even sexier.   

17.  Have sex at least once a day (minimum), preferably with someone you love (Parental Guidance Version recommends it only if you’re married ) Even though I’m joking only a little bit, I recognize this schedule is tough to keep up with daily stresses, work, kids, resentments… I’m recommending that you make it a priority.  It’s extremely good for your mind and body, and if done appropriately, a darn good workout.  Can’t wait to blog about it.

18.  Take dance lessons.  Shameless plug.  I know I’m biased, but nothing is healthier and safer (unless you were that poor girl in Milan, Italy who’s head I crashed into another girl’s head during the final hit of the song- sorry about that one, hun).  Our hunter/gatherer ancestors made dance a part of their rituals.  There’s a reason for that:  It’s social, it’s primal, it’s healthy, it’s expressive, and it releases “feel good” chemicals into our reward centers of the brain naturally.  This reduces stress and anxiety levels.  Salsa classes have been described as “the cure for depression”.  Dance classes are not a treatment for depression!  But–if you don’t get enough movement in your life, you will become depressed.  Guaranteed.

19.  Take the stairs.  If you’re out of energy by the time you get to the top, take it as a sign that you are in desperate need of prioritizing your health.  

20.  Stretch daily.  Going from “downward dog” to “cobra” (yoga poses), and finishing off with the “chair” pose every day would make a huge difference to prevent back problems.  If you don’t know what they look like, get an instructor to help you.

The nerves that branch out from your spine allow the brain to control every single cell and organ of your body. Stay connected.

 

 

 

 

 

21.  See a Chiropractor Regularly.  Ya, ya, of course I would say that.  Think about it, though:  Our bodies are exposed to stresses daily. Postural stress, work stress, chronic sitting, lifting, bending, standing, repetitive motions, as well as deficiencies in movement.  You spine soaks up tension from all these daily events the way a sponge soaks up water.   An adjustment “rings out” the tension so you can take on more, and keep on abusing yourself.  Since you don’t live in a plastic bubble all day, it makes sense to have these movement deficiencies corrected.  Hippocrates, the father of medicine said “Look well to the spine for the cause of disease” .  You won’t hesitate in maintaining your teeth, car, hair, nails. You wear out your spine, and life is miserable.  I see way too much of that, and it saddens me because it’s so preventable.

Healthy Social Interactions:

22.  Beware of becoming “too nice”.  It’s transparent–people know that everyone has two sides, and either they will see through it and avoid, or put unbelievable expectations on you to stay happy all the time.   My patients wrongly assume that I’m “positive” all the time.  Those same people get extremely dissapointed in me when they see I can have a bad day too.  Be truthful and balanced with the expectations on yourself, and with others.  Easier said than done, I know.  Just work on it.

23.  Become aware of your values, rules, and beliefs.  Realize that as you are only expected to live your beliefs and values, others want to be appreciated for living their lives as they see fit.  Resist this truth and suffer the consequences.  People will go to where they are appreciated the most. And so will you.

While you're looking at someone's grass, someone else is looking at yours.

 

 

 

 

 

24.  Whenever you assume someone else has a better deal than you…look again.  Emmerson said “Envy is ignorance and immitation is suicide”.  Appreciate what you got– someone, somewhere is looking at you and wishing they had it as good as you.

25.  Don’t expect to have close interpersonal relationships with others if you haven’t come to terms with the relationship with yourself.  Appreciate the duality that is you: A little angel, as well as a little devil.  Your fears and guilts about yourself will come across to your friends.  Those who are the most miserable socially are the ones who pretend to be someone they are not.  Love your shadow.  You don’t have to get rid of half of yourself to appreciate yourself.

26.  Release the expectation that a true friend must support you all the time.  You’ll lose less friends this way.  Allow people to have their opinions, even though they might disagree with yours.  

27.  Go with your gut.  Make your own decision rather than basing it on a friend’s opinion.  By tomorrow, and almost every day afterwards, you will have to make a decision that might be frowned upon by some of your friends.  They will respect you more if you go with your own gut, even though they may disagree.

28.  Share your fears about your friends with them.  You’ll be surprised at how they will open up to you.  It’s a magical exercise that will connect you in ways you wouldn’t expect.

29.  Look at the other side.  Next time you are being gossiped or talked about, look at who is building you up at the same time.  Both criticism and praise come in pairs and are designed to keep you balanced and growing.  You’ll always have both– so before you get too up or down about it, look at the other side.  This keeps you from getting too emotional.  I learned this the hard way.  The bigger my career gets, the larger the numbers of people who talk crap.  It’s inevitable.  Embrace it, or stay small.  Imagine what Brittney and Madonna go through. 

30.  Connect with a group of individuals you resonate with.  Going through the joys and pains of live, social interaction is necessary for growth.

31.  Make your expectations clear.  By constantly sacrificing yourself for the benefit of others, and not letting people know what you expect for yourself, you slowly grow resentments towards people.  When you inevitably blow up at them, you feel guilty and repeat the process, until in your late 60’s you realize to keep things balanced from the get go.  Don’t wait till later in life to create win/win relationships.  Do it starting now.  Find a better cause for which to be a martyr.

 

Creating a healthy relationship with money

32.  Observe where you spend your money.  Where your money ends up is a clear indication of your highest priorities in life.  That’s where you express your own unique form of wealth.  If your money goes to clothing and dining out at fancy restaurants or vacations, don’t beat yourself up if you are cash poor.  Be realistic and grateful for the wealth you have chosen.

33.  Pay yourself FIRST.  Why would the universe invest in you if you aren’t willing to invest in yourself?  The wealthy pay themselves first. Create a deposit only money market liquid account and build up a cash cushion to take away the mental stress of fear, which will be a money repellant.  Imagine the freedom of working without fear of losing income, because you’ve built enough of a cushion.  

34.  Discover the hidden fears and guilts you have about acquiring wealth.  I’ve consulted with countless individuals who resent the fact that they are broke.  Behind their resentment for being a slave to money is a resentment to those who are financial masters.  Do you truly believe that “it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven?”

35.  Realize that money won’t buy you happiness.  But also realize that poverty won’t either.  Money isn’t designed to make you happy.  It’s designed to make you comfortable, and give you options with your time.  Appreciate it for what it is truly there for and stop repelling it.  Stop putting “happy”expectations on having more money.  You’ll be just as miserable when you get it, but you’ll have more options.  Fulfillment comes when you are getting paid handsomely to do what you love– you’ll always have both happy and sad within that fulfillment.

36.  Be aware of your monthly expenses.  Ask yourself, “how much does it take to live one month comfortably for me?”  If your income isn’t more than that number, take a closer look and make the changes.  The “starbucks factor” will surprise you. Track where your money is going.

37.  Appreciate your debt.  Realize it’s there for a reason.  If you don’t appreciate what purpose it has served in your life, you will forever be running away from it.  It will haunt you and ruin your relationships.  Appreciate it, create a strategy to pay it back, and focus on building wealth.

38.  Don’t use credit cards unless you can pay them off monthly.  Buying things we don’t have the means to pay for is a huge part of the reason why we are in a recession in the first place.  The american dream turned out to be an illusion and is now the american nightmare, simply because people placed a higher value on things they don’ t need.  Stop carrying credit cards that have a balance.  Stop using them unless you have the cash to back it up.

39.  Accellerate your savings.  You’re going to think I’m crazy for this one.  Pay yourself first, doesn’t matter how much.  Start with as little as $50-$100 per month into a money market fund (liquidity).  Increase this amount by 10% every 3 months.  Build up to a 6 month cash cushion for all your expenses.  This removes the emotional strain of living paycheck to paycheck.  As you pay yourself more, you’ll notice money coming to you from unexpected sources.  Trust me on this one!  You have nothing to lose!

40.  Appreciate the money itself.  You have to be able to link saving money to that which is most important to you.  Ask yourself “how will building wealth and saving money help serve my work?  My family?  My social life?  My spiritual growth?”  If you can’t come up with enough “why’s”, then there is no motive for you to save and you will never have more money at the end of your month, than month at the end of your money.  Money acts the same as humans do–it will go to where it is appreciated the most.

Healthy Spiritual Growth

41.  Realize that spirituality takes on many forms.  Appreciate your own form of it and let others do the same with their own form.  Forcing someone into your belief system is as egotistical and productive as someone else forcing their beliefs on to you.  Unless they ask you about your beliefs, chances are they’re not interested.

42.  Your spirituality and science must agree.  Matter without spirit is motionless, spirit without matter is expressionless.  You are your most powerful when your spiritual calling and material existence is working together in a state of balance.

43.  Heaven is in the NOW.  Assuming that everything is terrible, that we live a horrible existence and that happiness is just around the corner if we can all change and think the same way….is the definition of pure hell to me.  I could be wrong, but if you can find a way to become grateful to what is NOW, then you are already there with a simple shift in perception.

44.  Start a gratitude journal.  Every night, before you go to bed, start thinking about exactly what you are grateful for.  Even though you can focus on the things you are ungrateful for (you do enough of that, don’t worry), think of 20 things that you can be grateful for in the past and present.  Don’t get out of bed in the morning without doing the exact same thing.  

45.  Start becoming aware of your prayers.  What do you REALLY want?  You will notice a simple “thank you” to God is enough.  In fact, you can be in a “prayerful” state all day if you are walking around in gratitude all day, and that will basically be the answer to any prayer– when you can be grateful for what is.

46.  Practice the art of surrendering to the moment.  Part of our frustrations and depressions come from resistance to what is going on in our lives right now.

47.  Trust yourself.  Realize that if you are a tiny slice of the Infinite, then you have all the tools necessary to get through your challenge.  Repeat the mantra “I trust myself completely,” or if you are Religious, you can repeat “I trust God’s wisdom and presence within me,” surrender to the moment and move forward, and observe the amazing things that will unfold.  Do it right now.

Healthy Family Relationships

48.  Realize that the purpose of your relationships are not to only be supportive and make you happy.  It’s purpose is to force you to see the universe from a perspective other than your own.  This will bring you both happiness and sadness, elation and depression.  Suffering comes from the expectation that it’s supposed to only be one-sided.  Think about that.

49.  Realize that the purpose of your family is not to only be supportive and make you happy.  Their purpose is to force you to see the universe from the perspective of greater numbers of people.  This will bring you both happiness and sadness, elation and depression.  Suffering comes from the expectation that it’s supposed to be one-sided. Think about that. 

50.  Notice how your family members display your opposite traits.  Often, they seem to be interested in opposite things that you are interested in.  One’s a social butterfly and another is a recluse. We might label them as dysfunctional, but there’s an order to the chaos.  Appreciate them for their uniqueness rather than try to fix them.  

51.  Approve of yourself FIRST.  You’ll notice your family members will follow suit.  The best gift you can give them is someone who loves themselves.  Ironically when you love yourself, you are less fearful and can be present with others.  They feel more appreciated when you are present with them rather than worrying about what’s missing in you.

52.  Create a win/win.  By sacrificing your own needs and desires, you inevitably grow a resentment towards your loved ones.  Let them know your desires and find creative ways to keep a balance of give and take.  True fulfillment in a relationship can only be attained when both parties win.

53.  Stop “fixing” people.  Whether you like it or not, people want to be loved for who they are, not changed.  If you don’t love them for who they are, they will go elsewhere. This is the greatest challenge in my life:  Trying to balance “fixing” people’s ailments, knowing we have to change their toxic and deficient lifestyles and thoughts, while trying not to fix them and appreciate them for who they are.  I go through cycles of extreme frustration to gratitude every day with this.  This is my journey of growth.  I’ve already blogged about these challenges.  I’m learning this one as I go.

54.  Become aware of your boundaries and appreciate them.  The main reason why conflict happens in our relationships is because we unknowingly step over the boundaries of our loved ones, or vice versa.  If we just communicate our priorities and boundaries, it makes a difference in the communication.  It makes the other person communicate their own boundaries, which gives both parties an opportunity to bridge the gap and try to create a win/win.  Try this next time.  It works like magic.

55.  Become comfortable being disliked.  This may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s actually quite liberating.  You stop trying so hard, which makes others feel way more comfortable around you.  This applies with family too.  I think George Costanza did this in a Seinfeld episode, and it worked well for him.  If that’s not reason enough for you to try it, I don’t know what is. (Notice I didn’t say try to be a jerk… I said be comfortable with yourself even if you’re not liked.)

Maintaining Mental Wellness

56.  Read about your interests.  Spend time in the pursuit of them.  Become a master in your area of interest.  If you only read 30 minutes a day, every day,  on a single subject, within 7 years you have read enough to be a master  and expert in the field.  If you have read 1 hour a day, you have mastered it after three and a half years.  

57.  Give your brain plenty of exercise. In addition to expanding your mind and self confidence, reading and constantly pursuing the expansion of knowledge keeps your brain stimulated.  Your brain energy and mental sharpness are like muscles.  Use them or lose them.  My grandfather is 90 years old, and despite his body slowing down, his mind stays sharp because it gets constant stimulation with books, newspaper articles and crossword puzzles.

58.  Play memory games.  They’re available everywhere.  Google it and play these games to stay sharp.

59.  Start teaching what you learn.  When you teach, the questions your student asks that you have difficulty with will inspire you to learn more.  A teacher is a constant student.  The greater your expertise in an area, the greater your sphere of influence.  The more I learn, the bigger my audience magically becomes.

Career Health and Fulfillment

60.  Do what you love and love what you do.  Everyone knows what they love to do. If you don’t know what you want to do, just ask yourself what you love to do and start doing it.  Read about it, spend time in the pursuit of things you love to do, and realize it’s not worth doing if someone doesn’t criticize or challenge you for doing it….Just do it regardless.

61.  Read about what you love and become a master.  While in the process of doing your unfulfilling job, read about your interest.  When you are ready, you can learn how to teach it to other people who are interested in the topic you are in the process of mastering.  You’ve just passed the torch and enhanced someone’s life.

62.  Decide on the size of the field you want to play in.  If you have a vision as big as your region, you can be a leader in your city.  If you have a national playground, you will be a leader in your state.  Fo a national influence, you require an international playing field.  To become an international leader, you have to have astronomical playing ground.  Realize that you are limited only by your own vision.  Your career and influence will grow to the degree that you grow.  Invest in yourself.

63.  Repeat empowering affirmations:  ”I trust myself completely” and “I am a genius at what I do”.  Make these your running programs rather than unproductive ones.

64.  Remember that you are going to die someday.  Steve Jobs of Apple made an amazing commencement address in 2005 to the graduates at Stanford University (it’s on youtube!), and he suggested this unusual reminder as the students began on their career journey.  Assume Career Fulfillment is your natural state.  If you’re not there, it simply means that you’re not tuned into what your purpose here is.  You’re going to die someday anyway, and at that moment, most of the people that were around to judge you won’t be there… In the end, the one question you want to answer “yes” to is “did I do everything I could with what I was given?”  What the hell are you going to do about it starting TODAY?  When is NOW going to be the right time?

65.  Hire a coach.  Another shameless plug.  But seriously, think about it.  How on earth can you achieve anything without someone to share your goals with and give you feedback either way, if you are on or off track?  If you are doing your job right, you are present when you are engaged in your work.  It’s impossible to stay focussed the entire time.  Tiger Woods has at least one coach at a time, sometimes 3 coaches… one for his swing, one for his mental game, and one for his physical training.  There’s no better investment for your physical/mental/financial health.  None.  Period.  Find someone who you trust, that will give you both support and challenge.

66.  Take you interest and learn how to create and deliver value to people.  You are contributing the most to the world when you are aware of who you are and what you love to do, and you find ways of serving others based on your area of interest.  If you like to weave baskets, you can be sure there are others who are into the same thing.  If you keep asking yourself “how can I create value for those people?” An answer will hit you hard one day.  When you then figure out how to deliver that value to others, then you are on the road to living your best life.

67.  Pay yourself first.  I know I just repeated myself, but it’s so important in developing your business that I can’t stress it enough.  In my first day of practice, I had a $100,000 student debt.  In my first month of practice coming right out of school, I made a whopping $1,500 for the entire month– hardly enough to pay all my bills.  You know where my first payment went to?  Myself.  I payed it into my “wealth account” I created with an advisor.  I put $150 (or 10% of each check from then on)  into it.  I continue to pay myself FIRST every month, regardless of income.  Let’s just say that today, my business has grown enough that I now have given myself a considerable raise.  And money is coming in from several sources that bring value to other people’s lives.  And I’m contributing more to others than I ever have as a result.  All because I selfishly pay myself first.

68.  Commit to personal growth.  When my father was an employee of a company, he used to think I was crazy for studying so much personal development and spending my hard earned money taking classes and seminars.  I intuitively knew that I was the wisest investment I could ever make.  Now that my father is self-employed, he’s recognizing the importance of personal growth in the growth of his business.  I chuckled when I found out he’s now starting to take business development courses.  As his self-awareness grows, so will his business.

69.  Set Aside Personal Development Classes as an Education expense in your budget.  Think about it. If you spend $1000 in print advertising, you are lucky if you get $1500 in return.  After I spent the same amount in one weekend seminar, the very first time, my return of investment equated to a jump in income that equated to 5 times that same amount, only within the first month!.  I discovered that you can’t put a price tag on personal growth.   It’s always so ironic for me to see that the people who need it the most often say they can’t afford it, but the people who have invested in themselves always recognize the value, have seen results, and won’t hesitate to keep learning and getting greater returns on their investment.  Remember this:  Those that whine the most about their lives don’t really want to change their story.  I personally have a tough time sitting back and staying quiet when I hear someone whine about their life. (Workin on it)  You see?  Personal growth never ends.

70.  Love what you do.  If you are doing an unfulfilling job, you can easily love it in ten minutes by asking yourself the right question: “How does my current job serve my highest values, priorities and beliefs?”  Find 40-50 ways that your current work serves your greater purpose.

71.  Write your own personal mission statement. Since I wrote down (back in 2006) what I wanted to be, do, and have in all areas of life, I have sat in awe several times as strange, “coincidental” synchronicities have occurred to help me fulfill it.  I can’t wait to see what’s in store over the next 12 months.  As my career develops, I increase my sphere of influence, network of friends, and touch more lives.  Each step of the way, there is a greater challenge, greater level of criticism of people who negate you, and greater level of fear, stress, responsibility, and anxiety to overcome.  That’s why having a successful career isn’t for everyone.  But it all begins by knowing your mission.  Put yours down on paper, read it every day, and watch amazing things happen over the next six months.

General Healthy lifestyle

72.  Get plenty of sleep.  Among the obvious brain function problems that can result from a lack of sleep, if you aren’t getting enough, your cells can become resistant to insulin, and you are opening the doors to a myriad of health problems that can result. 

73.  Get sunshine.  Lack of sunlight prevents proper vitamin D absorption.  This is a critical vitamin for our immune system to function properly.  Flu season just so happens to be when the stress levels are high (after Christmas) and sunlight hours are at a yearly low.  Moderate use of tanning beds or bright lights are a good 2nd best.

74.  See a Naturopathic Doctor that you trust.  You might as well try natural remedies first, in addition to the traditional medical care you are receiving.  Modern medicine’s strength is in emergency management.  It is my opinion that modern medicine should be avoided if you can first find answers with alternatives to drugs. Drug care is not the first answer to most complaints.  Research and find the root cause!

75.  Get regular Colon Hydrotherapy treatments (Colonics).  It clears out the toxins and helps you absorb your food by removing particles that might have been clogging your tubes for years.

76.  Learn to appreciate the art of breathing.  Taking deep, diaphragmatic breaths every single day and becoming present with the breath is an amazing way to appreciate your body.  You can’t live long without it.  Imagine following each breath of air that flows into your lungs and alveoli, oxygenates your red blood cells to be transported into the heart to be pumped throughout the body, while at the same time those red blood cells in your alveoli have transported waste (Carbon Dioxide) and dumped it back to be exhaled.  All this happens automatically, while you are asleep or waking.  If all that doesn’t appear to be a magnificent miracle to you, I don’t know what is.  When you take the time to go through that whole automatic daily ordered system that is you, it gives you a bigger appreciation about what the purpose of life is, and how our stresses, frustrations, resentments are all so meaningless.  When you are undergoing stress, the best way to instantaneously lower your stress response hormones (that are slowly killing you) is to stop and become aware of your breathing.  Appreciate what your body is doing, even if your heart rate and breathing increase.  Your body is working for you, for your survival.  Appreciating this fact is the first step to becoming healthy in both mind and body.

 

I’ve become obsessed with researching tools to empower all areas of my life– Health being the top priority.  What good are friends, family, money, job, hobbies, vacations, if you don’t have your health?  The choices we make every day either make us stronger or weaker.  I’ve given you some tips that I know will help you become stronger in mind, body, and beyond.  

Realize that you never get there.  It’s all about the journey.  I’m working at it every day, and sharing what I learn.  The best belief shift I can give you towards your overall  health is the belief that your body is actually working for you.  Your symptoms and illnesses, and challenges in life are put in front of you as mirrors for how you are living.  If you don’t like what you see in that mirror, it’s time for you to take a look at how you eat, move, and you think (Fear, guilt, anger, and resentment are all toxins to the body– and I will share the research on that one with you some day) .  If you don’t change all 3 of those things and get them all firing on all cylinders, don’t expect to live a healthy and fulfilling life.  

You are more than your body.  This body you are living in is a vehicle for you to fulfill your purpose, and you are going to die someday.  Most of us walking around are completely asleep to this fact.  Discover who you are, find out what you love to do, make your health a top priority so you can go out and do it.  Take care of your vehicle… You can’t trade it in for a newer model.

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Have you ever been in such physical pain that you were suffering?  Perhaps you still are.  The same goes with your emotional pain as well.  

 

Wanna know what the difference between pain and suffering is?  It’s just as simple as a shift in perception.  Allow me to explain.

A patient of mine came in to see me 2 hours after she was involved in a car accident whereby she was rear ended by another car.  She was clearly in pain and suffering because of it.  She was extremely anxious about it.  Her pain was so intense that she felt that something was wrong with her.  She had a bottle of pills in her hand that she just got and she wanted my opinion on taking the anti-inflammatories her doctor gave her previously.  She wanted my opinion.

I explained to her that her body was simply responding to a stressor.  There was an alarm (shock of the accident causing the tissues in the neck to be stretched), then as a result, there was an adaptation whereby the injured tissues start to pool blood to the area so that healing factors can start to work their magic.  As a result, there is swelling, heat, and because nerves are involved, there is pain.

So then where does the suffering come in?  The answer lies in your perception.  

Pain is a part of life.  Throughout your life, you and I have, and will in the future, experience both pleasure and pain.  Suffering doesn’t come from the pain.  It comes with the EXPECTATION that you are only to be having pleasure, and no pain.

Think about that.  I mean REALLY think about it.  

When I explained to her that she is responding in a normal and healthy way,and that her pain is absolutely normal given what she just went through… immediately I could feel her shift.  I asked her how she felt.  She said she felt much better.

Her suffering was upgraded to just plain and simple pain.  How Interesting. 

I adjusted her spine right after I adjusted her perception first.  That made her a heck of a lot easier to work with over the next few weeks, because instead of resisting to what what happening to her, she embraced it and appreciated it.  

You can do the same in your life too.  Release the expectation that you are supposed to be happy all the time.  Surrender to the fact that your parents, children, or significant other isn’t always going to be nice and supportive to them, and neither are you.  Get over it.

I’ve suffered enough to now be able to recognize the thinking and expectations that created my suffering.  I would like to share it with you.  Since I love “how-to” guides, here’s a “How-to suffer throughout your entire life” guide.  Keep it as your bible.  I guarantee that it will work (or your money back):

•   Refuse to look at the world from any other perspective other than your own. 
•   Guard your beliefs, rules and principles, expectations and your side of the story with your life, and make sure everyone else is aware of them. 
•  Constantly seek out the support of groups, friends, other family members, organizations, doctors, and counselors that keep you stuck in your perspective and NEVER challenge it. 
•  If someone disagrees or challenges your belief, hold onto your story even tighter, with more determination.  They must be wrong.
•  Refuse to elevate your consciousness to a higher level, especially to the view that looks at the world as one small part of a bigger picture. 
• Don’t even entertain the notion of surrendering to the moment and become grateful for what is.  God must have surely made a mistake.  Pray constantly that He may correct it.

Every time I feel like I am suffering, I realize I’ve been thinking along these terms.  As Eckhart Tolle describes, The “end of suffering” is only a thought away.  Even though we all die sooner or later anyway, it is our thoughts and beliefs that will determine the quality and length of our life.

To end your suffering, you gotta switch your level of thinking to a higher level.  By doing this, you’ll get over your pain quicker, too.  You’ll shift your perceptions and your suffering will follow.  The road to recovery and fulfillment is much shorter this way.  I guarantee it.

This cute little kid is getting one of his first lessons about suffering, as taught by his evil little brother charlie.  

 

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A healthy mother and father to care for it… to love and appreciate it.

Have you ever noticed that the health of the entire family often rests on the shoulders of the cornerstone of the family: Mom?

When she is in a great mood, the family follows. When she’s in a bad mood, the entire family feels the energy. 

I often see when a child gets sick quite often– I start looking at the mother and asking her questions about her health and her life. 9 times out of 10, she’s been undergoing massive stress trying to keep a balance on everything– her expectations of being a good mom, her own desires of what she needs, being a support to her husband in his daily grind…. and too often she ends up neglecting herself in the process. 

Then the child gets sick. Over and over again. 

Does this story sound familiar to you?

The truth is, when a mother honors herself and her health FIRST AND FOREMOST, there is more of her to give to her husband and child. She does whatever they need, and she’s able to provide her family with the essentials that they need: A well balanced, healthy, vibrant, energetic and appreciative mother. 

This is most difficult when she hasn’t had a moment to herself, hasn’t been eating right, exercising and stressed to the max. She feels like she’s serving everyone by putting herself last. Then when stress hormone levels rise, anxiety and frustration builds– she reacts with resentment because she’s totally lost herself in the process. 
When the family follows her lead by getting sick as well– this creates even greater stress, and then feelings of guilt for being “selfish” and wanting more for herself, and the cycle gets worse.

The good news: 
When mom starts honoring her own needs, desires, time, and health, a shift happens. There’s more of her to give. 

Please take a moment to check out the blog of photographer Tobin Smith as he joins the entire family (especially the King of the household– Oliver) as they journey back to health, starting with spinal health, nutrition and daily planned walks together. Watch as both baby and mother, as well as dad make a few simple changes that aren’t available in pill form to move towards health and balance and wholeness rather than try to chase the dis-eases away.http://web.me.com/tabobo/adjustment/Blog/Blog.html

Have you had any experiences like this?  Please feel free to share, as this might help others in the same situation.

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The warning light in my car just went on for “Inspection”.  I know that if I take it in, it will cost me about a thousand bucks to get it inspected.  

Do I really want to do that?  It seems fine.  It’s all working pretty well.  ”I’ve been busy lately….”  ”Money has been kinda tight, you know, with the recession and all….”

The truth is, I could make the time, and well, there’s a lot more I would like to do with my thousand dollars.  That’s the truth.  It’s the truth I hear every single day with people when they are making the same choices about their health.

We get little “signals” from our body.  A headache, heartburn, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, indigestion, back pain, numbness and tingling in our extremities, frequent colds and infections, depression, anxiety, etc.  There’s a million other ways our bodies speak to us to let us know we’re off track with our lives, our diets, our perceptions of the world around us.

The most difficult part for me as a wellness expert to witness is how people assume that by going to the doctor, they will be able to go somewhere to see “what’s wrong” and “get medicine to make it all better”.  I hear this all the time.  It’s tougher when I hear it said to children.  Childproof bottles aren’t childproof forever– and now we know why.

When a person who is connected with themselves and their bodies gets a message like that, then they know exactly what to do.  They know their body is trying to tell them something, and the message is clear:  Change your diet.  Stop eating food that really isn’t food.  Take more walks.  Get out and move your body.  Get your spine check and adjusted.  Take a class that stimulates your mind.  Spend time with people that really matter.  Understand who you are and why you are on this earth.  

This is what these “signals” are trying to tell you.  Unfortunately, doctors that you go and see really want to tell you this, but don’t have the time to counsel you, and know you won’t listen when they say these things.  So they give you what they think you are there for:  The “outside-in” path toward symptom relief.  They know that you don’t really want to hear about the inside-out solution.  (Maybe they do, but aren’t doing it themselves).  We pay a heavy price for the “quick fix”.  One of my patients told me that if she knew she was going to live this long, she would have taken better care of herself throughout her life.  She’s 50 now, and she has almost every chronic lifestyle illness in the book:  High Blood pressure, High Cholesterol, Diabetes.  She’s at the hospital every week for something.  She is taking every medication in the book (all the best sellers for North American lifestyle illnesses) and year after year, she gets sicker.  Its tough when I try to get her into my “What your doctor won’t tell you about your symptoms” seminar and she’s “too busy” to make it in.

I am currently seeing a family of 3 under my care.  It seems they are all getting sick and have been this way for a long time.  Coincidentally there is a lot of stress happening in their lives, with a move, with a toddler, with hectic lifestyles… I asked them about their lifestyle, about exercise.

The mother responded “there was a time when we were walking every day, exercise was a regular outing for all of us.”

I asked her if she noticed the family getting sick during those times.

“Actually, no.  We were all quite healthy then!”

It was a bit of an “aha” moment.  They got it.  They’re on their way back to health and I’m excited to join in their journey.

What if we were all open to the possibility that the reason why we get sick in the first place is because we are NOT DOING those things that we know scientifically the body needs as a requirement for health?  Sounds like common sense, but we’re not marketed to live this way.  When there’s a problem, “talk to your doctor about _______”  (fill in the blanks of the next magic pill on the market).

If you were doing things in the certain way that the healthiest people in the world were doing, you wouldn’t need to be talking to your doctor about anything.

I guess I better take my car in for a checkup.

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One of the things that some patients are most resentful about chiropractic care is their perception that chiropractic care can get repetitive, and expensive.  They feel that a “good” chiropractor will be able to fix all their problems in 3 -5 visits… any more than that, and he’s creating more work for himself and running up the bill and lining his pockets.  

After taking my car to the dealership for repairs, or having someone come in to repair something in my office, I’ll admit that I understand that feeling.  That feeling of being taken for a ride is a tough pill to swallow.  

Here’s a confession:  We chiropractors are aware of this.  We are so fearful and afraid of being perceived as crooks, that it consumes us.  We talk about it in our meetings together.  ”How can we communicate the need for their intensive schedule of care, while at the same time not appearing to be just in it for the money, and be able to fit it into their budget?”

When someone comes in with a chronic problem that’s been developing for more than 2 years that they are popping pills for every single week, the truth is, there is no quick fix.  Their lifestyle (posture, work postition, previous injuries, lack of exercise) is partly to blame, and to expect a successful resolution within 5-10 treatments becomes highly improbable.  

Here’s where the confusion comes in:  Many people look at chiropractic care as an “alternative” to taking pills.  When you look at the goal of a pill (to mask a symptom), the problem always comes back, so you need more pills.  If you are using chiropractic care as an alternative to pills, then you are forever chasing your pain away with an adjustment.  Although it works, that is not and never has been the goal of true, pure chiropractic care, and the REAL cause ends up getting worse as you age.  Have you noticed how your aches and pains sometimes feel worse as you get older?  That’s because of the decay process that is the same as the decay process that occurs with your teeth.  Imagine what happens when you treat tooth pain with pills all your life.

The question is… WHAT THE HECK CAUSED THE SYMPTOMS IN THE FIRST PLACE?  Answer:  Traumas from birth, childhood falls, chronic sitting in school, sports injuries, car accidents, emotional stresses and conflicts that accumulate and manifest in the body, crappy diets high in processed fatty foods and sugars that cause your levels to rise and crash (along with your emotions), and not enough exercise.

These toxicities and deficiencies over a lifetime are what cause you to be sick, tired, and sore (dis-ease).  After being taught that you can solve each and every one of those problems with a different pill, when that fails, you look into an “alternative” solution. 

So you come to “get an adjustment” hoping it will solve all of that.  

Here’s where things break down:  Chiropractors are humans too, with feelings, and a need to be appreciated and liked.  So, knowing this, we have to balance your NEEDS, with our need to be liked and not thought of as a crook.

Next confession:

You know what I used to do about it?  I’d tell a patient they only needed to see me the exact amount of times their plan would cover, so they didn’t have to pay out of pocket and resent me and think I was a crook.  Even though I knew they needed more care, I would “sell them short” of their required healing time and care.  Their opinion of me mattered more than their health.  Guess what the result was?

They would feel good for a while, it wouldn’t last because their lifestyle didn’t change, they didn’t follow the exercises, they didn’t come in to get to the deeper layers of healing their chronic problem, they left my practice and said “chiropractic didn’t work for me, Nima’s just in it for the money anyway.”  

They were absolutely right.  I was in it for their acceptance, and I was judging them based on my own fears about money and where I was spending it.  I didn’t value my own health to spend my own money on it. So why should my patients?

When the switch went on, I realized that no matter what care plan I recommended, someone was going to judge me.  Since then, I’m more aware of being truthful with my patients about what they require, and I am able to have them make the choice.  If it’s going to take 40 visits over the next 6 months, then I will let you know that it’s going to take that amount of care to bring you back to health, and I will support you with classes on stress management, diet, and postural exercises to help you learn more (if you really care).  Have some patients followed the recommendations?  Absolutely… They’re the ones that are feeling more energized, less sore, more fulfilled, and more responsible for their own healing journey.  

Have some patients not complied?  Absolutely.  They are the ones that come in 2-3 times a year in excruciating pain (after 3 weeks of popping pills didn’t work) and getting worse as the years go on and resenting me and blaming me for their pain.  It happens all the time, and it’s the reason why I’ve noticed my desire to  teach and write grow.  I have to stop myself every day from jumping out and screaming and yelling at them for not sharing my value of a having a healthy body and mind.  Good indication that it’s time for me to start making a bigger impact.  

I’ve chased a lot of people away by judging them in this way.  I apologize for that.  I’m workin on it.

My patients who are still looking for a band-aid have left my care and went to other chiropractors who will give them just that– getting “their back cracked”.   

I’ve now attracted a whole new variety of patients: Those that are making their overall health (physical and emotional) as their main goal, and that lifestyle factors of diet and stress management, discovering who they are and what they want to manifest in their lives, and learn proper ways to move… They WANT TO BECOME STUDENTS OF WELLNESS.  Proper spinal movement and function is one big piece of that puzzle, but we can’t just stop there.  To be healthy, we have to learn how to eat, move and think like the healthiest people in the planet do.  It’s just that simple (but never easy).

Am I liked by some of my patients?  Absolutely.  Are there people walking around that resent me because of the nature of our interactions and my schedule of care and maintenance and the fact that they have to actually spend their money on their health?  Sadly, yes (sigh).  I’m in the same boat as you:  Some people at work like me, and some don’t.  

I confess, I want to be liked and accepted by everyone all the time (Good luck with that one, Nima).  It actually used to consume me to the point of misery.  But lately, my desire for my patient’s well being is becoming much stronger than my desire to be liked.  I observe how this transformation in me is causing a transformation for my patients.  Some leave to find a different doctor, and others leave their doctor to find me.  I’m working on the judgement part.  Now sit up straight, will you?  Do you REALLY NEED that chocolate chip cookie?

(Darn.  Can’t help it.)

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Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?  I finally understand this phrase.  Like many, I have heard this hundreds of times throughout my life.  Ya, ya, it’s important to read and learn.  But think about how this impacts your life:

When you know better, you do better.  If we only knew, we would do better.  The only way to change our behaviours are to change our beliefs. 

If you want to be healthier, all you have to do is understand more about what it takes to be healthy.  If you know, and you don’t follow through what you KNOW will make you healthier, then it’s clear you have unconscious motives to be unhealthy.  When one truly wants to be healthy, one does whatever it takes, pays whatever price, and travels whatever distance to get there if they believe that it will help them get to a healthier state.  One wouldn’t stop researching and trying new things. 

If your doctor says “take these meds and live with it”, you wouldn’t just sit back and call yourself a victim or a sufferer.  Has this ever happened to you, when your doctor has said “just live with it?”

To someone who values their health, the thought of getting healthier consumes them.  I can tell who those people are after 30 seconds of meeting them.  It’s an attitude.  Health is an attitude in how you eat, move and think.

The same way you get to your vacations, finish school, or reach any of your goals you have (ie, saving for a down payment on a home or braces for your kids) is by understanding that you will have to endure both pleasure and pain to get to that goal.  If your goal is to get a bicycle, you hold that thought with all your heart and emotion, you have a purpose, you endure the pain of sacrificing other things, prioritizing your time and money, and voila, you get it.  If it’s truly a meaningful goal to you, you would embrace both support and challenge, pleasure and pain in the pursuit of the bicycle.  If you can’t endure the pain and challenge of the pursuit for it, you simply didn’t want it bad enough. 

Here is my personal profile of a healthy person based on my experience in working with people on their road to recovery.  Someone’s recovery time will be dictated by how close this person comes to these qualities:

·      Exercises regularly

·      Eats healthy

·      Takes supplements regularly

·      Takes responsibility for their own emotions rather than labeling themselves with “sufferer of, or victim to”

·      Takes responsibility for their own health

·      Thinks that health is attainable if they work enough at it

·      Aren’t quick to take medications

·      Doesn’t smoke

·      Don’t need to consume alcohol on a daily basis

·      Love themselves enough to value themselves as well as others

·      Honour their own values and priorities

·      Has a clear purpose in their lives they need to get well and stay well for

·      Has a desire to learn about how their body works and how to be healthy

·      Open to alternatives other than drugs or surgery (medicine’s tools)

·      Regards the doctor as a partner in their health rather than one who has power over it.

 

These are simply “Dr. Nima’s characteristics of a healthy person’s lifestyle traits”. 

I know, I’m not saying anything new or anything that you haven’t heard before.  It’s another incovenient truth:  Those traits on the list are simply ways in how you eat, move, and think, and those traits are requirements to be healthy. Stop doing them in that certain way, and you are on the road to illness.  It means that being healthy is truly a conscious choice that you can decide right now.

What is most important in your life?  (Children, work, golf, music, business success?)

How will being healthy support your highest priority?  What would happen to your most important thing if you lost your health?  Take the time to think about it.  If you can come up with the “why’s”, then the “how’s” take care of themselves.

I’ve seen entrepreneurs have speedy recoveries because each day they miss work, they lose big money, while worker’s compensation cases, and people who get paid for their time off, seem to have a slower recovery time, and far more difficulty with getting better.  The reason?  There is no urgency, or unconscious motivation to get better faster. 

 

Decide that you will be healthy.  Give yourself 50-100 reasons why it benefits different areas of your life.  Then do your research and ask around.  Google it.  Try it from a multi-disciplinary approach.  Find out more about WHY you aren’t well.  The answer is always within you, and you’re important enough to find out.  Who is more worth it than you?

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First, the simple explanation.

In simplest terms, a subluxation (a.k.a. Vertebral Subluxation) is when one or more of the bones of your spine (vertebrae) move out of position and create pressure on, or irritate spinal nerves. Spinal nerves are the nerves that come out from between each of the bones in your spine. This pressure or irritation on the nerves then causes those nerves to malfunction and interfere with the signals traveling over those nerves.

How does this affect you? Your nervous system controls and coordinates all the functions of your body. If you interfere with the signals traveling over nerves, parts of your body will not get the proper nerve messages and will not be able to function at 100% of their innate abilities. In other words, some part of your body will not be working properly.

It is the responsibility of the Doctor of Chiropractic to locate subluxations, and reduce or correct them. This is done through a series of chiropractic adjustments specifically designed to correct the vertebral subluxations in your spine. Chiropractors are the only professionals who undergo years of training to be the experts at correcting subluxations.

Now, the detailed explanation.

Subluxations are really a combination of changes going on at the same time. These changes occur both in your spine and throughout your body. For this reason chiropractors often refer to vertebral subluxations as the Vertebral Subluxation Complex, or VSC for short. 

In the VSC, various things are happening inside your body simultaneously. These various changes, known as components, are all part of the vertebral subluxation complex. Simply put, these components are simply adaptations to spinal stress that the body has to go through to help you survive.   Chiropractors commonly recognize five categories of components present in the VSC. These five are:

• The Movement component is where the vertebrae are either out of position, not moving properly. This component is sometimes known as kinesiopathology.
• The Nerve Component is the malfunctioning of the nerve. Research has shown that only a small amount of pressure on spinal nerves can have a profound impact on the function of the nerves. This component is scientifically known as neuropathology.
• The Muscle Component is also involved. Since the muscles help hold the vertebrae in place, and since nerves control the muscles themselves, muscles are an integral part of any VSC. In fact, muscles both affect, and are affected by the VSC. This component is known as myopathology.
• The Soft Tissue Component is when you have misaligned vertebrae and pressure on nerves resulting in changes in the surrounding soft tissues. This means the tendons, ligaments, blood supply, and other tissues undergo changes. These changes can occur at the point of the VSC or far away at some end point of the affected nerves. This component is also known as histopathology.
• The Bone Component occurs when the vertebrae have had to adapt to these stresses for such a long period of time that jagged edges and bone spurs develop and change the shape of the vertebrae.  All of these degenerative processes happen over time.  

Your doctor will likely label these changes as “arthritis” or “degeneration”.  These are just labels.  We develop these changes over time, from neglecting to care for our spine, from stress, from injuries, from chronic lack of motion.  All these changes are preventable with the appropriate lifestyle choices.

All in all, a subluxation stems from a lack of motion.  This causes the body to have to adapt, and after having to adapt for months to years, the spinal joints become fatigued.  That’s when you get the pain and discomfort.  It’s the body’s way of telling you there is a lack of motion it has had to adapt to.  When we take pills, we are masking what the body is crying out:  ”I need proper movement and function!  Your lifestyle and way of sitting/standing, not exercising SUCKS!”

Chiropractic care steps in and corrects improper function by restoring movement in those stuck joints.  Motion is restored, and the adaptations that were listed above start to slow down and eventually halt.  The body restores balance, until introduced with the next stressor.  Regular chiropractic care, like regular dental maintenance, and maintenance of your car will ensure that your spine is not getting weaker with all the stresses we impose on ourselves.

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