When It’s Time for Change…

When a patient comes to our office for the first time, they are eager for a change.

They are tired of feeling the way they do, and want more from their life. They want to feel less pain, stiffness, inflammation, stress and overwhelm. They want greater comfort, strength, mobility, better sleep, and a sense of calm in their nervous system.

Whether the symptoms they feel are new or longstanding issues, most of the time our clients are eager to learn ways to change their habits, and prevent these and other issues from happening again in the future.

They truly want to feel a change.

Your Pain is a Gift

That desire for change is a good thing, because that’s what their bodies want too. The symptoms that we feel are messages from our bodies. Pain and discomfort are designed to trigger change.

Pain and other symptoms are a way for the body to tell the brain that there has been an injury, insult, or damage (or potential for damage) to a part of the body. The body wants us to seek help to alleviate the issue, and that we should consider doing something different in the future so that we can avoid recurrence or worsening of the damage that has been done.

Pain and other symptoms present an opportunity for growth in how we live our lives. They trigger action that allows us to do better, be better, get healthier and live longer. It asks us to level up.

Your Symptoms are a Blessing

We live with stress. Your nervous system is constantly trying to adapt to the continuous physical, chemical, and emotional stresses we face each day. When we’ve taxed the body beyond its scope to readily adapt to, there’s a message sent to our brains that says:

“Please, stop. Your decisions or circumstances are hurting you, and not helping you live a healthy life.” 

To our conscious mind, those messages often take the shape of pain, fatigue, nausea, malaise, depression, anxiety, overwhelm…  In some ways, those symptoms are all the same.  They are your body speaking to you, and asking for change.

A Fork in the Road

What you do in response to your body’s request for help decides a lot about your path ahead.  Not just in what actions to take now, but also in what options are available to you later.

If we decide to cover up the symptoms with drugs and ignore the message, we will “just live with it” or adapt to the pain. The underlying issues will persist in silence and likely worsen over time.

If we take action to help the body gain function, however, we can drastically alter the life we experience in the years ahead. We can live better, longer, and more fully. 

The choice is up to each of us as individuals.

Crisis Is Designed to Initiate Action

When struggles arise and symptoms start to nag, no matter what your age, we must seek change. We want to feel better, and be able to do more. We want more from life than what we can currently experience. We have to do things differently to achieve that.

Where we are at this point in our lives is a by-product of the circumstances, choices and behaviours we’ve made or experienced up to this point.

If we want to feel differently, have our bodies work differently, feel better, and be able to do more, we have to make changes in how we live. Some of this is due to poor habits we’ve developed, and some to compensate for or recover from past circumstances, like injuries and chronic conditions that remain problematic.

To Change Your Life, You Have To Change How You Live It

If what we’ve done has gotten us to where we are, it makes sense that we have to change what we’re doing from here forward to get somewhere new. Different results require a different approach.

If we want our bodies to feel and function better, we have to put different demands on our bodies to make it grow and heal in a way that helps us reach our goals. There is no other way.

Don’t worry, we aren’t pretending this is easy. In fact, we know from experience that definitely is not. We’ve all been there. But, we also know great results come from doing hard things.

It Won’t Be a Smooth Journey

All of us face tough chapters of life. Tough moments, bad days, hard weeks, difficult months and heavy years. (And, sometimes tough decades!) There are so many things in life that get in the way of us doing what we know we should.

Kids, work schedules, caring for family members, injuries, and illnesses are just a few examples of circumstances that can throw us off of our routine, making it hard to stay the course.

Those life-changing circumstances help us grow, develop and learn. But, they can get in the way of positive actions, and interrupt healthy patterns.

But, we can always start again.

Time Hasn’t Helped, but Don’t Make Age an Excuse

As the years go by, and we get older, there is less forgiveness from an unhealthy lifestyle, and eventually poor habits from our youth catch up with us. Our decisions have a cumulative effect, and unhealthy choices have a greater and greater impact over time.

We also know that tissue healing, growth, and repair slow down with advancing age. It simply takes longer to heal.  A scratch on a baby’s check from their sharp little nails can be gone in a day, but in our 70’s it can feel like a tattoo because it takes so long to heal!

This is not an excuse to blame everything on advancing age. It is true that many aspects of health begin to decline, and we all will show signs of aging.  It isn’t true, however, that we have no choice in how fast and furious that aging process happens. We have a lot of power in this journey.

It’s Never Too Late; You’re Never Too Old

Research and personal experience tells us that when we make positive choices, our bodies will respond positively. Things get better, and easier, when we put in the work.  We know we can get stronger. We know we can listen better. We know we can gain balance. We know we can communicate better. We know we can walk faster. We know we can love more deeply.

We know we can change. It just comes down to doing the work.

New Territory of Self-Accountability

Some of us are new to holding ourselves accountable. We’ve never had to initiate our own lifestyle changes, or been held responsible for making our own decisions. But, we have to remember, no one is coming to save you. It is up to you to make change happen.

We have made lives of comfort. We don’t tolerate things that get in the way of us being comfortable at all times. For many of us, we work to avoid, silence or extinguish anything that makes us uncomfortable. Every area of our lives is geared toward pampering us with comfort and convenience.

Our quest for a comfortable life has led us to avoid the work it takes to make positive changes. We don’t tolerate discomfort, difficulty or hardship very well. We continue our quest to make it more and more convenient, comfortable, and automated.

Everything is done for us. Some of us have never had to hold ourselves accountable for a true challenge in something that is very difficult.

It is time to change that.

What Drives You?

We have the choice whether we derive motivation from a crisis event, or develop discipline when we discover that we are living outside our values.  Motivation is fleeting and temporary, but discipline can carry us through the tough times for years. Motivation comes from the outside (losing weight for a wedding, for example). Discipline comes from your decision to live according to your values (be the best for my kids, have the energy to excel at my work, be active and mobile into my 80’s, etc).

Only you can determine your values. Only your actions tell whether you are living in support of those values.

“Tell me your values and I may believe you. Show me your calendar and your bank statement, and I’ll tell you what your values actually are.”  ~ Peter Drucker

It Isn’t (Just) About You Anymore

Every time that we are able to help someone in our office to overcome their health challenges, we know we are impacting more than one life. Every one of us influences many, many other people.

Your health, energy and vitality affect the lives of others.  When you improve your health and well-being, you are able to be more for those you care about, and that has far-reaching effects on their lives.

It is said that we take on the actions and traits of the five people we spend the most time with. This tells us that it is important who we choose to associate with, and give our time and energy to. It also is a stark reminder that we affect them in a similar way.

As we grow through the stages of life, we must become aware that it isn’t just about us anymore. It is a moral imperative: you have an obligation to yourself to be your best, and work to improve yourself throughout your life. This is not just for you, but also for those you care about, associate with, work alongside, and cross paths with each day. You affect everyone, and have the potential to be a significant positive force in their lives.

Don’t Sacrifice the Gift

“To give anything less than your best is to Sacrifice the Gift.” ~ Steve Prefontaine

It is a miracle that we are here, living this life. Regardless of your views on where we come from, or your purpose here, we have to admit that we are here against all odds, and we have a chance to make a difference.

“Either you are a child of God or a cosmic miracle. Either way, you are freaking awesome. Please act accordingly!” ~ Rodney Norman

Everyone gets to decide this for themselves, but we feel that we as people have an opportunity and obligation to make a positive impact on the world and the people around us. But, we can only maximize that potential that when we are at our best. We have to put in the work to level up ourselves, so that we can be our best for ourselves, and for others.

You can do it. We can help.

Get started creating your best life today.

Click here to read Part 2: How to Make Positive Changes More Easily

Ready to make a positive change in your life?  Let’s get your body on board!  Call us now.