First you must…
Change Your Mind
"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
- William Blake
Your back hurts and you have nerve pain shooting down your leg. You go to your doctor, who orders an MRI. When the results come back, they show a herniated disc in your low back pressing on the nerve root. Your doctor recommends surgery to take the disc off the nerve root. You can go have surgery, but what happens when the pain comes back 6 months later? Was the surgery performed incorrectly? No, the surgeon did exactly what he or she said they were going to do. The problem is in the way we have been looking at this – we forgot to ask the next question, which is: why did the disc herniate?
Changing your mind means transforming your thoughts from “what’s wrong with me” to “what’s my body trying to tell me?” Diagnostic tools used by traditional medicine are looking for something that is broken that can be fixed. This approach is treating symptoms as if they were the source of the problem and they’re not – unless you were hit by a truck. If you were hit by a truck, the source of the pain and the cause of the pain are the same thing - you’ve got a compound fracture. In most cases you were not hit by a truck, so we need to look further to find the true source. We have forgotten that the site of the pain is rarely the true source of the pain.
Many treatment options are aimed at the symptom and will offer short-term relief, but for a long-term solution, you must address the underlying source. What’s broken (i.e. herniated disc; cartilage damage; torn muscle; tendonitis) is part of the symptom, not the source. The ability to live a pain free and active life comes when you stop treating the symptom, find the source and correct the underlying reason the pain is there.
Many clients say: “I can’t run downhill without pain; I can’t go to the gym and do military presses without pain; I can’t drive my car without pain. But I’m 65, so I’m supposed to have pain and limitations – it comes with aging.” Society and many experts will reinforce this thinking for you. By asking new questions, you open the door for new beliefs and new possibilities. “What other factors are involved?” “What else could this mean?” “What is my intuition telling me?” By changing your mindset, you will understand that: “Age is not the determining factor in my health.”
Our bodies are not fragile. They are not overly complicated. We have all the necessary abilities to get well. We are healthy when we’re free of pain and limitations. The first step to overcoming these limitations is to CHANGE YOUR MIND.
Changing your mind means transforming your thoughts from “what’s wrong with me” to “what’s my body trying to tell me?” Diagnostic tools used by traditional medicine are looking for something that is broken that can be fixed. This approach is treating symptoms as if they were the source of the problem and they’re not – unless you were hit by a truck. If you were hit by a truck, the source of the pain and the cause of the pain are the same thing - you’ve got a compound fracture. In most cases you were not hit by a truck, so we need to look further to find the true source. We have forgotten that the site of the pain is rarely the true source of the pain.
Many treatment options are aimed at the symptom and will offer short-term relief, but for a long-term solution, you must address the underlying source. What’s broken (i.e. herniated disc; cartilage damage; torn muscle; tendonitis) is part of the symptom, not the source. The ability to live a pain free and active life comes when you stop treating the symptom, find the source and correct the underlying reason the pain is there.
Many clients say: “I can’t run downhill without pain; I can’t go to the gym and do military presses without pain; I can’t drive my car without pain. But I’m 65, so I’m supposed to have pain and limitations – it comes with aging.” Society and many experts will reinforce this thinking for you. By asking new questions, you open the door for new beliefs and new possibilities. “What other factors are involved?” “What else could this mean?” “What is my intuition telling me?” By changing your mindset, you will understand that: “Age is not the determining factor in my health.”
Our bodies are not fragile. They are not overly complicated. We have all the necessary abilities to get well. We are healthy when we’re free of pain and limitations. The first step to overcoming these limitations is to CHANGE YOUR MIND.
After you change your, mind you must...
Change Your Actions
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
- Albert Einstein
Now that you’ve changed your mind and realized the solution does not rest outside of yourself, it’s time to transform that change into action. We’ve always been taught that information is power, but that’s not true. Information is information. Power comes from putting that information to action. Otherwise you’re doing the same thing over and over again, trying to get different results.
The first step to taking action is taking personal responsibility. Responsibility means having the ability to respond. Just as you have the ability to respond to change, so does your physical body. The human body is the most efficient stimulus response organism on the planet. This means that your body is responding to stimulus twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
Your body is responding to what you eat, what you think, what you feel, and what you do physically, every day of your life, no matter your age. Your body responds instantly and without prejudice, meaning that your body doesn’t think about whether this stimulus is good or bad; it just responds.
When we go back to our question we asked earlier, “Why did the disc herniate?” (or meniscus tear? or rotator cuff impinge? or muscle spasm?), the answer is the body was not functioning or working efficiently, causing increased tension, stress and wear & tear on its structures. Inefficient movement comes from faulty posture and joint position. We all share a common blueprint – the anatomical design – and when our bodies deviate from this postural alignment, pain will eventually result. When our posture doesn’t match this blueprint we must figure out why. Then we can do what’s necessary to correct it. We all know bones don’t move bones; muscles move bones. This means the underlying problem behind our pain (and herniated disc, meniscus tear, etc.) is a muscle imbalance. Since your muscles respond to stimulus or movement, the way to become pain free is to teach your body how to move correctly by correcting your muscle imbalances. This can be done by using specific exercises tailored to your imbalances, which cause your body to change and return to its blueprint – the anatomical position.
First CHANGE YOUR MIND. Then, secondly, decide to take responsibility to CHANGE YOUR ACTIONS.
The first step to taking action is taking personal responsibility. Responsibility means having the ability to respond. Just as you have the ability to respond to change, so does your physical body. The human body is the most efficient stimulus response organism on the planet. This means that your body is responding to stimulus twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
Your body is responding to what you eat, what you think, what you feel, and what you do physically, every day of your life, no matter your age. Your body responds instantly and without prejudice, meaning that your body doesn’t think about whether this stimulus is good or bad; it just responds.
When we go back to our question we asked earlier, “Why did the disc herniate?” (or meniscus tear? or rotator cuff impinge? or muscle spasm?), the answer is the body was not functioning or working efficiently, causing increased tension, stress and wear & tear on its structures. Inefficient movement comes from faulty posture and joint position. We all share a common blueprint – the anatomical design – and when our bodies deviate from this postural alignment, pain will eventually result. When our posture doesn’t match this blueprint we must figure out why. Then we can do what’s necessary to correct it. We all know bones don’t move bones; muscles move bones. This means the underlying problem behind our pain (and herniated disc, meniscus tear, etc.) is a muscle imbalance. Since your muscles respond to stimulus or movement, the way to become pain free is to teach your body how to move correctly by correcting your muscle imbalances. This can be done by using specific exercises tailored to your imbalances, which cause your body to change and return to its blueprint – the anatomical position.
First CHANGE YOUR MIND. Then, secondly, decide to take responsibility to CHANGE YOUR ACTIONS.
Thirdly, to be pain free for life, you must...
Change Your Habits
“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”
- Charles C. Noble
Did you know your body regenerates 300 billion new cells every day? Muscles, bones, cartilage, nerves etc. are all living tissue. Our bodies, including our muscles, bones and cartilage work on a principle called “use it or lose it.” If we put a demand on our bones they grow denser. If we put a demand on our muscles, they grow stronger. If we put a demand on any part of our body, it will respond to that demand accordingly. Our bodies have the ability to heal, if we give them the opportunity. That opportunity comes from applying the right stimulus to trigger growth and regeneration and providing the necessary environment to allow the rebuilding to occur. That stimulus, which we called “actions” above, will only trigger change if we give our bodies that stimulus on a regular basis. Make it a habit to give your body stimulus. One of the most amazing things is that our body’s ability to respond is not related to age. We never lose the ability to respond, it’s never too late. Just like brushing your teeth, create a habit of implementing stimulus on a daily basis to change your muscle memory.
When we make these THREE CHANGES, in this order, and constantly reevaluate if the change we are seeing occur is what we want and adjust our action plan accordingly, we are guaranteed progress. The result before too long is a pain free and active life without limitations.
When we make these THREE CHANGES, in this order, and constantly reevaluate if the change we are seeing occur is what we want and adjust our action plan accordingly, we are guaranteed progress. The result before too long is a pain free and active life without limitations.
Want help figuring out how to make these changes? Contact us today to schedule your free consultation and evaluation and we will be happy to help you get started.
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