 Imagine if every time you called to speak with your best friend that friend assumed that what you were only speaking bad news. So your friend encouraged you to quite your complaining. This seemed weird to you because sometimes the news you had to tell them was bad, like the time you had a death in the family and you really needed their support. Other times you had some really exciting news to tell, like when you got the job of your dreams, you were so excited you wanted to share the news right away. Yet when you called to talk about your new job, your friend took that the news was bad and told you to stop complaining. Most often the times when you called to talk with your friend it was neither good nor bad. It was just the regular news of the day and your intention in calling was to connect with your friend. Yet even on these days when the news was just the regular daily affairs your friend still heard the news as bad news and asked you to stop complaining. After a while you questioned your friend’s communication skills because you realized that no matter what or how you spoke your friend was going to hear it in the same way and ask you to stop your complaining. “I wonder if he/she is even listening to me?” you ask. How much longer would you continue to try and communicate with this person? How much longer would you continue being best friends with this person? Not many of us have best friend who behave like this. However we all have a relationship with our bodies and many of us do communicate with our bodies this way. When your body talks to you - do you assume it is bad? Does your body sometimes speak to you about good news? If so, how do you know it is good news? Does your body sometimes say things just for the sake of saying things? Many people when they hear from their bodies ask their bodies to be quiet by numbing or distorting the communication with pain killers, cough suppressants, antihistamines and other drugs. If this way of relating is consistent, what do you think the quality of relationship between them and their bodies is like? How long do you think it will take before their bodies will simply sever the lines of communication? This week I would love to hear from all of you some examples of healthy symptoms. I think it will be a great learning process for all of us to learn from each other. Please add your comments either on our Facebook FanPage or on the blog.
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 What is the difference between a reaction and a response? How quickly does it take for you to react to something? How long does it take for you to respond to something? How does it feel in your body when you react? How does it feel when you respond? What is the typical end result when you react? What is the typical end result when you respond? Yes, there certainly is a difference between a reaction and a response not only in end results and feelings but in how they both are generated in your being. A reaction happens out of defense and is created when our bodies are in what is known as defense physiology. The information comes into our bodies and travels into the spinal cord (and sometimes up to the hind brain) and very quickly a reaction is produced. A prime example is the knee jerk reaction. A rubber mallet is struck against your knee ligaments, the energy is communicated to the spinal cord, and almost instantaneously a reaction is produced. Other examples of reactions are when something happens in our environment and we see them as being a threat, perhaps our partner yells at us or we are worried about financial failure, in both of these examples the information travels up to the base of the brainstem, the hind brain and a survival reaction is produced. Whatever the trigger all reactions are quick, use lower brain function and are all based on previous preprogrammed patterns. Reactions tend to reproduce themselves over and over. Responses on the other hand, happen when we open in a growth physiology. The response happens much slower as the information is going to come into us and travel all the way up the spine, through to the mid brain (where our emotional state is going to be considered) and then up into the fore brain (where conscious thought creative ideas, perspective of past and future all live). The interconnections in the fore brain are numerous and very complex. A plethora of possibilities are all available to us. When we are open in growth physiology we are able to assess all of the information, compile it with all that we know and all that we feel, and then create a response that is unique to each situation. Responses allow us and our situations to grow into something new. I encourage you on a moment to moment basis to breath, feel your situations, allow yourself time to integrate the energy of your experiences and then respond from your higher brain your highest good. Search for opportunities to grow. Once you get to the higher brain there are literally thousands of possibilities for growth. Choose the one that serves your highest good!  Why is the Spine the focus and the attention of Chiropractic work? Thought you might be wondering, so here are 5 reasons illustrating the importance of spinal health. 1.) Structure: Many chiropractors say that structure determines function. To a degree, I believe this is true. Dr.Donald Epstein says this another way. “The shape, position and tone of your spine and nerve system, is directly related to the shape, position and tone of your life.” You know the importance of structure. Think of the importance of the structure of your car. If the car’s tires are slightly misaligned by as little as a few millimeters, consider how much this can reduce the mileage on the tires and increase the gas consumption. Think of the importance of the structure of the foundation of a house. If the foundation is off by just a few inches it can be potentially devastating to the integrity of the home. This is very similar to your spine. Your spine is the foundation and the framework of your body. If you are out of alignment, even as little as a few millimeters, it can cause tremendous strain on your muscles, joints and ligaments, often causing early degeneration, and things such as osteoarthritis. 2.) It’s the Lifeline: The spine does something else, perhaps even more important than holding you upright. It protects the delicate, soft, core essence that is your spinal cord. Your spinal cord really is your lifeline. It’s what connects the brain to the body and the body to the brain - creating both the mind-body and the body-mind connection. You know the importance of this lifeline in examples like spinal cord accidents and paralysis; when the spinal cord is compromised at the base of the neck it can cause organ failure throughout the rest of the body and be, potentially, life threatening. You also experience this when your leg falls asleep and you lose muscle control. It’s not that your muscle has fallen asleep it’s your nerve that tells the muscle to contract that has been compromised. Dorland’s Medical dictionary defines the nerve system as the master control system of the body. The nerve system acts like a computer’s CPU (central processing unit). It runs both the hardware and software and integrates the two. It is estimated that the average human body has about 10 trillion nerve cells. If they were placed end to end, they would stretch around the earth about 47 times! 3.) Main Energy Meridian: If you look at any energy diagrams of the body the spine is always featured as being the main energy channel or meridian of the body. The majority of our chakras are in alignment with the spine. Scientifically, we know that the nerve system sends what’s known as an “action potential” which is a tiny impulse of energy which travels up to 200 meters per second, up and down your spine and throughout your body. It is estimated that there are 3 trillion neurological events a second (of which you are only aware of 2,000) this is a lot of energy! Think of your spine like a garden hose, and the water than flows through the hose is the life-force energy that flows through your spine. Now think of what happens if you make a kink in the hose and how the water starts to backlog, increasing the pressure build up and decreases the outflow. Another example, what happens to the flow of the river when there is a beaver dam disrupting its natural flow? This stagnation of water creates a wonderful breeding ground for bugs and insects to multiple. The same is true in your body. 4.) Emotions: In 1997 Candice Pert wrote a landmark book which outlined her pioneering research in mind body medicine, Molecules of Emotion (an interesting note is that Network Spinal Analysis is one of the mind body approaches she discusses). Her research demonstrated the connection between the emotions and the nervous system. She found that the highest density of neuroreceptors for the tiny neuropeptides of emotions (the molecules of emotion) are found in the dorsal root of the spinal cord. Common sense tells us a similar story. Imagine someone upset and look at the shape of their spine. Now imagine someone happy and look at the shape of their spine. By changing the shape of your spinal cord, and therefore of your spine, you are changing the receptivity of your molecules of emotion! 5.) Perception: Essentially everything that you perceive is integrated through your nervous system. Recognize that all of your senses: hearing, taste, touch, sight and smell are first received by your special sense organs, and then relayed through nerves, and then computed in your brain. Feeling where your body is in space and balancing your body is also computed through your nerve system. This is the hard science. We can also assume that your nerve system is also involved in your extra sensory perception and intuition. BJ Palmer the developer of chiropractic spoke at great length about listening to that quite voice from within. In his words, this was his innate, which is understood to be communicated through… you guessed it, your nerve system. Your nerve system is the communication highway for your perceptions. The clearer the highway, the clearer your perceptions. Subluxations, distortions of the nerve system, are like panes of stained glass. They filter the actual facts of your experiences through your perceptions of yourself, of your life, environment, etc, and create your perceived experiences.  There is a time in our journey when we reach a place of being good. Where things settle, comfort emerges, and survival is certain. With being good also brings a tendency to soften, to let off the gas, for us to settle. For many, being good becomes the enemy of their rise to their full greatness. Being great is far beyond just being good. Being great is not common in our society, it is not easy, and it does take diligence and perseverance. Being good leaves memories that pass with time; being great leaves a legacy. Just as good can be the enemy of being great, comfort can be the enemy of health. I have seen on many cases in working with people that we help them heal to a level where things settle, comfort emerges and survival is certain; where the symptoms that once haunted them are no longer the driving force to make change. They too, soften, let off the gas and resume living life with the same lifestyle habits that they had before. Comfort can be the enemy of true health. True health is not common in our society and it does take diligence and perseverance. Comfort leaves the individual at ease; true health radiates out, bringing those around us to ease creating a legacy of health. It is important for us to realize that symptoms are typically the last to surface and the first to disappear. What we mean by this is that it takes a long time for ill health to build before symptoms develop. And the reverse is true as well. When we heal, symptoms are typically the first to disappear. But just because the symptoms disappear does not mean that you are fully healed. After the symptoms disappear the body is just beginning to rebuild itself, strengthening and stabilizing, increasing its flexibility and adaptability, tissue will repair on a deep cellular level, core healing will also follow. From there optimization and wellness follow where your body will reach a level of health you previously have never reached. This step beyond symptoms is a critical transition. No longer do people have the symptoms that tell them they need chiropractic care, but they want their care to continue because they want to be truly healthy and firing fully on all cylinders, through their entire life. So this lifetime you have a choice. Do you want to be good, or do you want to be great? Do you just want to be comfortable or do you want to be truly healthy? The choice is yours! Firing on all cylinders, Dr. Norm |
Hi, I’m Dr Norm Detillieux, In addition to running a successful chiropractic studio The Lifehouse, I have offered a number of different workshops centered on wellness care, creating community, awareness of the benefits of chiropractic care and a wholistic approach to health Archives
February 2018
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