Okay, so it's been QUITE a while since I've posted and I'm working at getting more consistent at updating here. Which brings me to the topic of today's post. The question I have is, where are you on your wellness path? As you know, the approach to wellness that I believe is the most effective is when we apply wellness principles to multiple areas of our lives at a time.
Wellness is the degree to which we each experience health and vitality in multiple areas of life. Those areas include the physical, bio-chemical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, social, and career. For example, what this means is that while each of these areas is clearly a part of wellness, by only focusing on one area we limit the amount of wellness we can achieve in our own lives. The illustration I often use with my patients is that of a theoretical marathoner. The ability to complete a marathon requires a significant amount of physical fitness and ability. But, if this fictional character of ours is mentally and emotionally burdened with excessive debt, or goes home and screams at his wife and children, while he is clearly physically very fit, his overall wellness is highly lacking.
Often we see patients in our office who first seek us out to eliminate some physical or organic ailment. What we work very hard to do is to help each individual move beyond simply removing that which bothers them, and into increasing their overall wellness and subsequently their effectiveness and enjoyment of life.
So, how do we do this? We do this by what I call "being on the path." My confession to you is that I recently had the epiphany that my own physical fitness is an area that I had neglected for far too long. And, in so doing, I was allowing my lifestyle choices to contradict that which I was advising my clients about. This week I have committed to doing what is necessary to get back to the gym consistently and even begin running (short distances, mind you) to get back that which I have lost. (I'll leave the long distances to Michelle, my little half-marathoner.)
So my question to you and yours is this: "Where are you 'on the path'?" Are you neglecting areas of your life that can contribute to (or detract from) your overall wellness?
We don't all have to look like Jason Statham or Jillian Michaels to have wellness in our lives. We just have to be "on the path."
Please comment and share. I look forward to seeing your responses!
Dr. Brian
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Why don't we get out of our own way?
So I just finished reading an article on Yahoo! News about a link between restless leg syndrome and erectile dysfunction. The article spends most of it's words on saying that researchers aren't sure what the connection is, whether one causes the other, and if so, which one comes first.
It's interesting to me (but not surprising) that this article focuses so much on the relationship between these two conditions, but fails to address the likelihood that the presence of both of these conditions may actually be related to a much more significant total health situation.
As chiropractors, we base what we do on the simple premise that our bodies, when given the opportunity to function properly and free from excessive physical, chemical, or emotional stress, and free from interference with normal body processes, have a miraculous ability to heal and regulate themselves. When these stresses and interference are present and unmanaged, it only makes sense that we would begin to develop symptoms.
The trick is in understanding that a particular stress or interference at a particular point do not always create the same symptom or symptoms in every person. We are all unique to a certain degree, and even within families, the stresses and how each individual experiences them are unique.
So why not take a look at these situations where people have a seemingly unrelated combination of signs and symptoms and take a more "30,000 foot view" approach to see if something else is going on that could explain these, and quite possibly many other, problems the individual may be experiencing?
This is the value of a vitalistic approach to health care, and specifically to Creating Wellness Chiropractic.
For more information on what this new (old) approach to health may be able to do for you, check out our website at www.AskDrBrian.com.
It's interesting to me (but not surprising) that this article focuses so much on the relationship between these two conditions, but fails to address the likelihood that the presence of both of these conditions may actually be related to a much more significant total health situation.
As chiropractors, we base what we do on the simple premise that our bodies, when given the opportunity to function properly and free from excessive physical, chemical, or emotional stress, and free from interference with normal body processes, have a miraculous ability to heal and regulate themselves. When these stresses and interference are present and unmanaged, it only makes sense that we would begin to develop symptoms.
The trick is in understanding that a particular stress or interference at a particular point do not always create the same symptom or symptoms in every person. We are all unique to a certain degree, and even within families, the stresses and how each individual experiences them are unique.
So why not take a look at these situations where people have a seemingly unrelated combination of signs and symptoms and take a more "30,000 foot view" approach to see if something else is going on that could explain these, and quite possibly many other, problems the individual may be experiencing?
This is the value of a vitalistic approach to health care, and specifically to Creating Wellness Chiropractic.
For more information on what this new (old) approach to health may be able to do for you, check out our website at www.AskDrBrian.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
