Ever lived with a smoke alarm in the kitchen that had a hair trigger? The kind where you cook anything for longer than 5 minutes and the alarm sounds, sending everyone in the house flying to open windows and doors to shut the racket off?
The problem with an alarm system that is predictably over-sensitive is that it stops generating the intended response. No one flees the house to safeguard themselves from an impending fire after a dozen false alarms. Adaptation occurs very quickly, and response turns into frustration. The result of this is simple – ignore the alarm.
What can this aggravating experience teach us about pain? First of all, fire alarms are super motivating because they can be painfully loud. And just like that alarm, nothing motivates like pain. It is nature’s original and primary motivator. It is a signal that says “time to do something differently because there is a problem.”
And that is where pain comes in. Pain tells us that a certain threshold of damage has occurred, and tells us in a way that is very hard to ignore. But the second important thing to understand about pain is it is usually a late indication that a problem has occurred – the opposite of what most people think. Which is that pain is a real-time, comprehensive, universal problem detecting system. Which it is not.
It is understandable that we often think that pain is reporting any and all issues, because it is capable of being such a strong signal. But just like that fire alarm lost its utility from being overly sensitive, pain would be the same way. If everything hurt all of the time, it loses its specificity as a signal, and as a guide as to what to do.
This is exactly why the most important view of pain is as a strong signal to be paid attention to, that something already has happened. Unfortunately, our culture tells us the opposite, that any initial bout of pain should be ignored or covered up. Look at pain as an important signal that should be used to guide behavior. Not running in panic to shut off the signal. This simple shift in thinking can solve problems using this sequence:
For those interested in more than just controlling symptoms, but actually addressing the cause, give them this simple system to help those in your life understand that pain is a signal to make changes, instead of panicking and running to shut them off. There are so many avenues in which chiropractic care can help – cleaning up the damage that was caused, but even more importantly, in teaching that we should address the cause rather than silence the alarm.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Has anyone told you you don’t need permission to be a superhero? Or that you don’t need someone to tell you it’s okay to help other people? There are some amazing stories of people that decided they didn’t want to wait to help the people around them that needed help. These were people that didn’t have advanced degrees or complicated certifications. What they did have was the sense of action and an overwhelming urgency to start making changes in the world around them.
It’s a classic phrase by Rene Descartes – one that is instantly recognizable. And it comes from a totally unrecognizable world – 1637.
Yet it is still true today. Descartes’ attempt to get to the very bedrock of what he was as a human being is worth looking at as we turn over into the new year. Especially as we examine the beginning of something new – a time when discussions turn to the entire idea of new, and what the idea of new creates – the vision of new possibilities.
Anti-aging is a trick. And like all tricks, it’s not real. We all slow down, grow old, and die. But like all tricks, when done well, they are amazing and fun. Here is how the trick of anti-aging can work for you.
Take the aging progression above and expand it all the way. From the time we are very young, we grow, get bigger, stronger, smarter and generally better at everything as we go.
Here is the solution to understanding an ever-more common anxiety-causing malady. And how the key to solving it is getting two things – knowing what it takes to get healthy – and the power of understanding how to choose the quickest line at the grocery store.
