As a chiropractor, the job involves teaching, sharing, and interacting with patients constantly. That is one of the most important, and also one of the best, parts of the job. It is the difference between the realm of the theoretical, and the realm of the real. When you work all day every day with actual people, ideas meet reality and we are able to clearly see what is really important.
Chiropractors teach constantly about health and healing, but we also learn from the patients we work with. While working with people and teaching better health is important, another thing that happens is we become better at listening, and listening to the ideas from patients that they live by.
And there is one that is the most common by far. You likely don’t even need to see a stream of dozens of patients every day to hear this bit of wisdom. It is freely available at the gym, the store, and family gatherings everywhere. Ask people how they are doing and you will hear it before you know it.
“Don’t get old!”
Like all good advice from our elders, it isn’t an obvious prescription. But there is something in that piece of advice, as futile as it is.
We all have the opportunity to make our lives every single day. Little by little, everything we do adds up over time. Just like small improvements to a patient’s spine add up through chiropractic care to make great improvements, the same is true with our lives as a whole.
And the thing about getting older? Aging shows the effects of all of the choices we’ve made throughout our lives. Some of it is unavoidable trauma and the effects of time. But a lot of aging is accumulated stress from our own habits.
From this warning that comes from those that have come before us, it is true that our elders have important wisdom for us. Today though it comes in a different form. Rather than a long prescription of what to do, and how to live, it is a veiled warning to not do what they have done. One that can’t be fully explained, other than to say that their outcomes in life have not been entirely what they want. And that perhaps if they had it to do over again they might do things differently.
Instead, “don’t get old!” They say. We can’t heed the warning, but we can listen. Listen to what our elders are saying and take heed. Be prepared to do what your body (and life) needs so that it lasts as long as you do. If we listen to what those who have come before us are saying, they are giving us important clues as to what we should be doing now. Which is to take care of ourselves now while we are young. So when we get there, we will be glad we did.
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.
