What can chiropractic mean to you? A personal Declaration of Independence!

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” One of the most powerful statements ever uttered by Man are these few words found in our own Declaration of Independence.

In addition to its profound meaning for our nation and as the guidepost for freedom for all peoples of this planet, it’s also a reminder that we (you, me and all of Mankind) were Designed to be great, healthy, strong, free from fear and able to pursue happiness in your life in all its’ forms.

How sad that in a society of affluence and almost magical technology, way too many folks live in fear of sickness, disease and infirmity. In our so-called advanced society, we’ve created a disease for every drug. We’re taught to fear life itself! So, we begin early living life as though it were a virtual mine field. This causes that and that cause this. So-called “scientific” research validates drugs that kill thousands while offering limited relief for those grasping for even an ounce of hope.

BUT, there IS hope for a suffering and searching Mankind. Chiropractic, the profession hidden by many’s focus on back pain, has been offering freedom to millions of Americans and peoples around the world for over 110 years. In its purest form, the proper application of chiropractic principles helps your body function closer to your own God-given potential for health. Sometimes, it happens with a single adjustment. Sometimes, it happens in layers like removing husks from an ear of corn. Eventually, as you’ve pulled back all the husks, you find the fresh sweet goodness inside.

As we approach our country’s Independence Day, I urge you to declare your won independence from fear of sickness and infirmity. Start pulling back those husks and seeing God’s Glory manifest in your own life. Pursue your potential in strength, love and joy and you’ll find your fears falter and fall behind. Sooner than you can imagine, they’ll fade into the distant past.

May God bless you in all your trials and tribulations but also in His Glory manifested in YOUR life!

The View from Outside the Box

Surely you’ve heard the term “Think outside the boc”.  I first heard th term in a business workshop way back in the 70s.  We were told to put the following drawing on a piece of paper and told to connect all the dots with four STRAIGHT lines WITHOUT lifting our pencil off the paper.

It was amazing the gyrations we all went through to get the assignment done.  Well, there were a couple of folks who had seen the exercise done before.  Otherwise, no one had even a clue how to solve the puzzle.  Then the instructor proceeded to show us how the puzzle was solved:

As we all now know, the ONLY solution for the problem was to draw outside the (imaginary) box created by the dots.  What an awesome metaphor for many (most) of the problems facing our society at this point in time, including the economy, world affairs, politics, education and healthcare.  In fact, many of the problems we face have become SO institutionalized and entrenched that they can NEVER be resolved with the same thinking that caused the problem in the first place.

Let’s consider just healthcare.  As far as any of us can remember, healthcare in this culture has been one of fighting disease.  We start at birth vaccinating kids against all sorts of diseases from routine childhood illnesses like chicken pox and measles to diptheria, smallpox, TB and polio.  As we age, the battle is joined against cancer, heart disease and now diabetes.  Now, we’re being attacked by chronic health problems ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia to irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis.  And, that says nothing about the proliferation of autoimmune disease.  And lest we forget Restless Leg Syndrome?

In essence, we’ve creasted a “disease managment” system instead of a HEALTH care system.  Drug companies seems to “discover” diseases that they just happen to have a “new” drug that treat THAT diease perfectly.  Unfortunately, that system of “care” has made going to the doctor and paying for it an almost impossible task.  Finally, we’ve reached the point where we’re looking to Government to take over health care.  I take little comfort in knowing that the same folks that are handling Social Security, Medicare, the IRS and Hurricane Katrina will now be taking care of our health decisions.

So, for these and other reasons, I opted out of the traditional Western approach to “health care” a long time ago.  I guess it’s been almost 20 years now that I haven’t taken a drug or gone to the doctor for anything but emergencies.  Well, I DO go to the chiropractor on a regular basis to get adjusted.   But, I don’t go for pain management or any kind of symptom control.   I thought it might be interesting to explain what it’s like on the other side of the healthcare fence looking in.

Even prior to my exposure to the wholistic lifestyle, I was somewhat leery of established Medicine and would only take an aspirin for an occasional headache or when my back problem would flare up.  And, until I got my back problem resolved, there was always a tube of Preparation H in the medicine cabinet.  I don’t rember the last time I took prescription drugs.  The last flu shot I got was in 1975 when Uncle Sam made me get one before letting me out of the Air Force.

The view from outside the box is interesting.  I don’t take drugs.  Period.  I don’t need them.  I don’t get sick.  I also don’t go to doctors.  It’s not that I don’t “believe” in them.  I just don’t need them.  Now, if I were involved in a car accident or broke a leg, I’d be the first to go to the ER because that’s where Medicine shines.  Otherwise, I just don’t need it.  I don’t have a cardiologist, proctologist, orthopedist, neurologist (although I’ve referred folks to a few) or even a General Practitioner.  Are there any of those even left?  Now, quite a few folks have asked me “What if…?”  And, my response is “What if…what?”  The point is I simply don’t live in that “disease” world.  I don’t know what ny blood pressure is or my cholesterol level or my bone density or if I have polyps.  I don’t care.

Because I know that we were designed to be healthy, my focus is on health, not disease.  I know that if I eat right, exercise, drink water, develop and maintain a good attitude and spiritual life, get adjusted and do those things that help build HEALTH, I’ve done all I can do.  And because of my fiath and what I know about health, I am not afraid of living or dying.

When I look inside the box, I see folks living in fear of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc.  Their lives are consumed running from disease.  And, by the time many folks are 60 they have those little boxes with pills for every day of the week.  They run to the doctor every time they have a cold or a symptom.   Some folks I know spend almost a thousand bucks a month on “health” insurance that typically covers far less than people really need.  Health costs has virtually driven American automakers out of business.  Even folks with “good” insurance aren’t immune to the fear of disease.  In fact, I know several millionaires who suffer from anxiety attacks and the same diseases that afflict the poor.

The main difference in the perspectives on either side of the box is fear.  From the inside, fear rules and limits one’s fullest expression and enjoyment of life.  From outside the box, a sense of peace about health is the rule rather than the exception.  Now, I’m not necessarily telling folks to cancel their insurance and shoot their doctors.  But what I am saying is that there is another way to view health and life.  In a later post, I’ll talk more about inspired living.  Until then, consider all your alternatives.

One Way to Save Christmas: Give It to the Kids!

Over the last two decades, I’ve played Santa Claus in a vriety of situations, mostly for kids at family and office gatherings.  One thing I’ve always found is that Santa always makes people, big and small, loosen up and smile. 

Certainly, there are those little kids that are scared out of their wits at this odd looking creature with white hair and a bright red suit trying to get them to sit on his lap.  It must be like seeing a spaceship land in your yard and being open to an invitation to come on board.  Anyway, I’ve come to learn that you can force them to overcome their natural fears.  But over time, the loosen up and find that part of the celebration of Christmas to be quite fun and joyous.

Like you, I’ve watched the secularization of Christmas to the point where some retailers are ever reluctant to say or even advertise “Merry Christmas” to their customers when clearly 80-90% of their annual sales are made specifically for Christmas.  At the same time, I’ve some of my Christian brethren take a very hard stance on Christmas even to the point of NOT letting their kids participate in the Santa fantasy and even telling them at a very young age there really isn’t a Santa Clause.

As a proud evangelical Christian, I must confess that I think this hardline approach does more to HURT the real meaning of Christmas than to help it.  I know that may seem strange, so let me explain.

In America (and maybe most of the free world) we learn about Christmas as little children.  We’re taught from about two years of age that Christmas means gifts and toys and Santa.  Only as we approach 10 to 12 years old do we “find out about Santa”.  Usually, it’s a gradual thing.  And, gradual is good because it gives mom and dad a chance to expose their kids to the real meaning of Christmas.  Even agnostics and atheists end up explaining the religious meaning of Christmas to their kids.

This gradual learning does two things that I think make Christmas special and will protect it forever against the secualr and retail onslaught.  From our earliest memories, we learn the joy of receiving a gift we’ve longed for for months.  As we grow older, we learn the joy of giving to others and the satisfaction of seeing our gifts received in the spirit in which it was given. 

By cementing the value of giving and receiving at such an early age, kids nautrally develop an appreciation for the Gift God gave the World.  Having a perspective on love that only time and experience can provide, kids grow to know the joy of Christmas.

So, instead of cursing the darkness of secularism and retail madness during the  Christmas season, I encourage you to be joyful, give willfully and joyfully, but not in an obligatory way, at all.  But most of all, give your love, share your joy and watch how the spirit of Christmas will grow both in your world and in thw world at large.

Christmas is too big to be killed or even harmed UNLESS you allow it to die inside you and deprive your kids of all the joys big and small it brings.

I Am a Principled Chiropractor

This quotation from Dr. BJ Palmer explains as clearly as I know what and why I do what I do as a chiropractor.  Enjoy!

“I am a Chiropractor working with the sciences of the universe by turning on the life in man thru the art of adjustment.

I do not prescribe, treat or diagnose conditions. I use only my hands. I work with that ‘mysterious something’ which created my body from two cells. At a time prescribed aeons ago I was set in this body to experience. That cosmic power which created me, which also moves the seas, rotates the earth, directs the heavens, gives life, takes it away, is everything. And that power which set the universe in motion and created me did not abandon me when I became free of security of my earthly mothers’ womb. It is still with me and protects me as it moves all forms toward their final predestined goal; It is not mine to educatedly ask ‘why’ or ‘where’, but to innately live; and live to help my fellow creatures.

And with this Chiropractic adjustment I use all the power and energies moving this universe, to allow my fellow creatures the chance to live, free of disease. I wish nothing in return, only the chance to GIVE. I give with the only thing I have, LOVE.  And I love all by removing that which interferes with 100% LIFE.  I do not look to others for direction, I look within. I am a perfect expression of God living 24 hours each day for others – I am a PRINCIPLED CHIROPRACTOR. By BJ Palmer

Law of Attraction and Your Health

I have always been one of those crazy “positive thinkers” that believes anything is possible.  Maybe it comes from my belief that we would not have been given the ability to imagine and dream if we weren’t also equipped to realize or actualize those dreams.  But maybe, it also comes from the hundreds of examples in my own life of things (good and bad) happening AFTER having created the very situation in my own mind, FIRST.

It’s funny (in a sad way) that many of my Christian friends so readily and strongly dismiss “The Secret” and the “Law of Attraction” as being evil in some way.  To me, they are absolute evidence of God’s Hand in all things.  In fact, the Bible tells us to pray EXPECTING that what we have asked for HAS ALREADY been given AND that even the faith of a tiny mustard seed could push the mountain into the sea.

I like the Law of Attraction.  It makes sense to me.  It has proven itself to work for me in so many circumstances it’s almost hard to count.  And, it’s pretty much as simple as “What you think about comes about”.  If you think about it, every creation of Mankind from the first tool to the space shuttle was first an idea in someone’s mind.  And the longer that thought remained in someone’s mind, the closer it got to becoming a reality.  Eventually, the idea became reality.

OK, so you’re probably thinking, “So how does the Law of Attraction have ANYTHING to do with my health?”  Well, I’m glad you asked!

In our culture, we have this obsession with disease.  From birth, we’re taught to fear disease instead of how to build health.  We inject our babies with all sorts of stuff to avoid childhood diseases instead of allowing their bodies to build lifetime immunity.  Every year, millions of us get a flu shot even though many wonder IF it can prevent the flu.  We label creative, active kids bored with sitting at a desk all day as having ADD or ADHD.  What used to be considered a “normal” blood pressure reading is now considered “pre-hypertensive”.  The mention of the word “cancer” strikes fear in the heart of almost any living person.  And, everyone knows at least one person who takes “an aspirin a day” to prevent stroke when that habit alone cold CAUSE a massive stroke itself.  It’s even gotten so ridiculous that now we even have a disease called “Restless Leg Syndrome”.  Give me a break!

In other words, our hyper-focus on disease has made us one of the sickest nations on the planet.  We’re sick because we THINK about sickness and disease.  Probably the most profitable industries IN THE WORLD is the pharmaceutical industry.  They spend BILLIONS of dollars convincing you that you’re sick and that THEY can ease your suffering with their magic pills and potions.  Unfortunately, neither they nor the Government tells you adequately of the dangers related to their concoctions.

BUT, there IS a better way!  That way is to simply BE WELL.  Now, some of you are saying “This guy is crazy!”  But, wait!  This is where the Law of Attraction comes in.  Think about how your life would be IF you were well.  Instead of spending your time worrying about one disease or another, you’d be thinking of how to make your life better or what you were going to do this weekend with your kids or your special someone.  You’d be LIVING instead of “not dying”.  See where I’m going with all this?

My favorite author on the topic of the Law of Attraction is Michael Losier.  One of the things Losier would tell you is to draw a line down the middle of a notepad.  On one side, make a list of what about your life you don’t like or don’t want, like “I don’t want to be sick, any more” or even “I must exercise and watch my diet so I won’t get cancer or have a heart attack”.  Notice where the focus is on these statements?  Right!  They’re focused on what you DON’T want.  On the other side of the page, restate what you DO want, like “I LOVE being healthy and working toward even better health!” or “I LOVE working out and eating good food.  It makes me look great and feel even better!” or even “You know, I’m a better lover because my health is so good!” SEE the difference?

Now when your focus is on good health, you start doing the same things healthy people do.  You exercise because you LIKE it.  You eat better because it makes you FEEL better.  You go to the chiropractor because it helps you BE a better you.  You even work on your spiritual life because it enhances your life.  In other words, your focus on health and life automatically lead you to do those things that take you closer to that vision.

You can only run so hard and so long FROM something you fear.  When you’re running TO something you want, you can pace yourself and run forever even enjoying the scenery along the way.

I can tell you that for me, it has made a world of difference.  Between my faith and knowledge of where health REALLY comes from, I can LIVE today and look forward to tomorrow WITHOUT fear of what MIGHT, or might not, happen.  When your thoughts are on wholeness, joy and peace within and without, life takes on a whole new meaning.

So, think good thoughts.  See BIG things for yourself and those around you.  Make your life a canvass on which you paint the biggest and brightest and most beautiful life you possibly can.  Remember, EVERYTHING starts with a thought.  Think BIG!