Traditionally, this time of year is thought of as a time of renewal. It’s true for plants, trees, birds and most other animals as they are “renewing” their species. We have in the Christian religion, Easter as well. Celebrating a renewed life and that possibility for everyone.
Spending time and energy once a year on renewal is a fabulous idea. Spring is a great time to renew your spirit and body after a long winter of hibernating. We’ve been hanging out inside for 6 months or so. It’s time for us caterpillars to metamorphosis into the butterflies that we are.
Where to start? What needs renewal? Think about what’s been bugging you and go to work there. Feeling like you’ve got a little off with your diet? Easy peasy. Throw all the junk out, go to Whole Foods or Trader Joes or River Market or Fresh and Natural…. Healthy choices are everywhere now. Just start over.
Feel like you need to renew your career? That’s a biggie but it’s not like 40 years ago where you worked the same place from college to retirement. This is a great time for that because employers are having a hard time finding the best fit for employees. If you were ever going to make a leap of faith and move up the ladder, now’s your time. Imagine it as what you’d be doing if you could be doing what you loved. Or, what you see yourself doing until you’re 80. Retirement for those in their 30s and younger, will not exist as it has in the past. That’s OK too. Sitting around an RV park down south waiting for your time to come is no way to spend the best years of your life. The older you are, the more gifts you have to offer. Use them.
Are your relationships stagnant and unrewarding? That’s a little harder. It might be you after all. I learned a great maxim for relationships. Be that person that you would like. If you do that, the right people will be attracted to you. Start working on you. Communication skills that help you learn about others rather than talking about yourself is a small investment that pays back hugely. Most people are attracted to people who are genuinely interested in them. And a great way to be interested in others is to determine why? Why, do you do what you do? Why, do you live where you live? Etc.. The ‘why’ question is deeper and provides for more meaningful communication.
Some of you may have experienced that here. It’s not enough to identify where you hurt and assume I know all you know about it. I will usually as “why” it’s important to you to get it figured out and corrected. Your ‘why’ isn’t my ‘why’. It’s important we identify what is important to YOU.
Speaking of that. Is your health at the bottom of your priority list? You don’t need to fix everything. Renew and fix one thing. Even if that thing seems like it won’t make any difference right now. Like getting out of debt using the “snowball” method. When you make minimum payments on big debts and as large of payments as you can on the small debts. When the small debt is paid off, you add that money to the next larger small debt until that’s paid off. And so on. It’s a mindset and gives you satisfaction of achieving putting some debt to rest early to fuel you to get the rest of it.
So, with health, you can start with going to bed at the same time every night and early enough to get you 8 hours of sleep. That’s not a huge deal, but after a couple weeks you will notice it and then it will be easier to add the next thing. Exercise maybe… or put that off and start with one aspect of your diet. Clean up the toxins. That’s easy. Not like giving up sugar. Go organic with the Clean 15 Dirty Dozen list from EWG.org. Once you’re doing that, you’ll feel even better. Perhaps enough energy to tackle the sugars.
Did you know the cells in your body renew? Your blood cells regenerate every 3-4 months. Your bone marrow, your muscles, your organs, even your skeletal bones break down and rebuild over the course of a couple years. Basically, a new you. All your old pictures are of somebody else. So, that process is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. If you have interference you are not renewing with perfectly healthy cells. This process is ongoing so it is prudent to make sure your nerves are carrying out the adaptation to the environment process as well as possible. With little to no interference. That means, get adjusted on a regular basis. If you get adjusted intermittently, choosing to wait until it hurts, that’s a losing game. You WILL lose function. I’m not going to say it doesn’t “work” that way, but it’s not the best way to care for your nervous system. I know, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Trouble is, the “broke sensor” itself may be broke. In other words, it may be broke for a long time before you are aware it is broken. It doesn’t always hurt. In fact, it mostly does not. Most of your nerves are not pain sensors. Most are sending signals from the brain out, not from the outside in to tell you it hurts. In fact, only 10% of your nervous system carries pain or discomfort signals. 90% is motor and other sensory functions. But I know that our culture teaches “come in when it hurts”. Oddly, you wouldn’t think about caring for your teeth that way. It is goofy on the surface of it. And no dentist ever told you to come back when a tooth hurts. That’s bad dentistry. It is bad chiropractic too. You will never hear that here. We have the tools to evaluate your nervous system on a day by day basis.
THAT’s how you get the most out of your life. More vibrant, in fact.
Please enjoy this weekend of renewal. For those of the faith who celebrate the most important event in the history of Christianity, He is risen, indeed.
Blessings,
Dr. B.