You won the lottery. The genetic lottery. Early hominids have gone extinct but YOUR ancestors survived. Your parents, grandparents, their parents.... all were perfectly suited to the demands of the world and reproduced. You are the creation that is perfect for your environment. Right now. today. You have gifts and talents that were unimaginable a century ago. You are the culmination of all the Darwinian evolution that killed off lesser equipped lines of humans over thousands of years. Yet, you still don't give yourself credit.
I know that because I've interviewed thousands in my career. Almost everyone thinks that whatever health problem they develop is the result of their body being inadequate. Broken. Unable to cope with the stress. Bad genes. Or, "I've always had....."
Consider where you started. You and the rest of us, were one, single cell. That single cell had all it needed to grow and develop into the person you are today. With all the skills, talents and personality that makes you, you. You began your developmental growth by first dividing from one into two cells. Then from two into four, to eight, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512..... until a short 9 months later you have fully developed organs, 10 fingers, 10 toes on hands and feet, your eyes in the front of your head and ears on the side. You learned how to make blood cells during this time, brain cells, muscle cells, and all the connections. Soon you learned how to make them work together to walk, then run, ride bike, play tennis, the piano, program a computer, write a thesis, make new humans yourself (well, not exactly by yourself). Imagine such magnificence. Yet, we do not give it much credit.
Sadly, there is a force and now a culture and business model that wishes you to forget that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. There is an industry that profits every time they win someone over to thinking that you were made inadequately, defectively, broken and unable to cope. Because they have the products that will complete you, make you stronger and able to cope. They do not make you stronger. They do not make you healthier. They dampen the symptoms of the dysfunction though. And, those products are so expensive, you must enter into a payment arrangement for them lasting your whole life. Typical payments now near $1,000 per month. We call them health insurance premiums. But they do not insure our health any more than fire insurance keeps your house from burning down. Insurance on a house will pay for the material to rebuild it though. This isn't possible with living bodies that no longer function.
Regardless, you start these payments right out of college or when you get your first job. You will get the products in return for these payments little by little at first. Then as they draw you in, you will get more and more. They are so expensive, you must start making these payments right away and for the rest of your life. By the time you use them though, you won't mind the cost because you've been paying for this day for decades. Some of us are even kind of proud how many products we get for the years of payments. ("The surgery was $70,000 and I didn't have to pay a penny")
I admit, on the one hand it irritates me that I've paid in so much over the years and never gotten any products for it. On the other hand, I understand I was made with magnificence. I don't need the products. Barring a couple snowmobile traumatic mishaps, I would have had no payback for my premiums.
I know people who work in that business model and their assessment is I'm just lucky. What about my kids? My wife? Other than car, bike, snowmobile and skating accidents, our collective 188 years on the planet just hasn't "required" the products.
I don't believe I'm unique other than how I evaluate what is "working" and what isn't "working". A child with a fever is working properly. No products required. A cough? Same. High cholesterol? That's your majestically made body trying to adapt to a bad diet. High blood pressure, or sugar? Same.
On the other hand, it isn't normal to have headaches frequently. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase, "These aren't migraines. These are my normal headaches" It isn't normal to have sciatica, back pain, neck pain carpal tunnel, diarrhea, IBD, asthma, allergies... etc... And it certainly isn't normal to sing and dance about being overweight with type 2 diabetes on national TV and "the little pill with a big story to tell." These things however, people just assume that "everybody" gets them. It's normal. They don't. It's not.
The Power that was there when you were one cell is always there. It runs on your nervous system. If you are having "normal headaches", "sensitive stomach", "heartburn only when you eat spicy foods".... this is a problem of power expression, not you're broken. In order to get back to normal it requires full expression of that intelligence that was there when you were once cell and no longer is expressing fully.
It may also be if you feel the need to put on a dress and dance about the public square singing about your diabetes meds, you might be celebrating the anniversary of the Pop Tart invention a little too early and a little too often. It's not always the nerves. Sometimes it's just poor diet.
I wake up every morning and am thankful I get to do what I do. So many my age (63) can't. Every morning I pray for guidance to use my talents wisely to help people who are suffering. Lift people up who've lost hope and restore these abilities in others... so that, they can do the same for others. Sometimes that's just reassuring and giving hope. Sometimes that's a a kick the bum to wake up to the fact that you really are amazing... act like it.
Help someone today. Lift them up. Give them hope and direction. If they have health problems that prevents them from being their best, direct them where they can restore their expression of life. They either think it's normal to be sick or they just really don't know what to do. But, they already know where to get drugs to blunt the expression of life. They need you to show them the path to vibrant life.
Blessings,
Dr. Barrett