Health is something that we all want and as a society we are pretty obsessed with getting it. Turn on the television, open a magazine or even scroll through social media and you will be bombarded with information and products regarding the pursuit of health.

Unfortunately, this obsession has not been successful in giving us what we want. Very few people achieve the glowing health they seek. However you define health, the fact is that most people are frustrated and dissatisfied with their health and well-being.

In working with thousands of people in a health care setting over the past 18 years, I have observed that much of this frustration comes from a mismatch between expectation and approach. What that means is that people often WANT one thing but take an APPROACH that cannot deliver on that desire.

The reason for this mismatch is most often a result of just not being aware. It isn’t laziness or a lack of intelligence – people have never been taught and therefore just don’t know what it takes to get what they desire.

In this article we will be looking at the hierarchy of health goals (from least to most healthy), so that you can determine YOUR goals and then tailor your approach to make sure you achieve them.

The first goal on the hierarchy of health is Symptom Treatment. The goal of symptom treatment is to get rid of symptoms as they arise. So, if you have a headache, you take a pain killer to get rid of it. If you have heart disease, you take drugs or have surgery to treat it.

Symptom treatment is successful when you are comfortable again. The goal is not better function or structure, just feeling better in the moment.

The reality is that this is how most people really define health in their own lives. They figure that if they don’t have pain and symptoms, they are good and for that reason they mostly seek out treatments that are designed to eliminate symptoms.

In the short term, this approach can be very beneficial. In a life-threatening crisis, it can save our life. It can get us through some sticky times so that we can live another day and heal.

Where this approach becomes problematic is that it is purely superficial. Most symptoms are secondary conditions being caused by something more fundamental. Headaches and back pain aren’t just PAIN, there is something else going on that your body is trying to tell you about. While taking a pill or getting one chiropractic adjustment is easy, it likely isn’t going to solve the underlying condition any more that chopping the heads off of dandelions will give you a putting green lawn.

In addition, covering up symptoms can actually decrease your overall, long term health in a couple of ways. The first way is that it allows you to be comfortable while you ignore a health problem. If you shoot the messenger screaming about the upcoming attack, guess what? You are in ever bigger trouble.

The second way it can decrease your health is that the symptom treatments may be harmful. Even something seemingly as mild as an over the counter pain killer taken over the years can have detrimental effects, not to mention the well know problems with opioids other stronger drugs. Even simple routine surgeries can have long lasting deleterious health effects.

So, it is important to know what you want and how to get it. If you want glowing, long term health but only evaluate your ‘treatments’ based on short term symptom relief, you are unlikely to achieve your goal.

When you do choose to treat symptoms (I do), is it in the larger context of buying you some time so that you can address the more fundamental issues in the near future? Do you follow up on those issues, or wait until the next crisis to pay attention?

The magic of the Hierarchy of Health is to become clear on what you REALLY want and noticing if you are getting it. From there you can tweak your approach to a point that success if inevitable.

In the next article we will continue along the Hierarchy of Health. You may even decide to upgrade your goals and expectations to produce results you never thought possible.

Thorin Gault, D.C.

One of the ways I know that the holiday season is upon us is that we begin to see a much higher percentage of ‘emergency’ cases in my chiropractic office. Almost magically, the number of both new and existing patients experiencing crisis goes through the roof at this time of year.

The typical presentation is something like, “I don’t know what I did, but I woke up this morning and my back/neck/head really hurt, and my spine was all locked up.”

Interestingly, this is also the time of year that we have the largest number of missed regular visits because of colds, flu and other types of health crises.

So, what is the deal with this time of year? Our bodies and lives have many unique demands placed upon us as the holiday season approaches. We are primed by Halloween and the consumption of not so good food that taxes our immune system (come on, you can admit it!). The time change is another hurdle for our body to get used to. This is also the time of year that we drastically reduce how much fresh air and direct sun exposure we receive.

On top of this, there are more parties, late nights and social events to attend. The time and financial stress of shopping, decorating, and travel. Family stress (enuf said). Loss of routine and eating and drinking things beyond our normal consumption top off the mountain of stressors that typify this time of year. It is no wonder that many people end up in pain, sick, and stressed during the holidays – often to a point that they cannot enjoy what is meant to be a time of joy.

There is another wrinkle to this story that is often overlooked and is perhaps the most important of all. In addition to the ‘negative’ stressors that can put people under, many people stop doing the GOOD STUFF that keeps them healthy the rest of the year.

Not only do they eat BAD stuff, they stop eating GOOD stuff. The gyms get quieter this time of year because people blow off their workouts for shopping and parties. It is not uncommon for us to see regular patients fall off their schedule in December because they feel they are too busy.

I have written an article on staying healthy during holidays most of the 17 years I have been in chiropractic practice. I have seen what works and what doesn’t. Trying to avoid food, drink, stress and parties does NOT WORK for most. The absolute best way to stay healthy over the holidays is to focus on doing GOOD STUFF. At minimum, do as much GOOD STUFF as usual. Ideally, use your extra time off (if you have it) to do more GOOD STUFF.

It is okay to indulge in some food and drink but be sure to focus on eating lots of GOOD STUFF. Commit to eating a nutritious fuelling breakfast to start things right. Do not allow your vegetable and healthy protein and fat consumption to drop, even if you are going to have some cookies.

It is great to enjoy some parties (I highly recommend it)! Do not allow parties to get in the way of regular exercise. Even if you are away from your gym, class or sport, use it as an opportunity to do something different. Get outside if you can. Be creative. I have done many great workouts on the floor of hotel rooms with zero equipment.

Even if you spend some nights out late, meditation is a great way to get ‘virtual rest’ in a very time efficient way. Sitting for 20 minutes (or even 10) can have a huge impact on restfulness and energy levels.

As much as possible, stay on track with activities that add to your health. I try to see my chiropractor MORE during the holidays because a healthy nervous system leads to a healthy person. I see it as my invisible shield at this time of year.

What I have learned over the years – and was reminded of recently while reading Jocko Willink’s great new book Discipline Equals Freedom – Field Manual – is that when you do the GOOD STUFF, you will feel good and then you naturally won’t want to do the BAD STUFF. The GOOD STUFF actually protects you from getting too much of a good (BAD) thing.

Enjoy yourself this holiday. Eat some cookies, enjoy your family and friends. Focus on the GOOD STUFF and not only will you have a better time, you will hit the ground running in 2018!

I would like to preface this article by emphatically stating that I am in NO way commenting on the quality of the other chiropractors in my community. In fact, I think Cornwall is lucky to have a nice complement of chiropractors who do good work. I frequently refer potential patients and practice members to other chiropractors if their goals do not match the objectives of my office. Okay, on with the story.

This past Friday I hurt my neck during an Olympic weightlifting training session. No big deal, but it left me with a stiff neck that I could not turn very well and moving a bit like the Frankenstein monster. I was running some errands yesterday and ran into an acquaintance who commented that I looked kind of stiff for a chiropractor and we joked that it would be difficult for me to adjust myself.

I realized in that moment that I had not even considered phoning another chiropractor in town to get care. It had not even crossed my mind. The reason that I am writing this article is that I think most people would find it very strange that a chiropractor wasn’t seeking chiropractic care for himself after injuring his spine. I will tell you why.

First of all, I do not use chiropractic care as a reactive tool. My sore, stiff neck does not mean that my body isn’t healing. I had 265 pounds of weight crash a little too hard onto the front of my shoulders – some pain is understandable. In fact, the pain and stiffness restricting my range of motion are probably exactly what my neck needs to heal quickly and fully. Why would I want to get rid of that?

Why am I so confident that my body is healing well, even while I am in pain? In addition to taking good care of my health, I see my chiropractor in Gatineau for 2 entrainments every week. I have been doing this for 11 years. Because of this, I heal better than last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

So why do I take every Wednesday afternoon off from the office, get in my car, fill up with gas, sit in Ottawa (the most inefficient drivers in the world!) traffic, pay big city chiropractic prices and wait in a busy reception room? All of this when I could probably drop in to an office down the street, be out in 10 minutes and have it all done for free. As I mentioned earlier, it is not because the doctors in town aren’t good – they are.

The reason that I go to all of the hassle and expense for my care is that what I want from my care is NOT to react to health challenges. What I want is to develop ever evolving strategies to live a healthy, happy, adaptable, and a forever increasing quality of life. I want reorganization, NOT restoration. Network care is the only health care system I am aware of that has this as a direct objective. If I ever find anything better at creating this result I promise I will learn it and provide it.

As a side effect of this care, I do have fewer occurrences of pain and disease, and heal much faster when they do arise. Bonus!

It is my belief that most people hunger to reorganize, step up, and evolve yet settle for comfort because they don’t think the former is possible for them. People want a life that becomes richer, fuller, healthier and more vibrant with each passing year yet don’t take the steps to achieve it. You can.

In any endeavour in life, be sure your actions, effort and the people you work with support your highest vision for what is possible.

“People don’t know that pain can lead to something GREAT. If they did they would not try to kill it.”                     Donny Epstein

In the 4 part of this series we delved into the traps that keep us from winning in the game of life. Very few people are winning their lives because these traps are the stories (not necessarily true ones) that become justifications and excuses for failure. In this article we will present the Secrets or Solutions to Winning the Game of Life.

How do We Win?

Now that we know what the traps are and how to avoid them, how do we actually win the game? What is the difference between someone who is winning the game of life, compared to most people who just get by (if they are lucky)? After all, don’t we all have the same 24 hours in a day to deal with similar stresses? Why are some healthy, happy, enjoying life and thriving while others struggle so hard?

In researching this topic we found 3 main areas where those who are happy and successful do things differently. Within these areas are the solutions to winning the game of life.

Area #1: Awareness

Area #2: Behaviour (Action)

Area #3: Structures

In the area of awareness, happy and successful people are always cultivating the expansion of their own awareness. They study what others are doing and thus take power and responsibility over their health, relationships, finances and anything that is important to them.

What Time is It? NOW.

These people live in the NOW as opposed to dwelling in the past or future. They acknowledge the reality of what IS without worrying about what might be or fantasizing as a way to avoid the truth. This presence can be cultivated with meditation or exercises such as T’ai chi or Somatorespiratory Integration.

Physical Awareness

Physical awareness is also essential to vibrant health. Being aware of the subtle cues of your body is required to be able to take action for your health before a crisis occurs. This also gives us access to high levels of energy at all times – and couldn’t we all use more of that? Exercises like yoga and dancing enhance physical awareness, as do gentle systems of bodywork and certain forms of chiropractic. In fact, these systems actually have the ability to use pain and stress as opportunities to increase our awareness and energy!

Emotional Awareness

Emotional awareness is equally important to the game of life. Successful people are keenly aware of their emotions and do not run from them even if they are uncomfortable. They understand that the purpose of all emotion is to motivate immediate action and for this reason no emotions are “bad.” Techniques such as EFT, The Emotion Code, and Network Spinal Analysis help us to work with the emotions stored as tension in our bodies. When we become aware of our emotions it frees us to take the appropriate actions, which leads us to our next area of solutions…..which we will continue with in the next article.

Start Now!

In the meantime, start cultivating your own awareness, both physically and emotionally. Notice what is, accept it and then decide on what must come next. If you catch yourself dwelling on the past, worrying about the future or fantasizing as a way to escape the present, pull yourself back to reality and ask yourself, “what is REALLY going on here?” Consider incorporating some of the awareness building practices mentioned (or others) into your daily and weekly routines.

By flexing these new muscles immediately, you will be more than ready to start applying the rest of the solutions we will be presenting in the following articles.

As a bonus for reading this far, here is a very funny video to test your awareness, click on the link below.

Awareness

One of the most contentious issues in chiropractic is that of recommending people undergo regular, long-term care. Many health-care professionals who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of disease – including chiropractors – are horrified by the idea and would literally like the practice banned by regulating bodies. They feel that chiropractors who do this are an embarrassment, unethical and bully people for money.

As a chiropractor who DOES invite people to participate in regular, wellness care and offer service agreements to make these plans more affordable and efficient I totally understand their criticism. The difference in opinion has nothing to do with ethics however – it is a difference in the objectives of the doctors in question and the services they are offering. For a doctor whose only objective is to treat symptoms it absolutely IS unethical to recommend long-term wellness care. For a doctor like me whose objective is to help people to develop new strategies to live a greater life – regardless of symptoms – it would be unethical to NOT recommend it!

Some of you may know that I am perhaps the least handy man on the planet. I am essentially useless – if not dangerous – around the house! Fortunately, we have a great handyman who routinely looks after some of the many issues we have with our century home.

Our handyman is not only very honest, he is obsessed with us not thinking that he is trying to oversell us. While this is better than the other option, it also has its’ problems. As a result there have been several jobs that he has recommended less than we actually would have wanted – but we trusted him so followed his recommendations. Had he recommended more (involved, quality, and expense) we would have gladly agreed and it would have positively impacted our family’s quality of life. It would have also improved his quality of life as he would have had more work and income. This would have been a win-win situation!

My handyman situation taught me a lesson. I don’t always know exactly what all of my patients and practice members want. For that reason I invite them to participate in my care at absolutely the highest level. Only by being invited can they make a choice. Does everyone want to participate in this way? Of course not. Should everyone have the opportunity to choose? You bet!

Some people truly just want their pain or symptom to go away. In my experience, this percentage is very small – most people are only concerned with symptoms because of what they may mean to their present and future function, relationships, ability to contribute and quality of life. In these cases it is easy to see that the pain or symptom is actually a signal or calling for them to develop new awareness, actions and or structures.

Most people are not aware that they can use their health challenges as a springboard to a greater quality of life – much like a scholastic, career or athletic challenge can help us find the best in ourselves. We simply have not been taught this is possible.

Long-term chiropractic care has shown to reduce hospital admissions, pharmaceutical expenditures and surgeries – Click HERE for abstract. The ability to repair DNA has also been shown to improve with regular chiropractic care – with obvious massive implications for overall health – Click HERE to see.

Research into long-term Network care shows that in addition to positive physical outcomes such as symptom changes, posture improvement and increased immunity. It also demonstrates people develop a greater ability to handle stress, have more satisfying relationships, make healthier choices, and enjoy ever increasing quality of life.

Perhaps most profound, people receiving Network care TRIPLED the wellness benefits of the exercise, diet, and health promoting activities! Click HERE to read.

With any choice, it is essential that you know what is possible before making a decision. This is why we invite everyone to look at what their highest vision for their health and life is – and then support them in achieving it regardless of what that vision is.

One of the most important determinants of success in any endeavour is focus. We tend to attract what we focus on and the more we focus, the more it grows. Our success requires focus. This is why it is important that the doctors, coaches, advisors and fiduciaries we work will possess a focus that is consistent with the results we are looking to achieve. When what WE want is very different from our doctor’s (or any other advisor) the outcome often leads to frustration, disappointment, and failure.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to give a lecture to trainer Tom Irvine of Quest Personal Training Studio’s fitness class at St. Lawrence College. I have been speaking and demonstrating NSA for his classes for years. This time, I chose to speak less about what I do and more about the different approaches in chiropractic and what the differences were. After all, I did not want to turn a potential future chiropractor off of the profession if they were not personally interested in MY focus in practice.

With so many techniques and systems within chiropractic, the best way to break down our differences was where we place most of our focus. I defined 4 distinct groups:

1. Pain and symptom treatment focus. These chiropractors aim to ‘fix’ your pain and symptoms and do so as quickly as possible. Success is defined as the pain going away and treatment is focused on achieving that goal.

2. Pain and symptom prevention focus. These doctors feel that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so focus more on stopping problems before they happen. This may be in the form of regular ‘maintenance’ care and prescribed exercises. Success is a lower frequency of problems in the future. A doctor in this group may sacrifice the quick ‘fix’ of a symptom to ensure an injury more fully heals to prevent a future flare up.

3. Optimizing function focus. While pain and symptoms may be addressed, the focus is on getting your body functioning at its’ optimum. This may include optimal movement, immune system function, and in the chiropractor’s case definitely optimal nerve function. This doctor recognizes that pain and symptoms can be a part of a well functioning body so will not treat them at the expense of the whole. Often, these chiropractors are “subluxation-based” and recommend regular check-ups to ensure being in tip-top shape.

4. Evolving strategy focused. These doctors recognize that a living human is not a static entity and that there is an opportunity for everyone to develop new strategies for health and life. They know that once function is optimized, there is still another level to go. There is no ceiling to our potential for awareness, adaptability, resourcefulness, vitality, and happiness. The goal of these chiropractors is to help their practice members develop never-ending refinement. They also recognize that new physical strategies can impact our emotional, mental and spiritual lives. These doctors see pain and symptoms as a calling for more awareness and new strategies, not something to do battle with.

Of course, most chiropractors do not fit into only one of these categories. They do, however have one in which they place the most focus. One is not better than the other but they will definitely get different results. In my experience, when you start to take care of optimal function and evolving strategies, the symptoms often take care of themselves.

The great thing is that you get to choose which one fits best for you. A great way to find out what your doctor’s focus is to ask them what their highest vision for you in care. This also applies to any other coach or advisor you employ (a financial advisor focused on getting you out of bankruptcy will get very different results than one focussing on building your legacy for generations to come)!

Make sure your doctor’s focus is consistent with yours. What I look for in any coach is someone who is a little bit beyond me. Someone who will stretch me just beyond my comfort zone and makes sure I am learning something new. If you can identify your health focus above I would encourage you to choose a doctor 1 level past it.

“The more presence and congruence you possess, the less force is required in any endeavour”

–       Dr. Donny Epstein

No Practice is An Island

Gault Family Chiropractic used to essentially function as an island. While I did refer patients to other health practitioners and even chiropractors and received some referrals from them, that was the extent of my interactions with other professionals. They did their thing and I did mine.

This has all changed recently. I work with trainers, a physiotherapist and a nurse practitioner as a part of Project Strong. A group of health practitioners in Cornwall has been started where we can regularly communicate with each other. I recently had a great lunch with one of our newer chiropractors. I also recently began to meet with a group of “regular” chiropractors twice a month for conference calls. Finally, as I have become more involved in Olympic weightlifting I have been exposed to many injury and mobility interventions. Yes, I have stepped out of my shell!

WHY?

Being exposed to the often great work that inspires some great people has really forced me to examine why it is I do what I do. And that is a very good thing! Why do I choose to provide NSA and SRI? Why not do any of the other interventions that get some great results?

Last week I was watching a video with one of the trainers I lift weights with. In it, the practitioner was using a strange little device on a top level lifter and within seconds had drastically increased both his range of motion and strength. Very cool! This was a great service to that man at that time. I had to question myself, “Why don’t I do that?”

Cool…But!

The fact is that while I did find it cool, it just did not inspire me that much. I found myself thinking, “Who cares? What difference will this make tomorrow or next week? What difference will this really make in his life?” Understand that this is not a criticism for what was done; it just did not inspire ME to want to do it.

Inspiration

This brought me to the next question. What DOES inspire me? What is it about NSA and SRI that motivates me to travel the world attending seminars, stay up late writing articles, donate hours of my time giving workshops and exclusively provide this care in my office? Here is what I came up with.

Got Awareness?

The first quality that inspires me is increased awareness. If an intervention does not include greater awareness I am simply not interested. In any area of life, if I have a challenge I want to learn from it. Same goes for health. When we become more aware it allows us to learn which means that we take something into our future that will be of benefit to us. Unfortunately, most health interventions either do nothing to support greater awareness or even worse actively decrease it. A pain killer essentially dumbs you to what is actually happening and in this case ignorance can be bliss. NSA and SRI only work with an increase in awareness first.

Sustainability

Next, I am inspired by sustainability. The reason I first sought out NSA as a chiropractic practice was that the way I was previously applying chiropractic was not creating sustainable changes. If you have to keep doing the same thing to get the same result (or worse) the care is not sustainable. The whole idea of getting fixed until you get messed up again is based on a non-sustainable model. NSA and SRI create sustainable results because with each level of care there is a new and refined learning that occurs. This is also why a person who has achieved intermediate or advanced care strategies can come back into care after years away and very quickly take over from where they left off.

The Wholism Shebang!

Finally, I am inspired by wholism. What I mean by this is that the impact is not only physical, but also benefits the mind, emotions and spirit. Often people will sacrifice one for the other. While NSA and SRI are applied purely through the physical body they are done so in a way that produces a myriad of mental, emotional, stress, and quality of life benefits.

Your Turn

Having gone through this exercise after practicing NSA for over 10 years I highly encourage that you do the same for the different areas of your life. Why do you do what you do? In my experience people who do the things that excite and inspire them are not only very happy, but are usually the best in their respective fields. This is certainly true of chiropractors and other health professionals.

Choose Your Tools Wisely

The other thing I realized is that what I do is not really about NSA and SRI. They are merely the tools I use to achieve the results that inspire me. If I ever find another tool that is more effective at doing so I would be happy to change WHAT I do. As far as I can tell right now though, there is nothing even close to NSA and Dr. Epstein’s reorganizational healing modalities at creating the changes that get me up in the morning and keep me awake at night.

Click here for free access to the JACM paper outlining Dr. Epstein’s latest models on health and healing.

Click HERE to view a video of Dr. Epstein demonstrating a Level 1 NSA entrainment.

“To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

–       Roger Ebert

The Deaf Janitor…NOT

Sunday, Sept. 18^th marks the 116^th birthday of the unique, colourful and amazing profession of chiropractic. In Davenport, Iowa in 1895, D.D. Palmer – from Port Perry, Ontario – delivered the first chiropractic adjustment to Harvey Lillard.

Mr. Lillard who was the deaf janitor in the building Palmer had his magnetic healing practice housed, told him he lost his hearing many years earlier after he had stooped and felt a pop in his upper back. Upon examination, D.D. found a misalignment in Lillard’s spine and adjusted it. Shortly after the adjustment, Mr. Lillard’s hearing was restored! A profession was born. Interestingly enough, when I was very early in practice I had a patient who had been deaf in one ear for about 45 years have full hearing restored after 2 visits.

Naturally enough, Palmer thought he had found the cure for deafness (he didn’t) and over time developed his philosophy relating the spine to nervous system function and human health and expression. Today, chiropractic is the second largest non medical healing profession in North America.

A Profession Misunderstood

Chiropractic is perhaps the most misunderstood of all of the healthcare professions. Much of this is because it comes from vitalistic principles in what is predominantly a mechanistic world. Because chiropractors work with the spine, the assumption is that we are back and neck pain doctors. While many chiropractors choose to practice in this model, there is so much more to it.

Back Pain, Neck Pain, DNA Repair

In addition to helping people in pain, chiropractors help people to heal more effectively, which helps the person regardless of their diagnosis. Research has demonstrated that people receiving regular long term NSA care have better physical and emotional health, adapt to stress more effectively and show greater and greater degrees of quality of life. Another study of long-term chiropractic patients indicated that they had an enhanced ability to repair DNA!

Our Time is Now

The chiropractic profession has had a very interesting and sometimes troubled history. It is no secret that we have entered some troubled times in our society. It is my belief that in all areas of culture we will require and seek solutions that are honouring, sustainable and long-lasting. In some ways, chiropractic has been ahead of its’ time for the past 116 years. Perhaps it is just what the world needs in a big way starting now. Time will tell.

I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing profession. Living and working slightly outside of the popular culture is a small price to pay for the miracles – small and big – every single day.

Chiropractic IS health insurance – premiums small, dividends LARGE.

–       B.J. Palmer, Developer of Chiropractic

We have confirmed our next Clear Day (our 14^th) will be held on Sat. Oct. 15^th in Martintown. To join us on this day of breakthroughs and transformation, see Adele or Cindy for an application. More info to come soon.