While I had planned to move on to a different topic, I had an interesting conversation last week that prompted this article. I think that looking at this example of weight-loss may aid in helping many people shift their focus when it comes to their health and therefore avoid being doomed in that area.

I was speaking to a friend (who is extremely fit) at the gym who was telling me about their sister. The sister has been over-weight and unhealthy her whole life and had really struggled with weight-loss. My friend was very happy to report that her sister had begun a group program (which I am not criticizing here) focused on weight loss and had made more progress than she had in a long time. The program included exercise and coaching on diet – both great things for your health.

After acknowledging her success and asking a few more questions, I said to my friend, “The thing is that if a person is solely focused on weight-loss…they are completely doomed (only I used a harsher word than doomed).” My friend’s jaw dropped and I could tell that she thought I was a bit crazy!

Here is the thing. If the sole focus is weight-loss (and I am not saying that it is in this program), what is the best possible outcome for this person? That’s right, to lose the targeted amount of weight. Total success would be reaching the target weight. Most people won’t get there but the ultra-successful and most dedicated likely will.

What now? What happens after all of that weight that had been a cause of suffering in her life is gone? Now she has to focus her efforts in keeping it off! The elephant is still in the room and now she won’t even have the motivation of the pain of being fat to keep her in line. Even though she is now thin, she will still be controlled by the weight that she does not want to put back on. This is suffering and this is a lifetime of doom – unless she can learn to shift her focus.

I completely acknowledge the power and value of starting the journey using weight-loss as a motivator to get you started. However, if this focus does not change quickly, it results in the yo-yo doom we see so many people struggle with.

What if the focus instead shifted to having amazing and sustainable energy and vitality? That focus could certainly include weight-loss, but would provide so much more. How about to age gracefully so I can lift weights with my grandchildren? Do you see how weight-loss creates a prison, where a shift in focus creates freedom?

I see the same dilemma in health care. People focus on being pain or symptom free. First of all, some pain is a necessary part of life and being completely pain free for any length of time is impossible so you are failure before you even start!

Also, pain and symptoms are always SECONDARY to something else (like being overweight is secondary to something else) and focusing on what is secondary won’t help you address what is PRIMARY. Fighting pain leads you to a lifetime of fighting pain. It will never end. DOOM.

Instead, why not focus on creating great health, performing and functioning well and expressing life to the fullest. Will you have less pain if you do that? Very likely and when symptoms do inevitably show up, you won’t care so much.

In our office, we focus on Neurospinal Optimization. As the spine and nervous system are optimized a whole host of secondary conditions improve or disappear – often some conditions that the patient did not even tell me about.

I encourage you to implement this way of thinking and living to any and every important part of your life. Parenting, relationships, finances, career, etc. Life is too short to live in our own self imposed prisons and it is a lot more fun to be free.

If you would like to learn more about how we help people in a fun and comfortable setting, you are welcome to attend one of our Introductory Presentations on select Monday and Tuesday evenings. Phone the office for details.

While we are on the topic of weight loss, check out this interesting article and pictures comparing the average man’s body in different countries around the world by clicking HERE.

In the final article of this series we will shift the focus away from being DOOMED to a lifetime of frustrating secondary conditions and worsening health and onto the HOW of going deeper to get better. While many of you found the last article rather negative, I disagree. Once we are AWARE of what is not working, we now have a choice to do something different in order to obtain a better result. What could be more positive than that?

The first key in Going Deeper to Get Better is to begin changing the questions we ask of ourselves and our doctors when faced with a challenge. This definitely takes some practice as our habitual questions are usually so ingrained that we aren’t even aware of them.

Let’s say you wake up one morning with a nasty headache or backache. What questions do you start asking? Most people would say, “What is wrong with my ___? What is wrong with me? How do I get rid of this pain?” Or some combination of those.

Now, what is the best possible outcome from these questions? The best outcome would be some kind of treatment that would successfully get rid of the pain for the time being. Seems great except….we now know that this will eventually lead us to….DOOM.

What are some different questions we could ask that will start the process of going deeper? The possibilities are endless, but some examples are: “What is going on here? Why is this pain showing up now? What could this condition be related to? What have I been doing that may have contributed to this?”

These questions move us away from ‘fixing’ the secondary condition and towards seeing what is behind it. This is the EXACT purpose of pain and symptoms – to get us to pay attention, look deeper and then make a change!

These questions may lead us to make some lifestyle changes that will not only help the pain, but make us healthier and happier. They may help us to discover and then address a primary condition behind the secondary that will have a profound impact on our well-being. Perhaps we will become aware of a pattern of behaviour or thought that has been having a negative impact on our quality of life.

Can you see that a lifetime of asking these questions will lead to better awareness, better choices and better outcomes?

Naturally, this approach can be used in other area of your life. If your child (or spouse!) are screaming, you can turn up the TV volume or dig deeper to see what is going on. If a student is getting bad grades they can cheat on the next test or develop some new strategies. If you can’t make your rent you can try to find the $ you need, or make whatever changes are necessary to be sure to have it next month and the months after that.

Make going deeper a new habit. Ask better questions and you will get better answers. I promise that it will change your life.

At Nexus Chiropractic we focus on looking deeper and we help our patients to learn how to do so as well. An excellent resource is our complimentary workshop that we present every month at the office. The next one is Sept. 17^th at 7pm. Just phone our office to reserve a seat.