How Being Sick Helped Me

January 11, 2016 by

I am writing this article sitting in my home having missed my second day of work in a row due to being sick. This is a big deal because since opening my practice in 2000 (that is 16 years ago) I had only missed one half of a day sick prior to this week.

Save for a couple of serious illnesses as a child this is the ‘sickest’ I can ever remember being. Up until a few hours ago there would have been no way I could have written this article because I could neither drag myself off of the couch nor think straight. The strange thing about this experience is that while I am annoyed about missing work and disappointed that I allowed myself to become vulnerable to the illness, I am actually grateful and know it will have a lasting positive impact on my life and health.

Why would anybody feel gratitude towards being so sick they thought they were going to die (not really, but it sure felt like it)?

The first reason is that this sickness has me completely motivated to make some positive changes in my lifestyle. This requires the individual to not see themselves as the victim for being sick. This is rare in our society and that is too bad. I recently wrote an article about how to stay healthy over the holidays and while I generally followed my own advice (continued doing the good, healthy stuff) I went a bit too far with late nights and unhealthy food and drink. I tempted fate and I got burned.

The positive spin on this was that I was planning on changing some things regarding my health in the New Year. After the experience of the last few days there is now no way I will not make it happen. On the other hand, had I perceived this illness as bad luck caused by germ A or virus B there would be less impetus to change. Pain is a wonderful motivator and if you are going to experience it you might as well use it.

The second thing I am grateful for is that it gave me the opportunity to do absolutely NOTHING. In fact it forced me to do nothing as I could barely read, let alone move.

I live a lifestyle that moves pretty fast – work, seminars, coaching, and two kids in multiple sports. We take vacations but even then we are either doing activities or I am plowing through books I don’t have time to read the rest of the year.

The last couple of days I spent most of my time doing nothing. Just lying in my bed or on the couch. While it isn’t fun to feel like crap you learn a lot when you literally cannot do anything. Without actively pursuing that line of thinking I became much clearer on what I wanted my life to look and feel like and I am much more motivated to get going on that life.

It was also kind of nice to sit on the couch with my family watching a crappy movie without thinking about all the stuff I have to do – and that NEVER happens in my normal life.

 

Being sick is not fun but it can provide you with value when it occurs. If you don’t see yourself as a victim you can take the experience and turn it into something great. This idea of taking the experience of pain and turning it into progress can be the greatest concept to embrace in making 2016 the best year of your life. I will be expanding on that idea in the next article.

 

Happy New Year!

Go Deeper To Get Better…or Else You’re Doomed! Part 2

July 31, 2013 by

In the first article in this series we introduced the idea of going deeper to get better – meaning that when faced with a problem or challenge, successful people look beyond what is on the surface and address the deeper underlying cause.

As a health practitioner I have certainly recognized this pattern in people over the past 12+ years in my office. This model of success is also evident when looking at finances, career, sports and hobby performance, relationships and literally every other important part of our lives.

The benefit to going deeper is that we actually get to the bottom of what is causing our problem, leading to a more sustainable and long-term solution. The ADDED benefit is that addressing underlying causes will often have an impact on other secondary problems we did not necessarily know were related, resulting in an overall increase in our quality of life.

Please understand that I am not making it wrong to patch up a surface problem – crisis do arise from time to time that must be handled. I think we can all agree though that crisis management is hardly a great way to go about our health, finances and relationships.

 

So, in this article, I wanted to give some examples of going deeper in order to make it more applicable for all of us.

Let’s say someone finds themselves in a financial crisis. They are in debt and are having trouble making ends meet. What would be a superficial patch to this problem? They could buy a lottery ticket hoping to win enough to pay their debt. They could file for bankruptcy, effectively wiping out that debt, or perhaps they have a wealthy parent or relative who could pay it for them.

All of these options would take care of the surface problem (that they owe money) and depending on the circumstance may be a good short-term option. I think we can all see that none of these would really address the underlying cause though and would not be enough to create a long-term solution.

Going deeper would require looking at what caused this unmanageable debt. Was it poor spending habits that need to be corrected? Perhaps poor investing advice? Perhaps business or employment conditions that led to a loss of income? There are many possibilities that may be addressed to truly correct the problem and if we don’t look past just paying the debt it will never happen.

 

Another secondary condition I hear about frequently is back pain. Because chiropractors have such a great reputation (lol!) usually by the time people consult with me they have tried many other products and services for their pain. Most or all of these potential solutions focused on the secondary issue (the pain). Some worked for a while and some didn’t but the reality is that it kept coming back.

My job is to look deeper. What is underlying the secondary condition? Why does it keep coming back? What must shift in order to get a sustainable change? This is why people undergoing a program of Neurospinal Optimization in our office not only get great changes with back pain, but also notice results with other secondary conditions. In fact, as their spine and nervous system become more optimized they actually find it easier to go deeper themselves and become less reliant on our care.

 

Hope these real life examples helped. Next article we will look at what it means to be…..DOOMED!

Are You Winning The Game of Life – Part 2

May 4, 2012 by

In the last article we discovered that by focusing on symptoms instead of health we can actually end up sick, miserable, frustrated and even dead before our time. We also identified the 6 keys to winning the game of life. This week we will continue to explore those keys to a great life.

Key #2 – Being able to do what you enjoy! Having time for leisure and having the ability to choose how we spend our time are crucial to our mental and physical well-being. Active leisure can be divided into 3 categories: social leisure with friends and family, cognitive leisure focusing on mental stimulation, and physical leisure including sports and exercise.

While most people recognize how important these are, the reality is that our leisure time is disappearing. A study demonstrated that Canadians are spending an average of 1.5 hours less on leisure in 2005 compared to 1998.

What was the outcome of this? In 2005…35% of Canadians were overweight, while 24% were obese. 47% of Canadians were considered inactive compared to 23% active! Can you see where this trend will lead? You cannot win the game of life if you are fat and inactive.

Key #3 – Feeling Energized and Passionate! Here is some good news – a whopping 92% of Canadians say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives! Yet, according the same source, 1 in 5 Canadians were taking antidepressants in 2004 and suicide rates are at an all-time high.

What makes you energized and passionate? What are you yearning to do but can’t find the time for? Sports, hobbies, family time? What is stopping you?

The problem is in what takes up our time. Over 50% of workers say they often spend 12 hour days on work related duties.  The biggest concern among young workers is not having enough time for both their family AND work responsibilities and 40% of employees work overtime or bring work home EVERY week. The fact is that we are spending more time at work and less time enjoying our lives.

Key #4 – Nurturing and Fulfilling Relationships. Where would you rather spend your time – work or home? Since 1969, family time for a working couple has shrunk by an average of 22 hours per week. 88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life and 64% of family caregivers are employed – most full time.

Do you have balance between work and life? Most don’t – 58% of Canadians report “overload” associated with their many roles. What is the result? Employees who consider most of their days to be stressful were over 3 times more likely to suffer a major depressive episode!

That isn’t all. About half of all workers feel that stress is affecting their interpersonal and sexual relationships. Couples who are stressed have a less active sex life and it is known that low sex marriages have a high probability of separation within 12 months.

It is clear that this lack of balance is a growing concern. Both workers and students rate work-life balance as their top concern and consider it more important than money, career advancement, or location.

In addition, this stress is affecting our physical health which can place even more strain on a relationship. Work stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than any other life stressor. Employees with the highest amounts of workplace stress suffer from over 3 times the rate of cardiovascular problems, over 5 times the rate of colorectal cancer, and up to 3 times the rate of back pain. 81% of people on earth say their jobs are affecting their health and health expenditures are 50% higher for workers with a high level of stress.

This problem has gotten so bad we are getting violent. 14% of people felt like striking a co-worker in the past year, 25% felt like screaming due to job stress, 9% are aware of an assault of violent act in their workplace, 18% had experienced a threat or intimidation in the past year, and 10% said they work in an environment where physical violence has occurred because of job stress. Are these the relationships we want where we spend such a large part of our lives?

This really becomes an issue when we bring it home with us. How is your patience with your children? How about your spouse? How are you dealing with all of the people you interact with such as in stores, at the bank, and on the road? Have you noticed that you have less patience lately?

Why is this important? These stresses are not just a concept. It is real and is damaging to our mental health, relationships and is costing us in the quality and quantity of our years.

If that doesn’t motivate you to get this handled, it is also costing you money. Stress means a loss of work and money. Disability claims have risen significantly and the area of largest increase is in mental/nervous conditions. The cost for our country was an estimated $7.9 billion in 1998 alone and about $6.3 billion was spent by individuals on uninsured services and taking time off work due to depression and distress.

Absenteeism due to stress has increased by over 300% since 1995 and over 50% of work days are stress related.

Perhaps this will motivate us to spend more time on what is truly important in our lives.

Next article we will continue with the final 2 keys to winning the game of life, and introduce the traps that most people fall into that lead to them to failure.

 

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