Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Furnace; continued

Welcome! If you're just tuning in, this is Chapter Three of a serialized story. To read the story in sequence, scroll down September 28 and start there. Enjoy!

Chapter Three
The Specialist


The following morning the friends were once again gathered to discus matters of most pressing concern.
“How is your furnace?”
“Well, the furnace specialist came and looked at our furnace. Most impressive! He wears a white coat and an instrument around his neck that he uses to listen to the inside of the furnace.”
“Most impressive indeed! Tell us more.”
“First he used the instrument to listen to the inside of the furnace. Then he shined a very expensive flashlight into certain parts of the furnace. After that he poked his finger into various furnace openings, and then he took samples of various furnace fluids so he could perform some very expensive tests.
Most of those gathered were quite impressed.
“OOOH!”
“AAAH!”
“Very impressive!”
“Yes, most impressive,” said the man with the furnace. “It seems our furnace is suffering from a condition known as, ‘Malfunctioning Furnace Syndrome.” The furnace specialist gave us several strong chemicals which he said will make our furnace as good as new.”
And again, most were quite impressed.
“OOOH!”
“AAAH!”
“Where would the world be without modern furnace specialists?”
One, of course, did not share the others’ enthusiasm. “Aren’t you afraid these strong chemicals might harm your furnace or other parts of your house? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to just check your circuit breakers first?”
“Of course not!” was the indignant reply. “This furnace specialist is very wise. He would never give our furnace anything that could cause harm. Besides, checking circuit breakers couldn’t possibly help anything with such an important sounding name as, ‘Malfunctioning Furnace Syndrome.’”

Will the furnace specialist solve all of our friend's problems? And what of this strange "circuit breaker" fellow? Find out tomorrow in Chapter Four; The Nut...

Monday, September 29, 2008

The Furnace; continued...

Welcome! If you're just tuning in, this is Chapter Two of a serialized story. To read the story in sequence, scroll down to yesterday's post and start there. Enjoy!

Chapter Two
The Plan…

The next morning the friends were gathered again to discuss matters of great importance.
“How is your furnace?” asked one.
“It still isn’t working. We are very, very cold. I have decided to consult with a furnace specialist.”
And one asked again, “Have you had your circuit breakers checked?”
“No, no,” was the answer, delivered with an air of confidence. “This is most definitely a furnace problem, not a circuit breaker problem. This furnace specialist is one of the most respected in his field and he has a very large ad in the yellow pages. We are confident that he will be able to fix our furnace.”

Will our friend's furnace soon be back to normal? Or...? Find out tomorrow in Chapter Three; The Specialist...

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Your body is your home. Have you had your circuit breakers checked recently?

The Furnace

This is an amusing story I first wrote when I was a Chiropractic student. It uses your home electrical system as a metaphor for your health. I decided it would be fun to serialize it all week in this blog

Chapter One
The Problem


Several friends had gathered one morning, as they did every morning, and were discussing matters of great importance. One had a very annoying problem: “The furnace in my home is not working and it is causing my family great discomfort.”
“What are you going to do about it?” asked one friend.
“I’m sure it is nothing,” was the reply. “We will just ignore it and it will probably go away on its own.”
All of the friends nodded and agreed that this was wise.
All, that is, except one. “Have you thought of having your circuit breakers checked?” he said. “If one of your circuit breakers has tripped, it might be causing interference with the electrical supply to the furnace. It you put the circuit breaker back into place, it will restore the electrical supply, and your furnace will once again work properly. Your family will be warm again!”
Incredulously, the man with the furnace problem replied, “Circuit breakers? How foolish! The circuit breakers are in the garage and the furnace is in the basement. A problem in the garage could never cause a problem with something in the basement.”
And the other friends shook their heads and snickered.
“Circuit breakers? What a strange fellow.”
“Yes, very strange indeed.”

What will become of our friend's furnace? Find out tomorrow in Chapter Two; The Plan...

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Are you feeling well...really? Or are you tolerating?

"I'm feelin' great, Doc."
I hear this all the time. And often it isn't the truth.

It's not that people are intentionally untruthful with me. More so, they are being untruthful with themselves. People come to me in pain, then after a few adjustments, some decide that they don't need to come in anymore because they're "feeling fine." Really, though, they're just back to the level of pain they are used to tolerating. They have been living with pain -- and limited potential -- for so long that they have forgotten what is like to really feel and be well.

Our society's approach to health and healthcare has become so pain, disease and symptom oriented that after symptoms are gone (or back to where they were), many people leave it at that. It's kind of like having a fuzzy signal on favorite your radio station and not bothering to tune it in better.

As I have said so many times before in this blog, the most important aspect of healthcare is to help you maximize your human potential. Healthy habits and a wellness lifestyle are valuable regardless of your state of health. Whether you are sick, in pain, or well, it's important to incorporate things into your life that will take you to the next level of vibrant health. In other words, tune in your life, then crank it up!

So...are you feeling well...really? If not, what are you going to do about it?
And, if you truly are feeling well, what are you going to do about that...?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Empower Your Potential -- Not Your Problems

I have used that quote a couple of times before. It's one of my very favorite quotes, with an important message. This short, inspiring video of a beautiful and perfect high school athlete illustrates the point better than anything I can say.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Live your life as a best seller – not as a rough draft.

There is one key process necessary to transform a rough draft into a best seller…

Refinement!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently in the process of putting the finishing touches on my soon-to-be-published book. I actually “finished” the book a couple of years ago. And it was pretty darn good. I thought it was great, but it wasn’t…yet. In truth, I later realized, it was just good.

Any writer will tell you that when you finish writing a book, you have really only just begun. After I finished my first draft, I had a lot of very smart people read and comment on my manuscript. They gave me some insightful, no holds barred feedback that enabled me to upgrade my manuscript to very good.

Refinement…

That was a year ago. Then it sat as I tried to find the perfect publisher for my sure fire blockbuster.

Since then, I have gone through somewhat of a spiritual awakening and entered into a new relationship. When Cricket and I had been together for a few months, she read my manuscript. She sold me that the writing didn’t sound like me any more. I realized that my book had not yet caught up with my life. So we both went through it cover to cover and wrote a complete revision.

More refinement…

Now we’re going through the process yet again. If you were to look at the revised manuscript today, you would see hundreds more handwritten markings and notes – on every page – from beginning to end.

Even more refinement...

The end product will be a book that is great!

Writing and refining a book is a wonderful metaphor for life and health. After I “finished” my book for the first time, what I really had was a first draft. It was pretty good, but still had a long way to go to become great. But…the potential to become great was there.

Your life today is but a draft of what it has the potential to become. There are opportunities every day to make refinements to your life and health: Improving your nutrition…exercising…regular chiropractic adjustments…more fun…deepening your spiritual practice…the list goes on. So today, decide on one refinement you can make, then follow through. As time unfolds, continue making more and more refinements.

You can live a pretty good life as a draft, or you can work toward a “best seller” life. The choice is yours.