Make one commitment to yourself today – just one – just for today.

This photo is of the breathtaking view of the Cabinet Mountains from South Chilco Peak in North Idaho.
(I made a commitment, and traveled to the summit, one step at a time!)

The type of commitment you make is important. (More on that below…)

As I said in last week’s blog, the most effective way to make profound changes in your life is to go one step at a time.

Just one step at a time.

So today, take one step. Make one commitment – just one – without even committing to do it tomorrow, much less every day for the rest of your life. Make it an easy step.

Ideas:
Eat more green veggies for dinner.
Uprade one food purchase from non-organic to organic.
Spend more quality time with your kids, your partner, your pet or even yourself.
Go out for a nice walk, run, bike ride, swim or whatever you enjoy.
Meditate or pray.
Drink as much water as you know you should be drinking.
Go back to the yoga class you’ve been missing.
Read something that's been waiting in your "gotta read" stack for awhile.
Go out and play!

Now a note about what type of commitment to make to yourself. Notice that all of the items on the list above have one thing in common: They all add value to your life. None of them are about quitting, cutting down or avoiding.

My commitment for today: to enjoy a longer yoga session than usual.

It's that simple!

Tomorrow, make another commitment – to yourself – just one – just for tomorrow. Make it a commitment that adds value to your life. It can be the same as today, or something new. You get to choose. But don’t even think about it until tomorrow.

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, energy healer, lightworker
Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint, Idaho

PS: Remember to visit www.ObysWisdom.com to check out my award winning new e-book. There are some great limited-time-only bonuses AND you can download a free excerpt.

You can go anywhere one step at a time...

This is a picture of the most recent lofty peak I reached, one step at a time.
www.ObysWisdom.com

Sometimes we have a goal or desire in life and set to work to achieve it. We are excited about what lies ahead for us and we know that we just have to set an intention, take some action, and - poof! - what we desire falls into our lap! Easy, right?

Sometimes...

But not always.

Achieving a goal can take longer - sometimes a LOT longer - than we expect, but as long as we keep taking the next step, we WILL arive.

There are two important things to keep in mind.

1. The road is usually not as smooth and straight as you expect.

I reached a major milestone this week. I just launched my new e-book: Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Guide to Health and Well-being. When I came up with the idea, I thought I could complete the book in just two weeks. That was over 4 years ago. And I also knew that my idea was SO great that as soon I sent a book proposal to my chosen publisher, they would love it so much that they would snap it up and pay me a juicy advance. So I mailed off the proposal...and got it back, returned to sender, unopened, with a note scrawled on the outside of the envelope: "No unsolicited manuscripts accepted."

Sigh!

I could have given up right then, but I didn't. I kept taking steps. On the way, I took wrong turns, got lost, hit dead ends...everything you can expect on such an adventure. But I just kept taking steps, taking steps, taking steps...

And now, Oby's Wisdom is published by a real publisher!


2. Sometimes the destination you reach is different (and even better) than the one you planned.

At one point on my journey, I felt like I had exhausted all options. I wasn't moving. I couldn't see any new paths to try. At that point, I was invited to help start a new publishing company with several other authors. And now, I'm part owner of my own publishing company! Never foresaw that. And a couple of months ago, Oby's Wisdom won first place in the 2009 Idaho Writer's League nonfiction book contest. Never imagined that one, either. But here I am, an award winning author!


Whatever you want in life, go after it. Keep moving. Step by step. Keep your eyes open for new destinations. And always, take your next step!

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropracrot,energy healer, lightworker
Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint Idaho

From atop Mallard Peak, Idaho

Is the Swine Flu just a Self Fulfilling Prophesy?

Let me tell you a personal story about how words and thoughts can effect our physical bodies:

One morning, a couple of years ago, I was working on my computer, and I wasn't feeling very well. My son got up, got ready for work and walked out the door, saying he wasn't feeling well, either. The symptoms he described were the same as mine: a little bit of nausea, a bit headachy, some dizziness, and feeling quite lethargic. We had both been feeling that way for a couple of days. It occurred to me that, as best I could remember, those sounded like the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. I did a quick internet search and, yep, those were the symptoms. That HAD to be it. Why else would two otherwise healthy men be feeling like that? I immediately began to feel worse. I called the fire department and asked if they could come by and check my house for carbon monoxide. Then I went outside to get out of the danger zone. As soon as I got out into the fresh air I began to feel much better. Before long, a big ol'fire truck pulled up and three firefighters hopped out; one with a magic carbon monoxide detecting wand. They walked through the house, checking every nook and cranny, as well as my crawl space where my gas furnace is located. Nope...no CO. My abode was fresh as a daisy. One of them even checked the CO detector and found it to be in good working order. (I hadn't thought to do that.) I thanked these fine, brave public servants and went back inside feeling fine, and more than a little embarrased. I came to realize that I had been putting in some long hours and I was just run down. Same with my son. That's all there was to it.

The main point of the story is that my reading a set of symptoms on my computer screen, along with my preconceived suspicion that I may have CO poisoning, caused my symptoms to dramatically worsen almost immediately.

This illustrates the nocebo effect. The Nocebo efect is kind of like a reverse placebo effect, and causes a person to experience symptoms and other adverse effects based on their expectations. Nocebo, and not carbon monoxide, is what caused my nausea, headaches and dizziness to worsen on that morning.

Words are powerful. Consider how many times we have all heard the word, "pandemic," lately. We're being pummeled by it. We hear it on the news, in commercials, on the street, and even from our president. Is it unreasonable to suspect that, to a very significant degree, we are creating a pandemic with our consciousness alone? It's a possibility we all need to consider.

Because words are so powerful, I'll leave you with the same positive, empowering words I left you with last week:

You are beautiful and perfect.
Empower your potential, not your problems.
You are inherently healthy.

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, energy healer, lightworker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

You can't change. You can only hide or emerge.

This photo of a gorgeous wilderness sunrise on a smokey summer morning tells the tale of your life...

The darkness of night and the smoke from a distant forest fire made the towering pines, sparkling river and majestic mountains invisible to me only an hour before I took this photo. Still, although shrouded in darkness, they were there in all their splendor and it took only the light of dawn to reveal their beauty.

Vibrant health, joy, inner peace, abundance, wisdom, success and everything you could ever want are already a part of you. Perhaps they are veiled -- even hidden -- but they will always be there. Beauty and perfection are the real you. That can never change. You just need to decide whether you want to keep hiding, or emerge into the light.

(Photo taken in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness area about 6 years ago.)

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, energy healer, lightworker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Empower your potential, not your problems!

Two brothers— Bright Dwight and Silly Willy—had grown up together and decided it was time to leave the cozy hearth of their mother's and father's home, and make their own way in the world. They set out on an early spring morning and spent the days walking the byways and marveling at the beautiful mountains, forests and rivers of the surrounding countryside. As they traveled, Dwight and Willy shared their dreams, excited about the many possibilities that lay before them.

By and by, they came upon an old apple farmer who wanted to spend the rest of his days in leisure and offered to sell them his apple orchard. After a lively discussion and a good bit of friendly haggling, they struck a fair bargain, with each brother buying one half of the orchard.

Growing up, they had learned much about farming. Now, as the months passed, they tended their apple trees with skill and nurtured them with love. When the cool breezes of autumn arrived, both Dwight and Willy enjoyed abundant harvests and each expected to reap a handsome profit when they sold their delicious, juicy apples at the market.

The bustling village market was nearby, just on the other side of a deep, wide river that ran past the brothers’ orchards.

Willy viewed the river with great consternation, worrying about how he would ever be able carry his heavy load of apples across such a great obstacle. He loaded all of his fruit into large sacks and stepped into the flowing river, intent on swimming to the other side. Although he was a strong swimmer, his heavy load caused him to sink beneath the surface when he was still but a short distance from the bank. It took all of his strength to struggle, sputtering, back to the bank from which he had come. He tried time and again, always achieving the same result. Eventually, he used up all of his energy and fell, exhausted onto the ground.

“I give up,” he moaned. Willy cast a forlorn glance at the bustling market on the other side of the river. “This river is much too great an obstacle for me to cross with such a heavy load of apples. I guess I have no choice but to give up apple farming.It's not my fault and there's nothing I can do about it.”

Dwight had not even noticed his brother’s struggles. He had been busy building a boat.

To be continued next week...

Take the Next Step...

See that beautiful picture? It's not just of a magnificent mountaintop on a gorgeous day. Look closely and you'll notice a tiny speck at the top. That tiny speck is a person. In fact, it's me! I'm standing atop the Selkirk Crest way up north in the Panhandle of Idaho.

The view from the summit was one of the most amazing I have ever expeirenced. To the west lay sparkling blue Priest Lake. To the southeast stretched the vast, silent and mysterious Lake Pend Oreille, the largest and deepest lake in Idaho. Snaking its way to the east was the rugged and green Pack River Valley. The memory of that magnificent vista still gives me goosebumps!

It wasn't an easy trip. It took hours of bushwacking and boulder hopping before we made the summit. There was no trail to the top, so the route wasn't obvious. Some of the routes we tried didn't work. Several times we had to turn around, backtrack and try another route. The dead ends weren't "failures" because each of them presented their own backcountry beauty. Eventually, we made it to the top. We had an objective; we made a commitment and we kept going until we reached our mountaintop.

There are magnificent vistas awaiting you. Even if you have no idea how to get there, you always have one thing available to you: your next step!

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

(Photo credit: Chic Burge)

Your body is smart!

During a trip to India several years back, I visited an old fortress that had a large population of monkeys. Although the monkeys usually managed to tolerate the thousands of visiting tourists, sometimes—as I learned personally—they can become downright unfriendly. At one point, I ventured a bit too close to a female monkey who had a baby with her. She felt threatened and attacked me. Monkeys have sharp fingernails and the attack left me with several deep, bloody scratches on my forearm, not to mention a significantly elevated heart rate and just the slightest bit of shakiness.
What did I do to treat this potentially serious wound? Well, basically, nothing. No antiseptic or antibiotic ointment found its way to my cuts, nor did any bandage shield them. Afterwards, contrary to conventional medical wisdom, I chose not to get a tetanus shot. My scratches never got infected and they healed nicely with no scarring at all. My arm was able to heal without any outside intervention because...
My body is smart!
Your body is smart, too. Nature designed all of us to be healthy and vibrant. Nature’s ingenious design gave us an innate intelligence that we carry with us throughout our lives. When we are injured, it is the wisdom within, and not what we put on, that does the healing. It is our innate intelligence that allows us to heal, grow and thrive.
When the monkey attacked me, my innate intelligence initiated my fight or flight response, and my internal functions shifted gears instantaneously. My pupils dilated to make my vision more acute. My hearing and mental ability became more focused. My blood glucose concentration increased to give me a surge of energy, and more blood flowed to my muscles to give me a burst of strength so I could jump away. The blood supply to my digestive organs decreased. Digestion was not important at that moment. I had to get outta there!
As soon as the threat from the frightened monkey ceased to exist, innate intelligence allowed me to resume my normal mode of living. My muscles relaxed, my heart slowed back down and my digestive processes resumed. Thousands of internal functions that had so radically shifted just seconds earlier, gradually readjusted moment by moment, at exactly the right time, in precisely the right sequence. All of this happened within the space of just a few minutes and I did not even have to think about it.
Brilliant!

Until next time,
Doctor Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene,Idaho

First, add value.

This photo of a beautiful sunrise
is a perfect metaphor for today's thought.

Soft morning sunshine is illuminating the smoky wilderness rather than darkness being removed.

Life works the same way.

"I'm going to start eating more fruits and veggies," is more empowering than, "I gotta stop eating so much junk food."

"I've been wanting to learn to meditate. I feel like this is a good time to start," is more affirming than, "I need to stop stressing out so much."

"I'd like to get back to shooting hoops," is more fun than, "I'm going to quit watching so much TV."

There's something positive you've been wanting to add to your life. Today is a good day to start. Enjoy it!

Until next time,
Doctor Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene,Idaho

Chiropractic facilitates ALL healing.

Chiropractic has never healed anybody of anything.

Healing is a deep, complex process that includes your physical body, your emotions, your mind and your human spirit. All healing always includes all of these dimensions to some degree. Healing arts and practitioners can facilitate healing, but, ultimately, your healing is driven by the innate wisdom of your being. Chiropractic works with this wisdom at every level -- body, mind, emotions and spirit.

The people I serve in my practice fall across a broad spectrum of health. Most are perfectly healthy, many are in pain, some are on a journey with some sort of chronic disease. All are beautiful and perfect. And for each person, Chiropractic is integral to their healing and growth.

Reduce Consumption -- Improve Your Health.

Reduce, reuse and recycle -- great advice for taking care of our Mother Earth. It's also great for your health!

Last Thursday at my yoga class, my teacher, Chris, asked us each to make a personal commitment to helping the planet by reducing our consumption of something. She asked us to think of at least one specific thing we could reduce in our lives. As we meditated and reflected on her request, nothing came to me. I'm already pretty conscientious a about conserving. Still, I knew that there are ways that even the most scrupulous conserver can improve, so I left myself open to discoverig new ways I can reduce my own consumption. I knew something would come up, and it didn't take long. After my yoga class and a great trail run, I ran some errands on the way home. One errand was to a music store to buy a CD I've been wanting. At the checkout stand, I spied some delicious-looking dark chocolate bars, and--on impulse--I bought one. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but after all, I rationalized, I had already burned a lot of calories that morning.

Impulse consumption. Something I've found myself doing a lot of lately, and not something that I need to do at all. Eliminating this impulse buying is a small but effective way for me to reduce my consumption and improve my health at the same time.

Maximized Potential Evolves Through Continuous Refinement

I spent last Thursday examining colons.

Frankly, colons have never been of great interest to me so I never took the time to learn much about them. Now I realize that colons are important, even for a Chiropractor like me, so last Thursday was Colon Day for me. I devoted the day to learning as much as I could about colons, and scrutinizing as many as I could find.

I mentioned in a previous post that I am putting the finishing touches on my first book, Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Guide To Health and Well-being. I finished the first version of the book over a year ago but, as any writer will tell you, once you've "finished" a book, the work has only begun. Even with the first draft, I knew it was a special book. With every refinement, it is becoming better and better. By the time it is published, Oby's Wisdom! will be a truly remarkable book.

Over the past months, I have been focusing mostly on the content. One thing I've been putting off is checking my punctuation. I'm pretty good with periods, commas, dashes and the like, but I've never been all that great with colons. As I started scrutinizing my manuscript, it became glaringly obvious that I needed to tighten up my use of the colon. So I cracked open my Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers and honed my colon skills. It took hours, but in the end, it has really improved my manuscript.

As always, there's a health tie-in here. Refinements are always useful. Regardless of how healthy you may be, scrutinizing the details of your wellness lifestyle and making small but meaningful improvements -- nutrition, exercise, Chiropractic adjustments, spiritual awakening -- will allow you to continue to grow, improve and evolve for the rest of your life.

The Furnace; conclusion

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

Chapter Six (Conclusion)
The Genius…

The next morning, the friend with the malfunctioning furnace still was not present. The others shared most magnanimous concern for their absent friend and hoped he would be able to return soon. After the gathering broke up, one friend approached The Nut.
“I always thought that you only needed to check circuit breakers if you had a problem in the circuit breaker panel. Are you saying that circuit breakers can actually affect things in other parts of the house?”
“Of course they can. Circuit breakers affect the entire house. If one of them trips, there is interference with the power supply to everything controlled by that circuit breaker. This makes it impossible for the house to function at its highest potential.”
“Can checking circuit breakers actually alleviate problems such as our friend’s ‘Malfunctioning Furnace Syndrome?”
“If the problem is caused by a tripped circuit breaker, then turning it back on will solve the furnace problem. If not, it won’t. But the beauty of checking circuit breakers is not in fixing or repairing malfunctions. It is very important to check all of your circuit breakers regularly to make sure there is no interference with the power that runs your house. This maintains your house at its highest potential.”
“Why do I need to have my circuit breakers checked so often? Why can’t I just wait until I have a problem?”
“Many problems are not evident when they occur. If your furnace stops working, you know that right away. But what if your smoke alarm stops working? You might not know that until your house burns down. Checking your circuit breakers is more than just fixing what’s wrong with your house. It’s about taking care of want is right.”
“Wow!” said the friend. “That’s so logical and simple. You’re not a nut at all. Why, you’re a genius! I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t have their circuit breakers checked regularly.”
“Neither can I,” sighed The Genius.
“I sure hope our friend has his circuit breakers checked before it’s too late.”
“So do I…So do I.”

Have you had your family’s circuit breakers checked lately?

The Furnace; continued...

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

Chapter Five
The Slippery Slope…

The next morning, the friends again gathered to discuss matters of grand consequence. But one was missing.
“Where is our friend with the broken furnace?” asked one.
“Malfunctioning furnace,” corrected another, wagging his finger.
“Yes, yes, of course, malfunctioning. Where is he?”
“It seems the strong chemicals have caused many problems. Paint is peeling, pipes are rusting and there is a big stain in the carpet. The furnace specialist has consulted with several other leading furnace specialists. They have decided to use some special tools to cut open the furnace to look for the problem. They might have to remove the furnace altogether.”
“That sounds risky”
“Oh, but these are the finest furnace specialists available. And the family has tried EVERYTHING. This may be their ONLY hope.”
“It sounds like our friend and his family are sliding headlong down a slippery slope, observed The Nut. “Why on Earth would they want to remove the furnace?”
“Because it isn’t working properly.”
To which The Nut replied, “Will it work any better after they remove it?”

Is the Nut really a nut? And what does all of this mean to you? Find out in tomorrow's gripping conclusion, Chapter Six; The Genius...

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...

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...

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.

I have a cure for the common cold!

It's true; I do. So far, it has never failed. It has worked 100% of the time.

The cure...? It's the innate healing wisdom of my body!

I seldom catch a cold, but when I do, I don't have to do anything to cure it. My body can do that all by itself. I simply make sure my body is fully expressing life so that my immune system can work as designed. (See last week's blog.) I maintain a positive attitude, keeping in mind that I am a being of beauty and perfection; I keep my body, mind, emotions and spirit in alignment with each other, and with my external environment; I eat whole, nutritious foods; I practice yoga and meditation, I keep well hydrated; and I remain as active as possible.

In sum -- I turn on life!

Health is more than the absence of pain, disease or symptoms. Health is balance. Health is harmony.

Vibrant health is like playing on a teeter totter.

When two kids (or young-at-heart grownups) are playing on a see saw, the fun is in going up and down…up and down. What fun would it be if the see saw remained motionless – in a perfect state of balance – with both kids hovering at an equal height above the ground. That might be a fun challenge for a moment or two, but it would get boring pretty fast and they would go right back to teeter tottering. You might say that their enjoyment comes from existing in a constant state of imbalance.

Or you could look at it a different way: that their ebb and flow – their cyclic exchange of energy – is really a state of harmonious, dynamic balance.

That is the way health works. For example, you may believe that if you catch a cold, you are out of balance. This is the conventional view of what a cold represents. This view holds that if factors in your life get out of balance, you are more susceptible to disease because of suppressed immune functioning, and that the purpose of the immune system is to fight germs and disease.

Under Dr. Mark’s teeter totter theory of health, a cold isn’t an illness. Colds are cool! When you are experiencing the fever, coughing, sneezing and runny nose of a cold, that shows that your immune system is working perfectly – just as Nature designed – to keep you in a state of harmonious, dynamic balance with your environment.

Pain is a gift – an opportunity to do something special for yourself.

What would you do if you were in serious pain and there were no drugs, surgery or other medical care available?

As a Chiropractor, I hear it every day: “I just want to get rid of the pain!” I can relate. Pain – chronic, debilitating pain – is something I experienced for years. For most of those years, all I did was fight the pain. Fight, fight, fight! With drugs…with herbs…with meditation…with yoga…with Chiropractic…fight, fight, FIGHT! The more I fought, the more pain I attracted into my life. What I didn’t realize was that the pain wasn’t an external thing; it was me. My pain was manifest in every aspect and at every level of my being. It wasn’t until I stopped fighting and started loving and honoring myself – including my pain – that I finally gave myself a chance to move past the pain. By making decisions based on love rather than fear and anger, I elevated my rate of vibration and brought myself into resonance with who I really am, and connected with my true calling in life. Eventually, my real, pain free self emerged.

Sometimes pain forces the issue.
At this point in history, there are drugs – lots of ‘em – for pretty much anything that may trouble you. But, as many people have discovered with dismay, often drugs provide little, if any, relief. Sometimes the side effects are even worse than the original problem. Yet the pain persists…

When that happens, the only way through it is to embrace a new perspective based on self love. This new perspective allows you to grow, thrive and evolve in life rather than remain locked into a cycle of pain, helplessness and despair.

Two important points:

1. The pain might never go away, or if it does, it might come back. So…adopt your new perspective for what it can add to your life, and not as just another way to fight. Then, if the pain does go away, cool. If not, you still become more than what you were before.

2. A change of perspective doesn’t mean that you have to give up everything you have been doing. You can still do things that you feel benefit you. For example, I still have my spine adjusted regularly and I still practice yoga and meditation. But now I do those things as an expression of love rather than loathing.

You are a gift. Your pain is you; therefore, your pain is a gift. Receive the gift with deep gratitude and enjoy all of the wonderful things that you will invite into your life as a result.

Health isn’t something you squeeze in. Health is the priority that you plan around.

Are you building your house upside down?

Everybody knows that if you want to build a house, the first thing you need to do is to lay the foundation. If you put up walls and a roof without a solid foundation, everything will crumble and fall before very long.

If you want a happy, successful, fulfilling life, you must build that life upon a foundation of vibrant health. Unfortunately, many people allow their health to take a back seat to other, less important aspects of their lives. Even though they know the importance of healthy activities, they prioritize their time, money and energy on everything else first, planning to squeeze health in when they can. They’re putting up walls without a foundation. All too often, health is squeezed out entirely.
(“I just can’t seem to find the time…”)

I can understand why. We’re busy. We have many competing priorities. Things that seem urgent in the moment can overshadow what is really important.
(“…just as soon as I…”)

Then, as health issues begin to show themselves, cracks begin to form in careers, relationships, dreams…
(“If only I had…”)

A few days ago, I planned to go out for a nice run, and then do a little bit of house cleaning afterwards. Before I walked out the door, I decided to move the dishes from the sink into the dishwasher. (…real quick…then I’ll go.) Then I washed the sink. Then – since I had the cleaning rag in my hand – I started wiping down the stove…then the counters…(just one more thing…real quick…then I’ll go.) Finally I said, “STOP!” I threw down my cleaning rag, dashed out of the house and went on a great run. After I got back, I didn’t have time to finish cleaning the kitchen. I had to stretch, take a shower, and then go see my Chiropractor for my weekly adjustment.

So, did I ever finish cleaning my kitchen? Yep. I managed to squeeze it in later.

Your health is the most important part of your life – the part that deserves the front seat – the part you plan around – your foundation.

Healing update.

My beautiful, perfect, self-healing body is awesome! Last weekend I participated in my first event since my injury. I swam in the 1.76 mile Long Bridge swim in Sandpoint, Idaho. I didn’t set any speed records, but I’m back out there, and having a great time. I have gone running several times in the last couple of weeks and there is no more pain around the injury site.