With a new year comes the opportunity to start new behaviors what are you doing differently this year to improve your health?
If you have are suffering from any lingering and nagging symptoms, such as back, neck or joint pain, stiffness, weakness, nausea, upset stomach, headaches, digestive upset, allergies anything from keeping you from who you imagine yourself to be, than you are being reminded by your body that something in your lifestyle isn’t working.
The symptomatic approach works great to buy you a little time, or to take care of the occasional issue that comes along out of the blue. It will not correct a long-standing issue. Only a change in habits produces lasting results.
When trying to figure out where your issue may be coming from, you first have to identify in which dimension (or dimensions) the wheels are coming off; the physical, metabolic, and or energetic dimensions. If it is more than one, pick the most unbalanced to begin. Secondly, you need to correct the imbalance that created the issue in the first place. You will need the help of someone skilled in assessing balance in each of the dimensions. Lastly, you need to clear any protective responses so the body can recognize any injury and heal if needed.
With that said, the lifestyle change is the most important component when dealing with chronic issues. The more specific to your body, the better, but it is easy to describe in a general manner what needs to be done for each dimension. If your issues are within the physical dimension you need to move more. This might be an issue of strength, stability, or flexibility, but movement in general is great practice, particularly in a discipline like yoga. If your issues are within the metabolic dimension than think about cleaning up your diet. Eat as minimally processed foods as you can, preferably organic. This includes drinks. If your issues are more within the energetic or emotional dimension, then practice more meditation.
All of these general suggestions will go a long way to improving your health, especially if they haven’t been a regular part of your lifestyle. The essence of wellness work is living a lifestyle that adds to your health and energy, rather than being reactionary and dealing with the symptoms of poor health. With health insurance costs skyrocketing, this approach could be the health care revolution we all are looking for in 2017.
Dr. Jeff
