(Editor's note: Today's post comes from the Atlas of Life November 2010 newsletter. Click on the title below to view the full newsletter.)
YOU LOOK & FEEL HOW YOU CHOOSE TO LOOK & FEEL
By Dr. Brandon Harshe
When my kids do something wrong, such as hit or scream at one of their siblings, or they ignore instructions we give them, they will face some type of consequence. Usually, the perpetrator screams, or cries, or whines when handed his/her sentence. The one thing we almost always tell them is that they chose the consequence. By behaving badly, they reaped a negative result. I do not think they get that concept most of the time, but through repetition, they will grow up understanding it eventually.
In fact, this is something we all need to understand. Including me. I have my moments where things will happen and I get frustrated, wanting to blame some exterior source. But in reality, the true source of my problem came from me.
There is no truer example of this idea than our health. Diabetes does not happen by chance. Heart disease does not happen overnight. Cancer is not a curse of our genetics. These diseases, and really most diseases, are caused by poor lifestyle decisions, point blank. I am not talking congenital heart defects or Down’s syndrome, I am talking about diseases that develop over time.
No one held you down and shoved a Big Mac down your gullet. No one put a gun to your head and told you to eat too much pizza. No one forced me to eat too much Halloween candy out of my kids’ stash. No one tied you down and made you watch football and drink beer all day last Sunday. Those are choices we all make, and the results of those choices are our doing, not someone else’s.
How many healthy, athletic, people eating plant-based diets do you see currently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes? Personally, I have never seen one. How many calm, happy people have you met with high blood pressure? Probably not many.
I know that if I eat at CiCi’s Pizza, I will feel flu-like symptoms and an overall sluggishness the next day… Basically I feel like garbage. That is how my body responds to my choice of eating awful food. Sure it’s a cheap place to take a family of six out to eat, but is it really worth it? Instead of trying to find some kind of medication that will take away my symptoms, I choose not to eat there anymore. Problem solved.
How about contracting a cold virus, or bronchitis, or the flu? Is that not something that happens to us by chance? Sometimes, but how many of us have been stressed with midterms, finals, work deadlines, meager finances, marital issues, or the death of a loved one? Those things put us into a state of stress, and that keeps us in sympathetic mode. The sympathetic nervous system is what controls the fight-or-flight response. Once in a while, it might be needed. But on a long term basis, this is what wears our bodies down, overuses our adrenal glands, and weakens our immune system, along with being sedentary and eating junk all the time, making us more prone to contracting a virus of some sort.
Dealing with that stress properly is what will keep us in parasympathetic state, which is where we want our bodies to be most of the time. I once heard Dr. Wayne Dyer mention that stress is not a physical, tangible thing. We cannot grab it out of the air. It is simply an idea in our mind. Replacing those stressed out thoughts with positive thoughts takes some work, but once you get the hang of it, life starts getting a little better.
Knowing that, and making healthier choices with our diets and activities, maybe, just maybe we can get to that level of optimal health we all want to experience.
It just dawned on me that, outside of (getting upper cervical care), I have not been to any kind of doctor in over 12 years. I have made choices in my life that keep me from needing to go to a medical doctor for anything. I am not perfect by any means… I still have so much to improve upon (ask my wife). But at least I am ahead of the game with my physical health.
You can be too. Quit sitting around, eating junk, and watching too many reality shows. Get up, exercise, eat some fruits and veggies, think positive (and get your nerve system and upper neck checked periodically).
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