 Condition the Space
A few weekends ago, I went to a continuing education course to work on my chiropractic technique. While there is always room for technical improvement, I tend to learn more about myself and my behaviours than about technique. Here are some life skills I picked up.
Life lessons are all around us if we simply open our eyes. Get yourself out of the same old boring routines and spice up your life a little.
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 Your body is constantly talking to you. It’s calling to you through the language of tension, pain, emotions and thoughts. We all have the capacity to listen and figure out what our body is saying, but do we do it?
When life stress occurs, there are several ways that people respond. Some people don’t have any awareness that their body is in a state of stress. Some people are aware of their stress and choose to ignore it. Others, are able to feel the stress and hear their body’s message and respond. If you respond and receive the messages, your warning signals will go away. Ignore it and it keeps trying to talk to you until you have no choice but to listen. Imagine that you are a postman and you have an important letter that you have to deliver. You go to the house and knock on the door to deliver you letter and no one is home so you decide to come back the next day. On the next day, you notice a car in the driveway and so you knock on the front door and also on the back door because you have an important letter to deliver. No one is home so you come back the next day. Walking up to the driveway you notice movement from behind a curtain so you know that someone is home. You start knocking and knocking, louder and louder until finally, someone opens the door and you hand them the letter and leave. Pain is like this. It has a message to deliver to you and it keeps knocking at you until you answer it’s call. Once you figure out what it needs, it will go away. Your pain is knocking at you, do you know what the message is? If not, come to one of our monthly beginner workshops to find out more.  Firstly, a Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate. Wishing everyone good health, happiness and fortune in the upcoming year.
Now for my weekly blog: I recently found myself eating more than I am used to. Once I became aware of this, I sat down to ask myself a couple questions: 1. What are some possible explanations for this? 2. Do I want this behaviour to continue? Looking at question 1: I had been exercising and lifting more weight, perhaps my body needed more calories. Maybe my body is stressed and I am eating to compensate. I could also be eating in the place of feeling my emotions. Other possibilities included extra Halloween candy and eating out too much. After this examination, I decided more awareness is in order. I started a 1 week experiment with my focus on listening to my hunger. I wanted to know what my hunger is really telling me. I started by putting off my breakfast time. I hypothesized that this would allow me to distinguish between true hunger versus eating out of habit. My stomach started to feel like it needed to eat around the same time in the morning that I usually eat everyday. However, when I drank water and waited another 5 mins, that feeling passed. Next, we had a rush of people come into the office at once and things got a little stressful. Even though it was the morning, I found myself craving the chocolate in my drawer….hmmm, another clue. I drank more water and went back to work. By mid morning, my stomach started to make noises and I knew what actual hunger felt like for me. When I listened to this cue I noticed that I ate slower and was full sooner than usual. I compared this with my stress eating where I would eat chocolate bars and chips and they are eaten so quickly that I don’t even realise until the entire pack is done. Other awarenesses I noticed during the week were:
In all of this, I was reminded what a pleasure it is to eat food. With this experiment, I can now understand what my body needs and how to properly nourish myself. Give this a try and let your body guide you. |
AuthorDr. Amanda is a non-traditional chiropractor who focuses on Neuro-Optimization Chiropractic in Ottawa, Canada. 
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