Health related actions: optimizing health

Below, we look at the different types of health related actions that are available to us.

Previously, we explored the emergence of health related awareness as a call to action.

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With the emergence of a health related awareness we’re called to take action and create a change in our life. ‘Health related awareness’ is seen as any awareness that a person has that is related to their current or future health status. Health related awareness emerges as the intelligence that maintains the body in healthy, active organization speaks, providing feedback about our choices and the associated use of energy. The purpose of health related awareness is to help us know more about how we’re living our life and the impact in our body. The value of a health related awareness is that it provides us the opportunity to take action now in ways that build and fortify our future health.

All the actions we execute in our lives have implications for our health. Some actions may be more objective (what we do or don’t eat, if and how much we exercise and how many hours we sleep) and others may be more subjective (what we feel, the emotions we experience, what we think and the quality of our self-talk). Some actions may have a direct impact on our current or future health status (e.g. performing a specific exercise to rehabilitate certain muscles after injury) and others may exert a more generalized influence (e.g. sitting all day while on the job). All actions converge on the structural and energetic coherence of the body and have implications for our health.

For the purpose of this discussion, health related actions are seen as those actions that are consciously chosen and intended to impact our current and/or future health status. In other words, health related actions are actions that are executed specifically in response to a health related awareness.

The potential for an energetic upgrade, our awareness of the need for healing (i.e. more health), and life’s call for that change can come to us in many different ways. Depending on how we connect (internal signals vs external signals) and when we connect (prior to vs earlier or later in the disease process), we may be responding to what we want (proaction) or what we don’t want (reaction).

Proaction is responding to inspiration or a desire and involves consideration of the future and what we want to happen (e.g. wanting more: energy, connection, sensitivity, awareness, power, performance, growth and health). Proaction involves acceptance of the current circumstances and positions us to create a plan that initiates change to move us towards a goal (increasing something we already have or creating something entirely different and new). When we are successful we get more of what we’re focused on, grow our energetic resources and expand our capacity.

Reaction is responding to a symptom, problem or crisis that’s already happening and involves looking into the past to determine the cause of our situation as we seek to stop what we don’t want (e.g. wanting less: pain, symptoms, problems and disease). Reaction looks to assign blame and positions us to fight against ‘bad’ things from happening where the goal is to have less of what we already have. This is a different energetic process and often requires a source of energy from outside of ourselves.

Regardless of the type of health related awareness we’re experiencing, and no matter what our current health status, our actions may be either proactive or reactive. On one hand, we may not have any symptoms and be reacting to an idea and/or concern about a potential future outcome. On the other hand, we may have symptoms and choose to fortify our body and build our healing resources. It is possible to engage both types of action simultaneously and they are not mutually exclusive. We can choose to engage our health proactively while reacting to and receiving treatment for an existing condition. Indeed, there is no health status that would not benefit from proactive actions to optimize our health, as we’ll see below.

There are a few different types of health related actions that are available to us. Some of these actions are supported in the mainstream culture (those that are made available within our current healthcare system and covered by our provincial or private medical insurance plans) while others are less integrated into the current socio-economic model (those that require that individuals pay out of their own pocket).

Each type of health related action has distinguishing characteristics that are presented in the table below. All approaches to creating change in our future health status have value. Each approach has the greatest value when it’s used in the appropriate circumstances and at the right time. While this can vary depending on each person’s beliefs, unique point of view and individual situation, our intent is to clarify and offer some perspective by looking at the similarities and differences of the different options that are available. Below we explore optimization as a powerful approach to creating health and longevity and consider the other types of health related actions relative to optimization to highlight it’s unique features and benefits.

Optimization stands alone in a category of it’s own because of its unique energetics, focus, and motivation. Relative to other health related actions that are available, it is a fundamentally different approach to healing and health. Optimization is a truly proactive strategy that works at creating more health through our own personal growth, development and evolution. Optimization is a life-long wellness process that continually invites change as we consciously and intentionally take action to transform our body and move our life and health in new directions.

At the heart of optimization is an upgrade in how we experience, access and use energy in our body and in our lives. The process of optimization requires a more efficient and effective use of energy to create the change that takes us to the next level. It takes energy to grow energy and initially there must be an input to create some momentum and get things moving. As we look to create something better for ourselves, getting past this energetic hurdle and the inertia of our current life may present a significant challenge. Optimization requires an investment of both time and energy now to generate improvements in our quality of life and future health.

As chiropractors, we specialize in helping people discover how to experience, access and use more of the energy that is available in their spine and body. All of our success stems from people growing their internal resources and creating an energetic upgrade that moves them towards more of the results they want for their life. When there is a surplus of energy, we’re ‘energy rich’ and hungry for more. With more available energy, we desire something new and greater in life. From this energized place, we’re inspired to expand and take action to create the outcomes we desire and which previously did not exist.

Growing our energetic capacity is similar to growing our financial resources through strategic investment. Eventually, our earnings grow and can be used for almost anything. This creates more possibility in our life. Likewise, investing in the alignment and structural coherence of the body positions us to access more energy for our life. The more organization and coherence within our body and life, the more energy that is available for healing, performance and growth.

Unlike most health related actions, optimization is not positioned in relation to a problem or concern. Optimization does not specifically consider or address any problems that may or may not exist, now or in the future. Rather, optimization seeks to improve the energetic and structural coherence of the body (our health status) by increasing our resourcefulness and innate capacity to heal and adapt with life and it’s challenges.

Optimization is focused entirely on growing our energetic resources and our innate capacity for healing and health, from the inside out. As we learn to energize ourselves more effectively, we activate the resident wisdom of the body to a greater extent and our innate intelligences can better organize our perceptions, behaviours and structures. As we become more efficient and effective in our lives, the intelligence that maintains the body in healthy active organization can more successfully manifest healthy cells, body and mind, taking us to increasingly higher levels.

At the centre of any and all improvements in our health is the energy that is available. More available energy translates into benefits for any and all circumstances that may arise. For example, heading into the day with a good night’s rest and a proper breakfast prepares us for whatever the day may hold. Whether it’s a physical trauma, an infectious disease or workplace stress, although it’s not specific to any particular problem, more energy helps us to be our best and respond more effectively to any challenges that do arise.

Rooted in a process of self-referral and self-regulation, optimization relies primarily on internal body signals for feedback to help us know that our actions are having the desired effect. Although external signals and objective results will eventually confirm our success (e.g. because I am now stronger, I can run faster and farther than ever before), this information may not be immediately available as it takes time for the body to reorganize, heal and manifest the appropriate biological upgrades (e.g. it takes time to build muscle, strength and cardiovascular fitness). The process of optimization requires enough connection and sensitivity to guide our choices and make some reasonable assessment regarding the value of our efforts, especially when the physical results have yet to come.

With enough connection and sensitivity to what’s happening within, the internal signals of the body provide guidance to help us navigate the health related actions that are available. Learning how to connect, pay attention to this type of information and follow the available energy is a key part of the process. It’s really quite simple, something that gets us excited lets us know about its potential value: for whatever reason (and we don’t need to know why) it resonates with us. Through a process of committed trial and error we are able to discover what works best for us at any given point. This type of feedback occurs in our body and acts as a map towards increasing our personal resourcefulness.  It provides energetic confirmation that informs us of the value of our actions prior to the full result. Knowledge is gained through experience and our ability to trust and allow these internal signals to guide our choices is essential to a greater expression of our health potential.

Optimization is self-sustaining and has a unique reward that carries forward. Momentum grows as each new success builds upon that which came before. The success of optimization is the reward that keeps us working towards more and involves a continuous process of learning and refinement. While other types of approaches end with success – after which there is little more if anything to do – optimization carries the promise of self-actualization and begins with an initial success that confirms the possibility of realizing more of what is available. This energetic confirmation positions us to invest the time and energy necessary to transform our body, life and future health. The energetic reward and the desire to see how far we can go is what makes the process of optimization self-sustaining.

A challenge with many of the health related actions in the current healthcare system is that they become alternatives to optimization. Perhaps because they’re focused on the problem, they appear to be more specific which can create an illusion of greater relevance and/or value. Health however cannot be created by suppressing or eliminating the symptoms and/or problems that have been intelligently created as a direct result of how we’ve been using energy in our lives. Unfortunately, once a problem is manifest, it can be difficult to make the change that’s required to heal and resolve our health concern. As a result, we may end up looking for help from outside ourselves to change the experience of our body in an attempt to end our pain, symptoms and/or suffering.

Optimization is separate and distinct and not alternative or complementary to any other approach; it is a parallel option that’s always available and valuable, regardless of what other actions we’re taking. For example, good nutrition, adequate movement and proper rest are almost always important and good ideas, even when also choosing to receive chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments.

Prevention implies that we’ve taken action prior to the occurrence of any symptoms or problems. In the absence of a problem, action is taken regularly through structured ritual, practice or convention. Based simply on the passage of time, when executed at the appropriate frequency, preventative actions can fortify the body and address any issues at an energetic level, preventing a potential outcome from ever taking place.

Depending on our point of view, optimization may or may not be preventative. As the actions of optimization increase the body’s internal resources and capacity for change, a healing process may occur. As the body moves to a higher level of energetic and structural coherence (new levels of health), there is a re-organizational process that may produce symptoms as the body completes the necessary physiological tasks to achieve the biological upgrade (i.e. inflammation, detoxification, dissolution of abscesses, resolution of chronic low-grade infections that have been below awareness, etc.). In this case, optimization will not prevent the expression of the symptoms associated with the healing process, it will optimize it. Often this is experienced as a more intense process of shorter duration which, when complete, is accompanied by the awareness of a fundamental change in the experience of our body and life. While optimization is not necessarily preventing the experience of uncomfortable sensations or undesirable symptoms, it is still working to resolve a problem and ‘preventing’ a potentially more complex and involved situation down the road.

Different than with optimization – which positions us for favourable change – the concept of maintenance positions us to prevent an unfavourable change as we seek to maintain that which already exists. In this mode of operation, although we’re taking action prior to the occurrence of any specific problem, we’re not actively engaged in a process to create something new (something we want), rather we are preventing something new (something we don’t want).

One of the challenges with the concept of maintenance is that it’s not as well aligned with the reality of a living system where change is a constant and fundamental part of life. In the case of maintenance, we’re working to keep things static as opposed to existing in the dynamic flow of how our body and life change and evolve with time. This is especially evident as we progress through the different seasons of life where what was expected in the prime of our youth, may not be equally available later in life. In terms of maintenance, this could be seen as a failure as opposed to a natural change that would be valued and celebrated from a more developmental and evolutionary perspective. Accordingly, maintenance may be a more appropriate concept for our mechanical devices (like our car) than for a living entity like a plant or person.

The amount of energy required to prevent problems and maintain the ‘status quo,’ can vary depending on what other circumstances and/or problems may concurrently require our attention. As new challenges arise, the prescribed actions that would previously have been successful in maintaining a certain level of function are no longer adequate as demands increase and life requires a higher level of engagement. The energetics of maintenance are neutral – it’s difficult to get excited and energized about not getting ‘worse’. The concept of maintenance does not fit well with the concept of growth and adaptation, two important features of success over the course of a person’s lifetime.

With the advancement of medical research and technology, and with more sophisticated laboratory and imaging procedures, we’re able to look at what’s happening inside the body in new ways. As a result, there are more external signals available in today’s healthcare system than ever before. Typically, if we’re getting information for the first time from an external source (routine screenings, incidental medical findings, etc.), we’ve missed some type of internal cue. Any health related actions that are triggered by external signals (treatment and urgent care) are by nature reactive as they are responding to signs of physiological and/or pathological processes already taking place within the body or to concepts that may or may not be relevant to a particular individual.

The success of screening and testing procedures is early detection and still necessitates that something has already happened. Routine screening procedures are preventative in the sense that, if nothing else changes with that person (energetics), and we detect the signs of disease earlier in the process, we may be able to ‘prevent’ it from getting worse (not prevent it from happening; it must already be happening in order that it is detected). With early detection we are able to react to what has already begun to manifest and take form, typically with further testing and/or treatment.

Treatment and urgent care apply external forces to act upon the body in an attempt to effect a change from the outside. Different than with optimization (which proactively generates forces from within), treatment and urgent care are reactive and require energy from outside ourselves. Treatment and urgent care are based on external objective signs and are more passive in their approach: typically they don’t involve the active participation of the patient to create a change. Reacting to and focused on a specific problem, the health related actions of receiving treatment and/or urgent care are less likely to consider or directly recruit a person’s unique strengths and personal healing resources.

If our health status has significantly deteriorated and we’re in or approaching a crisis, it may be necessary to enlist assistance from external means in order to ‘buy’ time for the body to heal itself. In certain situations, especially in the case of sudden physical trauma (like a motor vehicle accident), this can be very effective and extremely valuable. in all cases, medicine must still rely heavily on the body’s ability to heal itself. Regardless of any medical or procedural success, all healing is biological healing and requires that our innate intelligence successfully integrates the forces applied to the body. In the end, whether it’s optimization or emergency surgery, it is always the power that made the body that heals the body.

There is no substitute for health at any point in our lives. Health outcomes are generated as we use energy in different ways, based on the choices we make in our life. If we want to create a sustainable change in our health status, it must be grown organically from the inside out. Optimization offers a truly proactive and energetic approach that focuses directly on increasing our healing resourcefulness and our innate capacity to manifest healthy cells, mind and life.

REGULAR CHIROPRACTIC ENTRAINMENT
HELPS YOU:

regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms, problems and crisis;
develop an accurate perception and a trustworthy relationship with your body;
be well positioned to deal with what happens within and without; and
discover what is available and how to create a future of health.

Next, we’ll take a look at the process of health related decision making.