Our culture and our traditional healthcare system have done us a disfavor when it comes to maintaining and optimizing our health. The mainstream healthcare in this country is Allopathic Medicine.
The basic description of Allopathic Medicine is that it is a method of treating disease with remedies – drugs and surgery – that produce different effects from those caused by the disease.
We call it healthcare but do you notice what is missing in that description?
There is no mention of health!
There is no mention of well being!
The focus is on treating disease. That might be fine if you happen to have a disease. But, if you are in reasonable health and want to improve your health, the US healthcare system has very little to offer you.
The closest allopathic medicine comes to health are screening tests and early detection. But, even there the focus is on finding the disease in its early stages.
IT’S YOUR BODY
We are not taught how to take inventory of our own body. How to pay attention to what is going on. We’ve been led to believe that if you aren’t sick that you are healthy.
That’s downright crazy! Almost every disease starts slowly and silently before it manifests as a disease.
Our culture has prioritized cognitive pursuits and has devalued an awareness and connection to the body.
So, what can you do?
First, spend some time on a daily basis paying attention to your body. How?
Sit down with no distractions and scan your body with your awareness. Notice any areas that draw your attention. This isn’t about judging or labeling what you notice. Its just about connecting with your body.
There’s a great practice in yoga called Yoga Nidra which promotes deep relaxation. Simply by paying attention to the body it will release stored tension.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY
Your body is always talking to you. Most of the time it speaks very softly in whispers. It gives you plenty of opportunity to respond. When you fail to respond it starts talking louder and louder.
The louder and louder it talks the more often it feels like pain or fatigue or anxiety. By starting to befriend your body you can support it to stay healthy.
THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that controls all the inner workings of the body. Things like digestion, heart rate, sleep, immune function, rest, recovery.
We’ve all heard about the Sympathetic division of the autonomic system, often referred to as the “fight or flight” system. This largely is the stress response system tasked with survival.
The survival response is intended to be a short term response. Due to many factors in our modern world many people live more and more in a state of sympathetic activation. While this is fine for short periods of time it is incompatible with robust health.
This is the reason why 90% of all illnesses are stress related.
The victim of this sympathetic overdrive is a suppression of the Vagus Nerve. The Vagus Nerve is linked to about everything you associate with health like:
- Rest and Relaxation
- Recovery and Healing
- Deep Restorative Sleep
- Healthy Digestion
- Healthy Immune Response
- Deep Human Connection
- Healthy Heart Rate
- Lowered Inflammation
So, our modern culture repeatedly triggers our sympathetic “fight or flight” system and turns down the main avenue for wellness, the vagus nerve.
What is the solution?
SELF-REGULATION
The key to establish and maintain balance in the autonomic nervous system. This involves 2 aspects.
#1 Remove sources of irritation in the spine that activate the Sympathetic System and other areas that tend to lower the activity of the Vagus Nerve.
#2 Learn how to activate and nurture your Vagus Nerve. We live in a world that repeatedly triggers the Sympathetic System.
The solution is to raise the tone of the Vagus Nerve and learn how to tap into that whenever you need to.
Using the principles of Neuroplasticity I teach people how to cultivate greater Vagus Nerve tone. The 3 principles of neuroplasticity are:
- Time: the nervous system learns best in small chunks of time
- Focus: Keeping your awareness on the practice as you are doing it amplifies the impact
- Repetition: the body and nervous system learns with repetition.
If you would like to schedule your visit to Life Chiropractic in Grass Valley you can use this link: Schedule Here
About Dr. Berkowitz
Bringing more than 3 decades of practice experience, Dr. Bill Berkowitz focuses on balancing and corrective care, applying his expertise to provide patients with predictable, repeatable and measurable results.
Dr. Bill consistently strives to enhance the well-being of his patients by addressing the root imbalances of their problems and promoting optimal balance, alignment, and function of the spine and nervous system.
Bill’s wealth of knowledge and experience has allowed him to develop a nuanced understanding of the human body and its intricate connections. With each adjustment, he supports the body in returning to a state of balance that goes beyond mere symptom relief, focusing instead on long-term correction for his patients’ well-being.