How many of you have had the experience of your low back, or neck, or maybe a knee or foot suddenly act up and hurt for no seeming reason at all?  That seems to be the most common cause of joint pain and suffering I see in the office - nothing at all.  So what is this "nothingness" that grabs us and twists our back out and kicks our joints all "out of joint"?  We know there has to be some cause but we have no idea what it is.

     The official term for this "nothingness" is Proprioceptive Incompetence.  What that means in real person talk is that the control of the normal balance between your muscles has gone haywire for a moment or longer allowing your joint tissues to become over-stretched, pinched, or injured.

 
     That's nice, but what caused it to happen?

     There are various things that set you up for this problem such as poor posture, sitting too much, chronically unbalanced activities, gut problems from a poor diet, even bad shoes.  Too little exercise, too much exercise, the wrong exercise - all set you up for these spontaneous joint problems by creating chronic muscle imbalances.  But that still does not explain why the joints choose that particular moment to act up.  Most of us have some (or even all) of the setup conditions all the time and yet are fine most of the time.  What caused the nervous system to go haywire for a moment and lose proper control?

     Try this little experiment - place your left hand over your right in your lap - now quickly try to touch your nose with your right hand while simultaneously trying to pull your right hand down to your lap with your left hand.  Do you notice the muscle tension and pinching pain in your arm joints when you push hard?

     There are two control systems for muscle contraction in your body - the voluntary conscious motor control for causing muscle movement (like to walk or stick out your tongue), and the unconscious motor control for posture, balance, and coordination.  It is the unconscious control system that is the problem.  By definition it is always busy working and responding to things you are not aware of.  For instance, if you wanted to reach for a glass of water in front of you, before you even began to move your abdominal and low back muscles will tighten up to hold your back steady before your arm moves.  The unconscious system anticipates what stabilizer muscles will be needed to keep you balanced before you start to move.

     This unconscious system is always busy anticipating what is needed next and tensing up appropriate muscles in preparation for what it thinks you are likely to do next.  But what happens if, like in our experiment, we have conflicting desires?  The system has no choice but to tense up muscles that may conflict with each other and produce joint strain.  (This is preferable to not being prepared and having you fall over and really hurt yourself.)  The kicker is that this system is busy responding to our unconscious and subconscious desires as much as our conscious ones...and we have absolutely no control over this system.  (This system even tenses and shifts our muscles while we dream at night, daydream, or even just visualize engaging in an activity.)

     Once upon a time life was simpler, our desires were simpler, and we had far fewer conflicting desires.  Old time Chiropractors rarely had to deal with back problems caused by these conflicts.  Mostly we dealt with lifting injuries, slips and falls, and the like.  Now 80% of the patients I see have stress / conflict causes of their back and joint pain.  (Stress is primarily caused by internal conflicts and these conflicts manifest in the muscles.)

     Every feeling you ever have is coupled with a postural muscle contraction pattern.  If you are joyful your head tilts back, your shoulders drop, and your chest lifts.  If you are belligerent and angry your jaw tightens and thrusts forward as does your neck, your chest muscles tighten and your shoulders roll forward.  If you are sad you shoulders drop, your posture slumps, and your head tilts downward.  Every feeling has a posture attached to it.  It is your body anticipating your active relationship with the world based on how you feel.

     But what happens when you have conflicting feelings?  What happens if the feelings are not even conscious?  Your body still tries to anticipate what posture you need and tense up accordingly - even when you have more than one feeling going on...even when the feelings are beneath your conscious awareness. 

     What happens when this takes place is you get tweaked out of place.  Joints pinch, swell, and get painful.  If you also have muscle imbalances set up from poor muscle tone, old injuries, reflex irritations from other internal organ problems, metabolic imbalances, and so on - then you really get tweaked and it can take days or weeks to bring things back to balance.

     If the feeling conflicts are long-term unresolved problems you can end up with chronic instabilities in your spine and joints.  Since this same unconscious control system also controls the blood flow to each muscle and organ, as well as immune function, conflicts can cause poor blood flow and inflammation in various areas of your body producing problems like headaches, digestive problems, most any symptom you can think of. 

     Everyone is aware of the effects of stress on our health.  But what most people are not aware of is that 80% of the stress that unbalances our body comes from internal conflicts, not our outer life.

     I first became aware of this mind-body health connection back in the early seventies while I was studying Psychology at UC Davis (I was a physics-psych double major).  I got involved in some of the early work in mind-body medicine back then and learned first hand just how powerful the mind is in affecting the health of the body.  Within the confines of that specialized and focused environment we were able to do some amazing things.  But once I got out into the real world I found that everyday life took over.  Regular folks just don't have the time to immerse themselves sufficiently to get the results we were seeing while I was in school.

     I thought I had found the answer to bridging the gap when I got into Network Chiropractic back in 1990.  It seemed to bring the mind-body conflicts up to the surface and release them so the body could heal spontaneously.  Unfortunately I found, that while releasing the conflicts made people feel much better for a while, the release did not solve the basic lack of skills that created the conflicts in the first place.  People would just recreate the same conflicts elsewhere in their lives.

     After several years of intense soul searching and several transformational spiritual experiences I finally was graced with the revelation I was seeking on how to bridge that mind-body gap.  The answer actually went much deeper than I knew how to handle at the time as it dealt with the very reason and purpose to life.  It has taken me over 15 years of constant work to even partially understand the vision I was given.  I will go into this next time in what I call "The Puzzle of Life."   
          
 

 

Good Journey,
David     
   

Heartflow Guest Article:

 

     Who am I...

What are my "core beliefs"?

 

     by Ellen Flowers

 

Many years ago I was introduced to the term "core beliefs."  At that time, I did not appreciate or understand how much impact "core beliefs" had on a person's life or relationships.  My work with people usually touches upon conscious and subconscious beliefs at one point or another. I live in the "land of belief and philosophy" helping others to create a life that works for them by finding the beliefs that will support that life.  But, this past week I became a believer in the over whelming need to know my "core beliefs."

As much as "core beliefs" define who I am and create an internal feeling of identity and consistency, they also give me tools of discrimination in creating relationships with others.  I can connect and engage with other people that have different "core beliefs" but to create a close friendship that is sustainable, I need "core beliefs" that are similar. If I find myself attracted
to someone that is very different in this area, then I need to look into my motives or agenda in trying to create the relationship.  That person may have something I am attracted to or attracted to learning.  Then comes the question: "Is the juice worth the squeeze?"

Example of "core beliefs":
I believe to have a relationship with someone you must hold that person in positive regard at all times.  Positive regard is the fundamental element of sustainability for relationship. From this position, anything threatening the foundation of positive regard must be resolved as quickly as possible.  To me friendship is precious and the priority. 

I believe in telling the truth at all times.  Without feeling your truth and sharing your truth you have no connection to yourself or others. Your truth is what you are attracted to, excited about and inspired by.  It has nothing to do with what you are afraid of or angry with.

I believe in honesty.  I do not cheat or steal.  If you have not come by something honestly it is of no value.  The people that I choose to have a relationship with, I can trust with my possession and my heart.

I believe that we arepersonally responsible for all that is created in our life.  That means that there are no victims, only volunteers on this earth.  Yes, I believe that I am personally responsible for all of my feelings. No one can do something to hurt me unless I choose to participate and view the situation in that way. I am the creator of my experience. I can not control others but I have the power to influence them by my tone and attitude.

 

Ellen

 

Kitchen Alchemy

I want to share a magical way to turn ordinary foods into nutritionally fortified, delicious concoctions through the alchemy of lacto-fermentation. 

I first discovered fermented foods a few years ago when I read the label on the jar of pickles I was purchasing: cucumbers, salt, water. I wondered how it was that they had that sour pickle taste in the absence of vinegar. I investigated further and found a whole new world opening up to me and have been fermenting grains, dairy, fruits and veggies ever since. For those of you reading this newsletter who are interested in learning some basic "kitchen alchemy," you're invited to follow along with my blog. I'll be sure to post something new with each newsletter that comes out. The techniques are simple; the ingredients are probably already in your fridge and cupboard right now. You don't need any special equipment to start out and it doesn't take a lot of time to work fermented foods into your diet and weekly food prep routine.  It won't be long before you and your family are reaping the benefits of fermented foods: increased digestibility and beneficial intestinal flora, increased mineral absorption and so much more!  

Feel free to email me with any questions and to share your successes! Happy fermenting!

Visit my blog here 

 

david@fairoakshealth.com

Pastafarians rejoice!

     For any overweight members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster observance of their weekly Friday holy day of massive pasta consumption has been a challenge.  As we know, carbs turn into fat even more easily than eating straight fat does.

     But now there is Dreamfield's Pasta.  With only 5 digestible grams of carbs per serving, this pasta is truly heaven sent.  Dreamfields is available almost everywhere now, and comes in spaghetti, linguine, lasagna, elbows, penne, rotini, and even angel hair.  Plus you don't have to deal with the stigmata of shopping in the health food section of the store as Dreamfield's is in the normal pasta section in your local grocery store.

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

 

Dreamfield's Pasta

 

________________________________________________    

~ William John Bennett

~Robert Frost

 

"Hamlet's experience simply could not have happened to a plumber."

~George Bernard Shaw

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

Vita-Mix