AWeber - FOHAC Comfort versus Ease #340

Published: Sun, 02/07/16

Fair Oaks Health News

Welcome

Feburary 7, 2016

Comfort versus Ease

Hi ,

A few months ago the World Health Organization released its Gallup poll survey of 146,000 people across the world to assess which countries were the happiest. The people were asked about their well being in five areas: their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial situations, community involvement and physical health. Based on their responses they were rated as either thriving, struggling, or suffering. To avoid test bias the questions were asked verbally in each person’s native language.

Interestingly the majority of the top 10 happiest countries were in South America with Panama ranking number one. The United States ranked number 26 in the world with only 30% of people rated as thriving in at least three of the categories tested. That means 70% of us are failing to thrive in three, four or all five of the tested categories. What’s going on America?

I am going to offer a possible reason why we are failing so miserably to find happiness. Obviously this is a hugely complex topic with no one answer, but I feel there is probably a general orientation in how we think as Americans that is driving our misery.

We have always been a driven country. By that I mean that we are a proactive people that are driven to get what we want. We are not a passive people that lie down and accept whatever life dishes out to us. I personally think this is a good thing in general, but I think that over the last 70 years what we want has changed in a direction that is driving our unhappiness.

After WW2 America entered a time of abundance. Life was not the struggle it had been previously and hopes ran high for most people. In general everyone felt good about the future and the only threat in the American consciousness was the creeping spread of Communism. The American goal was a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. We launched into the age of comfort. The talk was about how as prosperity progressed our major concern would revolve around how to spend our free time. Labor saving devices were freeing us up on every front. American industry was busy freeing us from having to do much of anything – cooking, cleaning, even working. The belief was that automation was going to free us from the drudgery of even having to work. Consumerism for the products that would give us the most comfort became the message we heard from every angle. Success was measured by the goal of comfort attainment and happiness was equated with comfort.

With the unfolding of the 60’s the emptiness of the pursuit of comfort turned into the pursuit of deeper meaning spiritually and socially, but by the 70’s that trend had failed for most people and the shallow pursuit for happiness as comfort again asserted itself. The relentless pressure of the advertised message of consumerism, as the key to happiness, became the mantra of the next generation. Consumer goods can offer release from effort, which is interpreted as comfort. The problem is comfort is not equal to happiness. We have been duped into thinking that the comfort provided by our purchased things will give us happiness. This is the big lie we have bought into and are now trying to

throw off…sort of. We want more than owning stuff now, but we still want our stuff.

The WHO study points directly to a more reasonable definition of happiness. Notice that financial security is only one item on the list of five markers of happiness. It is very telling that the list of happiest countries is filled with much poorer countries. From our perspective that seems impossible. Wealth is our measure of happiness because of the comfort it can buy us.

Lets look at the other factors of happiness cited by the WHO study – purpose, social relationships, community, and health. We can tick off the last one first. The US ranks 37th in the world for keeping its citizens healthy in spite of having the most expensive healthcare system in the world per person. We are a very unhealthy nation. We ranked number one back in the forties and fifties – what happened? Portugal is better than us. Colombia is better than us. Places I know nothing about like Malta and San Marino are way better than us. The message is clear. If you want to get healthy GET OUT OF THE US.

How could this happen? My simple answer is we have been trained to demand comfort foods and comfort medicine. You can’t get health from either of these. Health requires individual personal effort, not comfort. Comfort is successfully killing us.

Community has always been difficult for Americans because we are the great melting pot of cultures. Community is generally built around the communal sharing of culture. This is much easier to do if everyone shares the same culture. We compensate by banding together based on the sharing of ideas and goals. This generates a reasonable mental connection between people, but lacks the deeply satisfying heart connection of shared cultural sameness.

Social relationships – what can you say? Americans have always been very immature in this arena. This is not to say that there are not lots of other immature cultures, but there are also lots of more mature ones as well. We tend to be very narcissistic and have no value for cultural perspectives other than our own. For instance most European citizens speak several languages, while most Americans can’t even speak English properly.

This brings us to a sense of purpose. How much purpose is fulfilled by keeping up with the latest tech gadgets and spending your days on Facebook? How much meaning is there in life when the average American spends 7 hours a day watching television, or the younger generation even more on the Internet? Some of us buck this trend, but we are not the average. But the television and Internet are comfortable. It requires nothing from us.

Here I believe is the crux of the issue. We fail at happiness because we have mistakenly confused ease with comfort. Ease is that feeling in our heart when we are connected to those around us and we are engaged in meaningful work. Humans naturally seek ease. It feels good and it enables us to exist in our natural state of happiness. That’s right, happiness is a natural state of being. Happiness is not excitement. Happiness is just us connected to life and engaged in our meaningful purpose.
We have confused comfort for happiness. Comfort is that womblike feeling of having all our needs met without having to participate with life at all. Comfort is that relaxing in the easy chair watching TV with a cold beer in your hand. It couldn’t get any better unless they could drip the beer in with an IV so you wouldn’t even have to lift the can to your lips.

Where did we get this insane idea that non-participation felt good? When did becoming a baby equal happiness? America became great on the ideal of hard work and clean living. We were happier working hard and living cleanly. We have been brainwashed by the push to consume rather than work for meaningfulness.

Our drive to consume is at the core of our unhappiness from my perspective. It is the core belief we have been taught that we are in a state of lack that makes us unhappy. Feelings of lack make us great consumers as we try to fill the lack with things we can buy. But this lack feeling can never be met from the outside. Lack is filled by our participation with life as we outflow our hope, skill, and love. We are filled from the inside out.

Living from the inside out produces the feelings of ease that we so deeply want. Ease does not come from chasing comfort. Understand this and you can fill your life with ease.

Take care,

David

Ellen Update:

Ellen's brain must be back online. She got her taxes done all by herself and has them ready to mail.

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Traditional old style Miracle Bread is Back!

Several people have expressed that they like the old recipe of Dr Dave's Miracle Bread without the addition of the flax meal so we have brought back the original recipe bread mix. Made with no grains, no dairy, gluten free, and very low in carbs yet high in protein, this bread is perfect for those eating a paleo diet yet still wanting something as a replacement for bread. Many different flavor mixes transform the bread into such taste delights as chocolate bundt cake, gingerbread, lemon poppy seed muffins, or garlic Italian bread.

Now for the bad news. Since I first created Miracle Bread mix the price of dried egg white has doubled and the price of the almond flour has increased by 60%. These are the main ingredients in Miracle bread. The consequence is that the old price of the bread of $9.95 is less than what it costs to make it. Consequently I have to raise the price on the bread to $15.95 right now and in the near future when I have to buy my next few cases of almond flour that price will have to be raised again to around $17.95. As most of you know we have had a drought here in California and large amounts of the almond orchards had to be destroyed to prevent disease. I have no doubt this will raise the cost of almond flour even higher. I am willing to continue making the bread mix if you are ok with the price increase. If the resulting price is too high for you then please let me know so I don't buy more boxes of almond flour at the inflated prices to make bread no one wants.

Thanks so much,

David

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Osterporosis? You need WBV!
What is WBV? It stands for Whole Body Vibration. Clinical studies show increased bone mass with just 10 minutes of WBV three times a week. WBV is available in the office for use anytime we are open for only $10 a week, or for a super bonus of only $20 a month.

On the Wire

Alternative to morphine better & no side effects

Morphine and related drugs have been used for centuries to block pain, but they have a lot of side effects plus addiction problems. Researchers have now synthesized the protein that the brain naturally makes to block pain. The effect is equal or better than morphine for pain control without addiction problems or disturbing motor control and respiration. Human trials should begin in 2 years.

Endomorphin

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"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

~ Martin Luther King, Jr

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Vertical Farming

Louisville Kentucky will be the home of a new 60,000 sq/ft indoor vertical farm which says it will be able to provide 18 million people with fresh organic produce year round. The indoor facility uses 97% less water than traditional farming and is able to grow 15 crop cycles in the time normal outside gardening produces 1 crop.

Vertical Farm

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"A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown."

~ Denis Waitley
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Wearable posture coach

A lot of the neck problems I see each week come from folks tilting their heads too far forward or down to look at computer screens and laptops or cell phones. Someone has invented a cute little gizmo that you wear on your neck that trains you to keep your head up to reduce neck tension and pain. Cool.

Posture

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

- Neale Donald Walsch

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Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Our hours are M - F 9 to 1 and M, Tu, & Th 3 to 6

Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.

If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3 more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.

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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.

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