Its official… we have made it through January!!!
I like to check in this time of year as many of you have set new years resolutions and I know crossing into February can be a difficult time. I think it is a wonderful practice to set goals, if we’re honest we can all find something we’d like to improve upon.
However, personally I have found over the years that when I set specific goals, I’m often just setting myself up to be disappointed. I find it easy to get frustrated when I fall short from where I think I ‘should’ be at any given time.
All of that began to change when I started to practice living a year in a word, something I picked up from Laurel Van Matre at Yoga Garden in Northeast. Instead of setting a specific goal we’re encouraged to pick just ONE word, something that encapsulates an intention you want to live by and have direct you throughout the year. It might seem like a small shift but for someone who is more empowered by looking at the forest instead of the tree this was a big lightbulb moment.
For example, lets say you want to loss 10 pounds. You decided for the next 4 weeks you’re going to hit the gym and work out obsessively, go on some fad diet, and deprive yourself of all the things you think you need to do to reach that goal. After those 4 weeks you did it! In fact you did even better and lost 15 pounds! You’re feeling great so you go out and celebrate and 3 weeks later you’ve gone back to your old ways and gained even more weight than when you started. You now tell yourself that you’re a failure and that you should just give up trying ever again. Sound familiar?
Now lets imagine you set an intention to be healthy instead of that arbitrary goal of losing 10 pounds. You begin going to the gym a few times a week, you start walking at night with friends, you get a salad instead of fries at dinner, you still have that birthday cake and don’t punish yourself for it. After 4 months you have lost 5 pounds and kept it off! In the process you learned to love yourself for making small but healthier choices, you still did the things you loved, and you became more connected with your community giving you a sense of support and unity.
Which scenario do you think was better? Now don’t get me wrong, setting goals might work phenomenally for you and you should keep it up! I just wanted to take this time to highlight a different approach and one that I have seen many patient use successfully.
Look at it from a chiropractic perspective. Unlike many chiropractors, in our practice we start from the bottom up. We know that when we only focusing on the symptoms (the goals) and not the structural foundation (the intention) we are just chasing after problems hoping to make lasting changes. Our intention in this practice is to identify the problem at the core, the foundation, knowing that the symptoms will begin to slowly fade away. This approach might appear to take a longer time but in the end you will be standing on a healthy foundation you can take with you everywhere. Just like how your intention to be healthier will permeate all aspects of you life.
I know that was long, but I think it is wildly important to understand. I use the painting above by the amazing comedian Jim Carrey as a source of encouragement throughout this process. When we step aside and learn to see where we are in the moment, we start to learn to love ourself for being there and not where we think we should be. It is in those moments that we find our source of power and use that to be the driving force for change.
I hope this finds you well and loving the moment.
All good things,
Dr. Erin