We talk a lot (a lot) about Innate Intelligence. You probably even know what that term means. If you are just tuning into the Crossroads world or we have failed to get you this knowledge (if this is the case, we are sorry) let me hit you with it, because frankly it is the most important thing and really the only goal we have as chiropractors. Innate Intelligence simply put: the wisdom that runs the body. It is that auto pilot system that maintains all functions. Remember you don’t have to tell your heart to beat or food to digest….that’s done for you and you can thank Innate for that. B.J. Palmer the developer of chiropractic called Innate, “the fellow within”. Get it? Innate is that which runs, orders, and maintains you and is housed in your nervous system since that is the system that runs everything. Innate, to me, is God’s design at work in you. Dig this…..your body was made to work! Our culture doesn’t think this, though. If it did we would stop assuming a drastic health decline as we get older and instead recognize health decline as a failure to allow our Innate to work. We stifle it with bad food, stress, drugs, etc. Then have the audacity to assume our bodies betray us as they age. They breakdown because we run them hard and give them no attention. We let subluxation silently rob the ability of Innate and introduce ourselves to a slow death that we have somehow come to accept.
This is foolish and we all have done it at some point. Our culture is a medical culture. We think we can tame the body with our drugs, the environment with our construction, and the spiritual with science. Our technology will triumph! The problem is…..it’s all false. We have more cancer now then 25 years ago, we are fatter, more unhappy, more in debt…..does anyone else begin to get the sneaking suspicion this isn’t working? We (Americans) take more prescription drugs than any other nation, but are ranked like 37th in the world in health. According to the film “Foodmatters” (sidebar: just had movie night in Meredith, awesome movie!!!) 25% of all commercials are drug commercials! We are inundated in this culture of sickness….it’s no wonder that so few know of Innate Intelligence. It’s not how we have been raised and it’s never on the television.
This is where chiropractic comes in. You’re reading this blog, so clearly you are different or at the very least you are interested in being different. I applaud you. It’s not easy, because it’s a culture shift to learn to trust your Innate, but it is worth it. Where the old way fails, Innate excels. All it asks of you is to give it a chance to work. Innate, your body, when treated right is made to resist disease, age gracefully (and functionally), and work better then you’ve ever imagined. You can do this. It’s simple. Ready for action steps: 1) get adjusted it maintains your spine and nervous system allowing Innate to work unimpeded 2) eat real food, it was to grow in the ground, or have been an animal/fish/bird 3) drink water; everyone says they do but they don’t…..track it to the ounce for a few days and check your self, you need half your body weight in ounces (IE: 200lbs=100oz of water) 3) Sleep 4) Move 5) Slow down daily to pray, think, meditate, be quiet. That about covers it. Seriously, it really is that easy. Now this isn’t to say if you do this your health will be perfect ( a well hydrated person can still be hit by a bus, morbid I know), but it does mean that the deck will be stacked in your favor and in life that’s about all we can hope for.
One last thought: please trust your body. We don’t do this. At the slightest hint of a problem we freak out and in a fit of fear we stifle our Innate. For example as soon as we get pain we start popping pain relievers. Don’t! All drugs are toxic. Pain has a purpose. It is the body’s way of signalling a problem or protecting an area. If you ankle hurts the pain is there to keep you off of it. Usually, damage doesn’t get more severe until we turn off the pain via pills and then stubbornly force the ankle to do more then it is ready to. Trust the body and be patient with it. It will heal, simply care for it. All body signals work this way too! A cough is there to bring in more oxygen and force out congestion…..don’t take a cough medicine. All that accomplishes is turning of the cough and allowing the congestion to settle and ultimately making you more ill. It goes on and on, there are so many examples. Here is my hope for you: trust your body, be patient with it, and give your body what it needs to work (the above action steps) and then most of the time Innate can take it from there.
I want the most out of life for you and wish the best health possible. Seriously, you need to be at the Concord City Auditorium this Thursday the 15th at 7:30pm to hear Dr. Sigafoose speak. He is my favorite speaker in the health community and we are blessed to have him locally. He travels worldwide. Tickets are $35 at the door but we still have a few left that we purchased so grab them from us for a FREE night out and life changing experience. So what is he talking about? Probably something along the lines of what we teach, in terms of health and healing, but in a manner that is way more elegant, funny, and intelligent than I could ever muster! It going to be a great night! Be there!
-Dr. Graham, chiropractor