It’s been a massive year for many people in NZ, especially if the clients coming through Spinewave are any indication of the stress most of us have been under.
Hearts and hugs go out to our friends in Christchurch again as the city is rocked once more. We had face-to-face experience at ground zero in February and could not imagine going through it all again now that loved ones are safely in Auckland. It’s taken all this time to recover whilst holding family and business together. I’d like to thank everyone for their love and support this year – friends, family, clients – and trust you are using this time wisely around Christmas to rejuvenate.
The problem with doing what you love is finding that you keep getting drawn back to something worky, without realising it’s work (and being told off). So I write this quickly while no one’s looking.
I came across this image of nerve endings which reminded me of what the goal is this holiday: to repair my brain. Neurochemistry was depleted through worry; sleep abandoned by excess thought; sugar craved because of overstimulation; and toxic free radicals built up under the weight of the world. Modern day stress is an insidious killer that will eventually claw you into Hades faster than time ever will – and you won’t even recognise it until broken and burned out.
Quite simply, the brain controls everything in your body. It perceives the world around you and determines responses to that world depending on its functional capacity. Stress wears that capacity down. It short circuits the spine, and the body’s organs, glands and blood vessels co-ordinate poorly. If you’ve had a stressful year too, let’s get back to basics and remember 10 things you need to do before visiting your chiropractor again next year.
How to make happy nerve endings…
- Sleep more. Formula 1 cars do not constantly drive at 300kph.
- Reduce sugar. Excitotoxins allow more deadly free radicals into nerve endings.
- Move. Don’t lounge around all holiday – get rid of those free radicals.
- Eat healthy. Nourish your nerve endings.
- Breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Reduce alcohol. Damaged cerebellar nerve endings short circuit the spine.
- Reflect. See where you went wrong and create new neural pathways.
- Be grateful. There’s always someone worse off than you.
- Visualise. Create what you want next year in your mind today.
- Have fun. Let go. Move on. Do something that makes you content.
Thank you for your support in 2011.
And now that I’ve been caught working…
Spinewave will reopen on January 10th 2012!
© Dr Neil Bossenger 2011
