This is the time year for resolutions. Resolving to do better, exercise more, eat healthier, be someone different. While resolutions can be a powerful tool for bringing about change in our lives, we often make goals we don’t plan to keep and then beat ourselves up over it. What if this year we instead resolved to love ourselves just as we are. To be thankful for our strengths and our flaws. To know we are created to do great things, and we can do those great things here and now without changing a thing about ourselves. So pick a mantra, like “I totally and completely love myself” and when the doubt sets in repeat it to yourself. Let’s take the Same you into the new year to do big things!
Confidence vs. Competency
My kids often challenge me on an intellectual front, and although entertaining I grow weary of trying to explain how they have a similar IQ to the chair they can’t seem to sit in correctly. They are constantly trying to school me on philosophy, science, language, and especially parenting. While I’m still learning how to parent, I can know for certain that my kids know close to nothing about it. And I’m sure some progressives out there would like to say that kids are innately geniuses and we should let them find their own way. Well, I’m not too sorry to say that kids have fooled you with a veil of confidence and they are far from competent.
This concept doesn’t stop at children. It applies to all demographics, intelligence levels, and subject matter. It is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Without going into much detail two scientists studied and tested this effect and it is visualized in the graphic below.
As you can see, the most confident are the least competent. This has helped alleviate some of the guilt I feel for my inherent ageism for the younger generations. What has also helped is how I can remember being absolutely full of crap when I was younger and how the older generation had no idea.
The takeaway from this “Effect” is: Don’t be fooled by your kids they are far dumber than you, they just have more energy; Don’t go to the hospital in July, that is when the new residents begin; be leary of those who are overconfident, their competency can easily be tested with educated questions; and if you can’t make it-fake it, apparently everyone else is.
Expressing Gratitude
Attitude of gratitude, power of positive thinking, thankful, #blessed, most of us have heard about the importance of showing gratitude and how it can tremendously alter our health. This is so true, but a part of that gratitude we don’t often look at is how expressing it to the people in our life can be beneficial for them.
You never know the struggles someone else is facing. You speaking up and telling them how thankful you are for what they have done, who they are, that they are in your life, may be just the thing they need to face those challenges. (It has also been shown that saying thanks you dramatically increases the chance someone will help you again, so yes there is benefit for you in saying thank you.) It has been shown that people who have been thanked pass it on and thank someone else shortly after. This chain effect is a way helping someone feel valued can go a long way in a world that often seems to be headed in the wrong direction. Small acts of kindness and gratitude are a way we can contribute to a better world.
As a family for the month of November we each write out something we are thankful for daily and hang them in the house, this year we are going to add writing thank you notes to others also.
Keep writing in that gratitude journal, but be sure to also express that gratitude to those around you.
Just Say "No"
“You’ve gotta keep control of your time and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.” - Warren Buffet
“No” is one of the first words we learn to say as a young child, but somewhere along the way we forget how to say it. Saying no to the things that due not serve our bigger picture for our life is vital to your health. Below are tips for saying no polite and firm.
Tips for saying no:
Does this serve the vision I have for my life
“No” is a complete sentence
Give yourself time to respond, don’t just immediately say “yes”
Shift your mindset from “They can’t function without me” to “everyone benefits from me having healthy boundaries
Make your “no” kind, truthful and firm
Start with appreciation, then “no”, and end on a positive note
communicate your “no” in your preferred method of communication
Give an alternative with your “no”
What tips have you used to set boundaries in your life?
Back to School Overwhelm
It is back to school time, no more worrying about summer child care or entertainment, but for many moms a time of overwhelm and stress, as they try to do all the things. On top of that normal work schedule you now need to get the kids out the door on time, pack lunches, send snacks, get sports equipment, be at games, help with homework, the list goes on and on. How can you stop the overwhelm and instead enjoy the stage of life you are in. Here are three tips to get ahead:
Check in with Your Body
Before climbing out of bed and rushing off to the morning to dos take a minute to see how your body feels. Are you waking up already tired? Dehydrated? Do you need better quality food? Do you have aches and pains or imbalanced hormones that desperately need attention? Take a moment to notice these things and then pick one action step to do today that will help you care for yourself in a problem area.
Say “No”
Limit your commitments! Only say yes to things that allow you to live the life you desire! This of course requires knowing what that life looks like and what your core values are. If you need help with this reach out to us, we would be more than happy to help point you in the direction of resources to help you figure this out.
Regular Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care not only helps with this everyday aches and pains, but more importantly it helps balance your nervous system, allowing your body to function optimally. This means you will be better able to handle those everyday stressors to begin with. Call today to set up your appointment!
How do you handle the school year overwhelm? Share your tips with us in the comments.
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"Revolution Chiropractic is a clinic in Oklahoma City that boasts two Board certified chiropractors. It provides treatments that include chiropractic adjustments, functional rehabilitation, nutritional and exercise counseling, nutriceuticals, elastic therapeutic taping, and massage therapy. The clinic specializes in prenatal and pediatric care; it is affiliated with the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, and its patients have spoken highly of the friendly, family atmosphere."
Exercising Dangerously
I have been trying to avoid poking the hive but alas I feel its an imperative now. We have had too many patients coming into see us with low back injuries that have precipitated after exercising. These aren’t small sprain/strains either, they’re structural problems that these people will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. I’ll admit, and even adamantly say, that we need to exercise to stay healthy and prevent injuries. But it seems that there is terrible information and training at some very popular and/or trendy places around the country. It is my job not only to help those that become injured but to help prevent them from injury in the first place. In my attempt to properly educate our patients in what they are and are not supposed to do, I’ve met stiff objection, and blind faith in those that have trained them. It must be nice to have subjects professing allegiance to something they do not fully understand.
I will be explaining some physiological reasons as to why no one--yes--NO ONE, should be doing some of these work outs. I can and will reference research as well, but that would be overkill as seeing our physiology is understood fully already. The workouts that I would like to ban are as follows: over head squats, Romanian dead lifts, good morning stretch or workout, and Roman chair extensions. All of these workouts have a common theme: trunk flexion. There is something called the flexion/relaxation phenomenon. When we break 70 degrees of flexion our trunk stabilizer muscles such as: quadratus lumborum, psoas, and multifidi, turn off. Our large locomotor muscles: gluteus and biceps femoris, turn on. Essentially, we are relying on our structure not muscle to support us.
This is where we damage discs and ligaments as this is where most of the force is absorbed. Once the damage is done our neurological recruitment changes. Our spinatus muscles, which are small muscles that run from spinous to spinous, act like transducers to tell our brain how much tone is to be applied to larger muscles to protect the lumbar spine. It has been proven that after trunk injuries and/or chronic pain is perceived in area of the lumbar spine this neurological mechanism fails to be accurate. Absolute proper form must be performed in order to achieve what these workout are designed to do. But when we exhaust our muscles we tend to recruit improper kinetic chains which result in injury. It is easy to observe proper form but not to know for certain which muscles are being recruited without a needle EMG. That is to say, why don't we eliminate the potential for failure before we start. There are, however, useful exercises for the core and lower limbs which can prevent injury that do not involve truck flexion. Most do not require an enormous amount of weight and they can be incorporated with other exercises. I believe we keep these large lifts around as a way to measure up or compete with one another. Some of this has been reinforced culturally and some has been instilled with a cultish power that is beyond my comprehension.
I understand our goals can differ from another but we all should have safety and accurate teaching as guidelines. Once passing this information on, I receive staunch unsubstantiated rebuttals. I’m still waiting for a decent argument regarding heavy trunk flexion workouts. My purpose for this is to stimulate and inform. I challenge anyone reading to do the research and to question the safety of the exercises that you perform. I would urge everyone to check credentials of any trainer that is in charge of your work out, and to make sure they have a qualified background to guide you. A weekend seminar and piece paper is not sufficient to properly understand and protect your health and well-being. - See more here,