Chinese Herbs: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times

In today's world of too-much-hurry and too-much-worry, peace and enduring happiness can be hard to find. In today's high tech environment, the pathway to health remains constant. One sure approach is to look to times past to seek the wisdom of the ancients. Timeless answers apply to today's modern problems. Ancient traditions applied in modern times can restore harmony to a life out of balance—and balance in life is synonymous with good health.

For thousands of years, the Chinese carefully observed and charted the interaction of herbs in the human condition. The Chinese developed a strategy and system of herb use that remains unsurpassed in the world today. Critical in understanding the basics of this complex system is the foundation upon which it rests: Chinese herbal medicine works by restoring natural balance in the body. Everyone has an innate ability to heal. The proper herbs release this divinely-appointed power to heal from within.

The Law of Yin and Yang describes balance. According to this theory, all things can be categorized in this system. Yin and Yang are opposites and yet complimentary traits. For example, view the following chart:

By analyzing the patient's life and health, the corrective treatment can be prescribed. And by careful examination of the patient, a pattern emerges. This pattern is descriptive of the patient's health status. Treatment by herbs or acupuncture is applied to that pattern.

     

As the pattern of health improves, so does the patient's health and well-being. 

It is paramount that the patient understand the focus of the treatment. In Chinese and Chiropractic medicine the focus is on health, not the offending disease. Here is a helpful analogy: Darkness, by definition, is the absence of light. Darkness is actually nothing; just the lack of something. 

Disease, like darkness, is a simple lack of something—specifically a lack of health. In and of itself, disease is really nothing. As a result, the treatment of health is very different from the treatment for disease. The herbs are designed to restore healthy balance. 

This perspective of health and disease is further demonstrated in the following chart:

Chinese herbs are used to restore maximum health. This process can be quick or it may take a long time. The duration, severity and seriousness of the condition, as well as the patient's ability to heal, are all critical factors in determining the outcome and length of care. Old habits often must be changed. Emotions must be harmonious, and lifestyle needs to be consistent with a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

Dr. Olson has been using Chinese herbs in his practice for over 20 years. He studied for twelve years with Master Guo, a sixth-generation Traditional Chinese Herbal practitioner. The use of Traditional Chinese Herbs is the greatest, most intricate system of natural medicines in the world. Many conditions are best remedied through a personalized herbal approach. The power in Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine is that it changes the condition from a diseased state to one of health. Once the condition is changed, you will no longer need to take the herbs.

Guidelines: 

Normal doses for the herb is 3 pills/capsules, 3 times per day (a total of 9 pills of each type recommended). The herbs may be taken with meals. Plan to continue the recommended herbs until you are instructed to stop them. Discuss them at each visit. Normally herbs will show a positive effect within two weeks. 

There should be no side effects: If you experience side effects, stop taking the herbs and contact the Doctor. It doesn't mean the herbs are bad for you, they are just not right for your particular situation. Herbs, when properly applied, are safe. Many news stories have surfaced about dangers with herbs. The fact remains that herbs, properly acquired and utilized, are safe and very beneficial. 

For a wellness program to be complete, herbs should be considered. When harmony is reestablished in the body, harmony in life becomes attainable.

Frequently Asked Questions about Acupuncture:

Q: What is acupuncture?

A: In this treatment, Dr. Olson strategically places extremely thin needles into specific points of your body. The stimulation of these miraculous pressure points will help your body to balance its vital life energy. After the needles are placed, you will comfortably relax in one of our soothing treatment rooms for 15 minutes of energetic rejuvenation.

     Acupuncture is an ancient form of healing originating in China. Its beginnings date back nearly 4,000 years. It began as a philosophy and expanded to become a healing art. The premise is based on the belief that there is a substance that causes all movement and stimulates all life in the universe. This substance they call ‘Qi.’ The best label in our language for this substance in non-religious terms would be ‘life force’ or ‘energy.’ Each and every living being on our planet has this energy in their body. It is channeled in pathways or meridians that run throughout the body. Each meridian connects to a different organ or controls a function in the body.

     If the Qi in the body is of proper quantity and moves freely in its designed pathways, health reigns supreme. When the Qi is out of balance or flows improperly we enter the phase where disease occurs. Disease is when we are not at ease with our environment, and our ability to adapt and react properly is limited. This is when we eventually get ill. Acupuncture is designed to correct imbalance in these meridians to prevent the development of disease as well as to treat problems that may occur in our life.

Q: How does acupuncture work?

A: Acupuncture works by manipulating the energy channels via points along these channels called ‘acupuncture points’ or ‘pressure points.’ Each point has a different effect on the energy in the body. Point selection and the method of working the point is determined. Properly applied needles, lasers, massage, or other forms of mechanical stimulation will ensure correction in the energetic imbalance. When the imbalance is corrected, health returns.

Q: What can acupuncture help?

A: Acupuncture has been used historically for a wide variety of conditions. In our practice, patients who suffered from the following conditions have been helped: multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, headaches of various origins, menstrual problems, infertility, digestive disorders, learning disabilities, joint injuries, arthritic conditions, sinus problems, allergies, frequent colds and flus, depression and many, many more. What acupuncture really treats is health. As your health fully returns, the body fulfills it's innate self-healing work, and symptoms will leave.

The Power of Choice

We always carry this power with us.  We can always choose.  No one can take that power away from us.  We can give it away, but it cannot be taken away.  Viktor Frankl shared this in a powerful way in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning: “The last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

No matter what our circumstance, we choose how we perceive it. 

One of my mentors used to say that “nothing has any meaning but the meaning you give it.” 

Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ said it this way: “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” (Philippians 4:11).

In other words, no matter what your circumstance, you can choose to be
happy, content, humble, in love, in faith, patient, and peaceful.  It is always a choice.  Always.  It is not always an easy choice, but it is always an available choice.  It doesn’t matter what the other person does or does not do.  It doesn’t matter what the other person did or might do.  You have power to choose.  This power will release you from any and all negative consequences of any interaction. 

I once heard a presentation by a lady who had been kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and then survived her captor’s two attempts to kill her.  She escaped, but with permanent facial disfigurements.  A person in the audience asked her, “How does this event effect your daily life?”  She said (according to my memory), “I am not going to give another moment of my life to that man.  He had as much of my life as I am willing to give.  I have let him go and it go.  I am grateful for my life as it is.”

Jesus Christ, in the midst of his crucifixion, the most painful way to die ever devised by man, had the capacity to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

With the idea of choice firmly planted, the opposite of being willing to choose a grateful mindset is the choice to be “a victim.”  This choice, to be a victim, is a very common mindset, and in some parts of society, it is considered a treasured and celebrated “right.”  But as soon as we decide to take on the role of “victim,” we accept a limited field of options in our lives. If we believe ourselves to be victims, we also believe that the only way to escape our negative circumstances is to get others to behave in the way we think they should, to fix the way we feel.  Anytime we give others the power to determine how we feel about something, we surrender to voluntary slavery.  I know that ‘slavery’ is a charged word, but it accurately describes the choice to be a victim: the pain that comes from voluntary slavery is just as real as that which came from the type of slavery that used to exist in our society and still exists in some. 

The problem is that voluntary slavery, or victimhood, is a self-imposed trap resulting from the way we view our circumstances, and we can only be released from that bondage by our own permission.  We have to recognize again our immense power to choose, and the influence that that power has in our life experience, one way or the other—for freedom or for victimhood.

The Bible teaches that “All things work together for good….”  If we believe that, then there is never a cause for letting ourselves be a victim.  

Have a blessed month, and a happy new year!

-Dr. Olson

"O" Zone

This month I want to offer three simple steps to improve your health. If you want to improve your digestion, absorption, elimination and stress levels, all in only one minute a day, keep reading.

Are you ready?

First Step To Better Health

First thing in the morning as soon as your feet hit the floor, drink one large glass of hot water. Then don't eat or drink anything for the next 15 minutes.

That's it. That's all. Just one large glass of hot water. 

What does it do? It warms your stomach, it begins the digestive process and, as a result, the eliminative process. It gives the body the needed clean water, with no job attached; the body doesn't need to process or digest anything. Some people like their coffee or tea. The problem is that those need to be metabolized and digested. It takes work, and they both give the body a job to do. But the pure water cleanses, purges, gets things flowing and will help you develop a great daily elimination pattern.

Do it, and you will find it to be very helpful in your health-enhancing efforts.

Second Step To Better Health

Here is another item that will be helpful: Stop using ice in your beverages. Ice in your water (or other beverages) partially paralyzes your digestive process. All enzyme reactions in nature are temperature dependent. Just like water has to reach a temperature to boil, or freeze, and wax has to reach a temperature to melt, digestive enzymes need to be at a specific temperature to break down the vital life- and health-giving nutrients in the food you eat. Drinking ice water inhibits that process significantly. Stop putting ice in your beverage, which I hope is water, and you will take another big step ahead in your health.

Third Step To Better Health

Have a sincere sense of gratitude for the life you have. It is rare for better to come, until you find the beauty in what you have in the present. Give thanks in all things and you will have what you want at all times.

The Path To Health Doesn't Have To Be Complicated

Some of the most important things you can do for your health are incredibly simple. Take these three basic steps toward greater health, and watch your quality of life improve!

Have a blessed month,

Dr. Olson

"O" Zone - The Race of Your Life

So what race are you running? We run through our lives, judging ourselves by the way others are running, what pace they keep, how hard they are breathing, and if they look more tired than us or not.  

But we usually don’t ask ourselves, "What race are they running?" Some run a sprint. A short burst to get to a short-term goal, without the long term in mind. They can crush our self-image, if we judge ourselves by the way they look in the midst of their race. We will always feel inadequate. 

Or maybe they are running a marathon, or middle distance, or even a half-mile. Each requires different ingredients from the runner. 

Most dangerous is if we are not sure what our race is, but we try to pace ourselves by those around us. We will be exhausted by the sprinters, or bored by the long distance runners.

Object number one is to figure out your own race. What is it? What is the distance you are running, for what reason, and how do you need to run your race according to your gifts and current ability? All these things need to be figured out before we will find comfort or peace in our race. 

I have a friend who shared this personal story with me: 

“I was a bad runner. I saw myself as a bad, SLOW runner, not competitive, and heavier than most runners. For the first year and a half of races that I ran in, I cried. I cried because I was embarrassed by my obvious weaknesses. I was so slow compared to others. 

“When I was out running one day, I started wondering why I've continued to run although I still carry the same weaknesses, and at what point did I stop crying? After about a year and a half of running it had started to get a little easier for me. I didn't wear out quite as fast and, because I didn't have a competitive nature, I never worked to be faster. 

“In one race, I was running by a girl who was having a harder time than I was. I encouraged her along, building up, and complimenting wherever I could. We finished and went our own ways. The next week, our cross country coach got a letter from her parents. They said that whatever I had said had made a huge difference in their daughter’s life, and to please thank me.  

“When you're in the back, you're around people who are usually really struggling, who are in a lot of pain and want to give up. As I continued running, I kept helping all those people I was around. I would talk to them and motivate them and tell them to stick with me because I had a very slow pace and I could help them finish the race. In the beginning a lot of my teammates told me that if I had the energy to talk I had the energy to run faster but I didn’t really because I really am just slow. (Don't get me wrong: I'm sure if I worked super ultra hard I could do it, but that's not the point.) My coaches kept getting letters from other coaches thanking them for me and the help that I offered people on their team. I was often able to stop for people who were hurt or felt sick and either get them through the race or get them to help if they needed it. Even parents from other teams were writing my coaches. It wasn't before long that my entire team started to emulate my actions.

“Seven years later, I still considered myself a bad runner. But one day, I realized that I'm not a bad runner. I am a great runner…I had only considered myself a bad runner. But what I realized in that moment was that I am a slow GREAT RUNNER. And it must be said in that order: I’m not a great slow runner because that emphasizes SLOW. By saying slow GREAT, I am acknowledging that I am indeed slow but what I really am is a great RUNNER because I was slow.”

This friend’s race was more about helping others than helping self. Her greatest wish was to nurture another fellow traveler in life, rather than to acquire accolades. As a result, she healed herself in the process of helping to heal others. Her race was to serve. 

What is your race about? Once you know, the stress is mostly gone. The tears dry, and we rarely look around to see how others are running their race and compare; either them to you, or you to them. 

Decide, what race you are running, then get going and have fun at it! Enjoy the journey!  

Have a blessed month,

Dr. Olson

"O" Zone

OUR STRESS ALLOWANCE SYSTEM

"Paddy Field And The Mountain" by Detanan, freedigitalphotos.net

• An allowance is a predetermined amount of something we are willing to tolerate.

• How much stress will you tolerate?

• What happens when you hit your allowance of stress? You change and grow, or you get sick and eventually die if the stress is severe enough.

How do we defeat stress?

• The only way to defeat stress is to outgrow it. 

• How do you outgrow stress? By realizing it doesn’t exist: Stress is a by-product of not getting what you want. If you change your mind about what you want, stress can go away. All of us have been in stressful situations. Most of us could see no clear way out of or around that stressful situation. Yet, we have all navigated it successfully, and would admit that we are a better person for having gone through it.   

• How so? Stress is always a lie, a misperception. When we see things the way they really are, stress goes away. We are counseled in the Bible to "give thanks to God in all things," and that "all things work together for good." If this is true, and I know that it is, then every situation in life is for our best good. Our challenge is to see it clearly, and as it really is. If we can do that, our stress is relieved and we come to understand that there is no stress in reality, only in our misjudgments and misperceptions. 

• Stress can’t tolerate the full light of truth. When we see "things as they really are and as they really will be," we are freed from stress. Christ taught that, "... ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

The Grand Key to Defeat Stress

• Develop your spiritual reality to a higher level. Regular, determined spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, pondering, reading holy writ, and going outside of your comfort zone to serve another will refine your spiritual perspective. It will take some time, but it will have steady and consistent impact.  

• Find your purpose in life. Continually challenge it. Make it better and better, until it is perfect. In a perfect life, meaning a perfectly faithful life, “the Master prefers what occurs.” There then is no stress. 

• Stress in life is a curse and a gift. It is a curse because it makes health disintegrate. It is a blessing because it is a Geiger counter for an inner lack of congruence. If we will listen carefully to what the cause of our stress is, allow it to lead back to ourselves, and seek the inner changes we need to make to vanquish the stress, we will step up to a new, higher level of health and well-being than we have ever enjoyed before. Learn from your stress. 

Have a blessed month,

Dr. O.

The "O" Zone

The Eight Taxes On Your Health

I don’t want to make this too political, but I have learned something about health from our government’s policies. Every so often—about monthly, it seems nowadays—the government comes down with a new rule. These rules are supposed to be good for us. But, invariably these rules require additional time, effort, staff and cost to comply with. A few years ago we got the OSHA guidelines that require us to have MSDS sheets (a list of the chemicals in the workplace and the steps to take in case of poisoning, etc.) readily available on every chemical in our office. Now, that’s not a bad idea, but it does require monitoring and maintaining; I figure to the tune of about $200 a year. This additional cost of doing business is the by-product of the government’s reach into our lives. 

In actuality it is not a cost of doing business, but it is a cost of government intervention. I like to call it another “tax.” It drains the supply of available equity to use in life. It really isn’t a tax, but it is no different when it is all said and done, other than the fact that it is far more efficient than a tax. I could number many, many more such “taxes,” that are actually costs of being governed. Who pays for that? Ultimately, you do as the consumer. I can swallow a few of these taxes, and most are far more expensive than that particular OSHA regulation but, ultimately, I have to raise my fees to be able to stay in business, and you end up paying for these government “taxes.”

Now, I got thinking, how do we TAX our health? What do you take into your body—I will refer to those things as "taxes"—that reduces the equity you have to operate in life? If you are feeling fatigue, pain, stress, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, weight gain, or lack of enthusiasm about your life, you are being over-taxed. Consider where those taxes come from and how you can reduce the unneeded taxes on your health. We take in foods that sometimes are a big tax to our health, and sometimes we take in non-foods, like soda, that are very taxing to our health.

Here are the eight highest-cost taxes I see in people’s lives in today’s world:

Soda, Candy, Ice cream: Sugar, Corn Syrup and artificial sweeteners cause serious taxation in our bodies. They deliver little if any nutrient, but require massive resources to react to, process and cleanse them out of our systems. 

Alcohol, Cigarettes: These tax our livers, lungs and probably almost every other system in the body. While small amounts of alcohol can have some benefits, the net effect in society is massively negative. Modern tobacco products have no redeeming benefits as we use them. 

Air Pollution: Remedies are difficult, but the harm is hard to argue with. 

Pasteurized Dairy: This is difficult to digest, and causes so many problems in the body. Let’s get our calcium from the same sources as do the cows: green leafy vegetables. 

Refined whole grain products: White flour, etc. These cause massive inflammation in our bodies, and are very stressful to our digestive system. No fiber and a very high glycemic index, which stresses our sugar handling system, causing an increased release of insulin, which causes weight gain, inflammation and an increase in hunger and appetite. If you want to pay that tax, munch away. If you think the price is too high, reconsider.

Modern animal proteins: Too many chemicals, hormones and drugs get passed into our system for them to safely process. Even if the meat is healthy, we should keep it to a very modest level of consumption.

Stress: We are going to talk about stress, but what I mean by stress is unhealthy stress, or Dis-stress. Stress is a choice. If we don’t like the feel of the stress, all we have to do is to change our attitude about our circumstances. There are many approaches to that process, but the key is that it always works. Stress is a killer, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter what you know, it is what you don’t know that will help you out of stress: stress demands that you ask better questions, that you change your view of yourself and of others. It demands change. When you change in a healthy way, stress melts away like the frost of late spring in the morning sun. 

Structural misalignments: These are energy drainers. It is just like if your car had a bad misalignment. It would still run, but the operating costs just got a lot higher. Tires, tie rods, fuel, steering mechanisms, etc., will all wear out and be used up more quickly. Keep your spine in alignment! It removes one more burdensome tax on your health and thus on your quality of life. 

If you are TAXING your health, stop it. Rethink. Is it worth the cost to the rest of my life? What are you not able to do because of the taxes you are paying on your health and wellbeing? Is your health tax too high? You are the only person who can change it. Get started today. Make a decision to choose more wisely and to act more intelligently.

"O" Zone

Health, like success, is neither magical nor mysterious. They are the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals."  (Derived from a quote by Jim Rohn) 

What are the fundamentals of not good, but great Health?

Read on only if you are truly willing to change your life.

To every person who seeks help in resolving symptoms, improving their quality of life or trying to seek answers to a condition that they don’t yet understand: In this adventure, there are a few very common chasms that must be crossed. 

•      The first is the sincere desire to be truly healthier. 

•      The second is the ability to act out of a creative mindset.

•      Third is to be willing to sacrifice the mindset that allowed the condition to grow, mature and thrive. 

Everyone wants the benefits of great health. But how many can manage the responsibility? "Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves" (Friedrich Nietzsche). There is a responsibility to freedom, and great health is a freedom, and it takes a will to use it. It takes a will to choose to honor your higher self. It takes a strong will to choose consistently to be conscientious in your choices, and motives. Our will is controlled by our kidneys. The kidneys are analogous to the winter, the emotion of fear, the ears, the bones, and the low back. When we strengthen the kidneys’ energetic function, all these functions become stronger, including our will. Fear weakens the will. When we allow fear to provide counsel to us, we are gradually weakening our will. If we fear our pain, our financial ability to pay, or our future life as it may be if our condition does not change, we weaken our kidneys—and thus our will to act, and our power to be creative.

To act in a creative mindset is vital to improving our health. Health is not something you get from taking a pill, eating differently or beginning an exercise program. Health comes by changing the very way you look at the world around you as well as the world inside of you. You must see yourself in a powerfully creative way. Creativity comes from a vivid internal picture of the state you want to create. The blueprint to the building, or your new and improved health, needs to be complete before you progress very far in the construction of your new dynamic health. How do you want to feel? How much energy do you desire? How much pain do you want? How do you want to feel emotionally? What are you going to give to the universe, your fellow beings and God, to justify that gift of health? Why should you have this level of health? So you wont suffer? That isn’t a good enough reason. Be creative with your life and your potential. Why should you have this amazing gift? 

We desire the benefits of a healthy life, but are reluctant to invest in it.  The age-old debate between quality of life or quantity is an ongoing problem in our society. The vast majority of people, if asked to choose, would pick a high quality of life over a long life with poor quality. Yet, we live in a society that denies that belief. The major causes of death of our time: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and iatrogenic causes are all diseases of choice. Lifestyle choices are the major factors in diminishing our life quality and shortening what could be a very long life. Yet, as we make these choices, we bemoan the fact that we experience pain, limitation or suffer in some way, even as we continue to practice the habits that lead to illness and eventually disease, poor quality of life and premature death. 

As we experience physical, emotional and spiritual discontentedness, we seek to stem the flood of the discomfort with little consideration for the lack of integrity that caused the problem in the first place. 

Be willing to give up the old mindset that has created this level of health in the first place. Your mind is the most powerful instrument in the formation of your level of well-being. More powerful than your genes, your circumstances, your likelihoods and even possibilities. You can have a one-in-a-million chance of a recovery, and capture it because of your mindset and thoughts. But this can only happen if you cultivate the mindset that can perform the unusual and amazing feat of spontaneous healing. This mindset is the exact opposite of the mindset that causes disease. That means that if you are ill, you must go in a 180-degree direction to the one in which you are now traveling, at least in those aspects that are causing the dis-ease in you. Be willing to sacrifice those emotions, feelings and beliefs and habits that have contributed to your unhealthy state. Be willing to give up the benefits of your illness: the attention, freedom from responsibility, ability to say no, the self-criticism, spite, or the way to punish others for your illness. Whatever these limiting thoughts are, be willing to give them up. With the first two steps—desire and the ability to be creative—your pathway to a freer, clearer life is open for you to travel at your will. 

The "O" Zone

Are you adapting to, supporting, or correcting the real problem?

Our Health is the foundation of all our life experience.  Each day you create memories.  The better your health, the finer, more desirable and choice will those memories be.  Good health leads to greater optimism, more energy to do more, greater clarity about life’s potentials and purposes, and the ability to reach toward those noble possibilities.  There is no life event that will not be finer and more special, experienced from a place of vibrant health rather than otherwise. 

If you want your life to be the best it can be, you must approach the issue of health in all its five areas: Spiritual, Emotional, Nutritional, Structural, and Energetic.  Remember that health is the ability to comprehend yourself in your environment, or circumstance, as you really are in each of those five areas.  Let’s abbreviate these five areas into Health S.E.N.S.E.  I think we can all agree that any symptom, condition, pain, or otherwise unhealthy state is caused by a departure from a balanced and vibrant S.E.N.S.E. of health.  So when you get a condition, are you caring for the S.E.N.S.E., or for the condition?  Think about it.  Is that elevated blood pressure a result of an imbalance, or the base level problem?  Do you then adapt to it, support it, correct it or aggravate it?  What about thyroid problems, back pain, headaches, or emotional problems?   How do you deal with these situations? 

 

Photo by nuchlee

Here is a vital question to ask yourself: Is the problem (like a pain) the problem, or a result of the problem?  If you think the pain is the problem, you will do all you can to get rid of the pain, at almost any cost.

What about high blood pressure?  This can be caused by stress.  How does stress cause an elevation in the blood pressure?  One mechanism is that chronic stress secretes a hormone called Cortisol.  Cortisol forces blood from the vital organs to the muscular tissue as a response to help us fight or flee from our stressors.  Eventually the organs begin to be starved of blood and accumulate toxins as a result of poor circulation.  Blood pressure is raised as a last ditch effort of the body to provide more oxygen to the vital organs and purge out the heavy toxins that poison our system.  We discover that our blood pressure is high and adapt to it by taking drugs for the rest of our lives to lower blood pressure, thus starving our vital internal organs of needed nutrient and actually facilitating the deadly accumulation of toxins in our vital organs.  Is this a good choice?  Why? Because you are just adapting to a symptom rather than fixing the problem.  What is the real problem? Stress.

Many drugs support our lifestyle, but don’t allow a cure.  We must take them for the rest of our lives.  Studies show that over 80% of all drug prescriptions are lifetime prescriptions.  That means that they don’t fix the problem, just help us adapt to certain aspects of it.  But they do allow us to live with less doubt than before.   The very popular drug Lipitor is an example of this response.  Lipitor lowers cholesterol.  This is good, isn’t it?  We have been told that cholesterol causes heart attacks.  Is this right? Actually, the cause of cholesterol plaquing on the inside of vessel walls has more to do with inflammation than with the cholesterol levels.  Out of 10,000 people studied, Lipitor had six fewer heart attacks than the placebo group.  This is trumpeted as “a significant reduction” in the rate of heart attacks.  Six out of 10, 305 is a significant reduction?  This comes at a cost of over 9 billion dollars a year, that amounts to more than 1 million dollars an hour, every hour, every day of the year.  

Do you want to adapt, support or correct the problem?  How do you correct it?  What is the cause of the cause?  Look at the symptom and go backwards:  What in your lifestyle can create that problem?  What manner of thinking?  What imbalance in nutrition?  What lack of spiritual understanding?  What structural problem that causes a nerve system imbalance?  Is it an energetic problem?  How do you know? 

Are you looking for the cause of the cause?  Keep asking questions until you get to this level of reality.  Then set a course to correct it and you will help to heal you body, mind and spirit.  An example of this is a lady who was seeking care for infertility and said that after getting healthier, she realized she didn’t need to get pregnant to be whole and healthy.  She elected not to have another child.  Not only was her body healthier, but her mind was clearer and her self image more whole. 

What do you want your life to be like?  Identify the factors that you want in your life.  Take just a minute.  Write them down.  If you really want a more complete life, you will do this now. 

Now, schedule a time to come in and let’s create a plan to obtain the health needed to have that kind of life.

Welcome to spring, and may your life be more whole and complete than ever before.

-Dr. Olson

The "O" Zone

Photo by Exsodus

In our last Ozone (which can be found here) we promised we would talk about how to attract into life what you really want. 

A few years ago, there was a book called "The Secret." This book promised to describe this process. In my opinion, it talked about half of the process of creation. Due to time and space, I will not review what the book taught. But it only taught half of the process of creation. 

There is a trap in seeking to create, in that it is usually based on want: “I want a new car.” “I want a better paying job.” “I want to live the life of my dreams.” “I want to be financially independent.” “I want my spouse to be more caring.” “I want my friend to apologize to me for that mean thing they said to me.”

The problem arises when we want things, but don’t know why we want them. 

If the new car is supposed to establish an image in the eyes of your peers, then you have to ask why you think you need a car to demonstrate what you are inside. For instead of addressing the inner issue, you are only addressing the surface issue with the status-mobile. 

But the energy of creation is based on your core needs, or as Dr. Demartini says, “your innermost dominant thought or desire.” 

What is your innermost dominant desire? Do you really know? It is at this level of your being that the energy of creation is controlled.

What does this have to do with health? I’m glad you asked; read on.

A thought came to me in my morning prayers today: “In order to create what can be, we must consciously live in what really is. In order to live in what really is, we must see things as they really are.”

This next idea is a really important one. Please pay close attention: In order to see things as they really are, we must not be looking at life through our pain or illnesses, but through the lens of our health. If our motivation is to get away from our pain or our illness, we will probably not be successful. If however, our intention is to learn and grow because of our illness or our pain, we have a much better chance of succeeding. 

Remember, health is the ability to comprehend myself in my environment, Spiritually, Emotionally, Nutritionally, Structurally, and Energetically. It is not a lack of symptoms, disease, or pain—it is an awareness. An awareness of what those things are made of, and why they are present. It is an awareness of what they really are. This correct awareness will always (yes, I use that word cautiously and correctly) be accompanied by peace and gratitude. 

So in order to create what you want, you must understand what it really is that you want. Is it a new car, or is it a better self-image? Is it a new lover, or is it the validation that comes from being loved? Is it a college degree, or is it your parent’s validation? Is it money, or is it the belief that with that money, you will finally be safe from your fears? 

In each of these cases, the desired outcome will not address the real problem. As a result, you will not get what you are seeking, unless that item is to bring pain or, in other words, transformational humility. For the things that do come into our lives in these cases will actually make life more painful. When this happens it is a sure sign we are off-purpose. 

The best course to get what you want is to seek true health, not relief. If health is your guide, you will find true happiness sooner than with any other course. 

I want to use a story to depict this process. Let’s imagine a boy (a good boy, but not a very noticeable boy) who goes to church one day and is taught that if we ask of God, we will get. If we seek, we will find. He goes home and thinks about this. There is this girl at school, a cheerleader; actually, she is THE cheerleader. She is so beautiful. He believes that if she would just notice him, she would like him. And if she liked him, all of his problems would melt away. He decides that if he had a red Ferrari, she would not only notice him, but be attracted to him. So he prays, and prays, and prays all afternoon, and into the night, asking that when he wakes up in the morning, there will be a nice new shiny red Ferrari in his driveway.

In the morning his eyes snap open. He leaps to the window, and looks down on his driveway, expecting his new car. 

Will it be there? 

Nope! 

Why not? Read on.

Well, he is in a pretty bad mood all morning. As he walks into school, he shoves the door open with a little extra animus, and the door bangs into the back of someone. Well, not just someone, but into the school bully, Bobby. Bobby doesn’t take kindly to that, and grabs him, punches him, steals his lunch money, and leaves him in a heap on the floor, more angry than ever. 

Every day after that, despite the boy’s best efforts, Bobby would find him and punish him again, and again. Each time is humiliating and frustrating.  He starts getting stomachaches in the morning. He gets moody, and even more distant from others than ever before.

The year creeps painfully along, until one day when a friend in his band of nerds mentions that he has enrolled in a martial arts class. He says his Sifu is just like the guy in The Karate Kid. He invites his picked-on buddy to come to class with him. Probably due to sheer desperation, the boy accepts the invitation. Surprisingly, he loves the class. The Master is so cool. The boy signs up for classes and keeps going even after his nerdy friend drops out. The boy has a natural ability that he didn’t know was there. He and the Master get along really well, and he gets a lot of special attention. As school ends, he is at the studio almost every day. His Master puts him in some competitions, and he does really well, again showing a natural latent talent. His Master doesn’t only teach him martial arts, but he also teaches him of a new way of looking at life and himself. His confidence grows. He starts carrying himself differently, and starts thinking about himself differently. 

The first day of school, he walks in the front door, and bangs the door into someone: Bobby. Bobby reaches out, grabs the boy’s shirt, looks in his eyes, and pauses. There was now something of the tiger in this kitten. Bobby quickly decides this tiger shouldn’t be messed with. He reluctantly says, “Good to see you again,” and walks off. The boy is stunned. He and the Bully Bobby, actually become friends. He suddenly becomes noticed at school. Kids who hadn’t noticed him before, now want to be his friend. In his newfound confidence, he not only accepts their friendship, but becomes a friend. He lifts up those he is around. Instead of needing their validation, he actually gives them validation.

One day THE cheerleader talks to him. He is incredulous. But, there is another girl, a really nice girl that he kind of likes more. He and the cheerleader become friends, but this other girl is different. She is special. 

The boy’s prayer was answered. He attracted into his life exactly what he really wanted: confidence and a good self image. God gave him Bobby instead of a red Ferrari.

So again, what is your innermost dominant desire? If you choose health as your guide, you will find true happiness sooner than with any other course. 

Have a blessed month,

Dr. O.

"Yin Yang Symbol" by Exsodus, freedigitalphotos.net

The "O" Zone

     We call the system we all engage in, “Health Care.” I hope each of us is interested in our health. I hope that each of us makes a sincere effort to continually nurture and improve our health. Remember that health is not the lack of symptoms, and the presence of symptoms shouldn’t be the focus of our efforts in health care. 

     Often we are interested in our pain, discomfort, distress, dis-ease, dysfunction, depression, anxiety, indigestion, or weakness. It would be wise if we focused, instead, on the lesson we can learn from our symptoms. From our pain, we can learn to be more present, from our distress we can learn to be more creative in our view of our circumstances. Each of our symptoms brings lessons. 

     I find that almost all people want what they want. Of course, why wouldn’t we? We all want abundance, ease, comfort, indulgences in food and entertainment. We want easy relationships, co-operative children and spouses. A peaceful work environment, a job that entertains us, challenges us in only the ways we like, and pays us abundantly for our contribution of time, not necessarily value. 

     We want life to fall in line with our views. When it doesn’t, we try to fix it. We try to make it fit our image of what we think it is suppose to be like. We try to get others to behave the way we think they should, to preserve our comfort. 

     Life is not designed to preserve our comforts. Indeed, the very nature of life is to challenge our capacity, our ability to grow and adapt and to transcend the mundane cycles of our comfort zones. The more we resent the interruption of our comfort, the less likely we are to transcend the spiritual malaise that led to the dis-eased state in the first place. 

     I believe that our diseases are an attempt of life to create a state of growth and transcendence within us, rather than a punishment or a state of discomfort that we should try to conquer and beat into submission so we can once again get what we want. 

     Health is not the byproduct of a behavior or a set of behaviors. It is the byproduct of a becoming, not a doing. We don’t find health by eating a certain way. We don’t find health by exercising. We don’t find health through meditation, contemplation, rumination or elimination. 

     We find all of those things by choosing a healthy intention and purpose and then pursuing it with vigor. 

     So what is your intention? What is your purpose? 

     What is a healthy intention? What constitutes a healthy purpose? 

     This will get deep quickly. Read on at your own peril. 

     A healthy intention is one that creates optimal health, in you and in your environment (that means other people in your environment as well). It is an intention that looks outward, rather than inward. 

     I remember talking to a patient who said her purpose in life was to take care of her dogs. Was that looking outward, or inward? It could be either, so how can we know which it was? By looking at her health. It was failing. If she continued on her existing health trajectory, she was going to pass on from this life about the same time as her dogs did, around the age of 50. In this case, her purpose was not enhancing her health, it was detracting from it. So, it would seem her desire to take care of her dogs was a self-serving desire—possibly because they were safe for her. They would never reject her nor traumatize her, unless they left her, and they would only do that by dying. So her desire to care for her dogs was possibly an attempt at self-protection. 

     Another patient said she wanted to see more of the world before she passed on. I suggested to her that the world didn’t need to be seen by her, that her intention was self-centered. We then discussed the notion of a purpose that would be other-centered instead of self-centered. She came up with a beautiful other-centered purpose: To learn how to heal cancer from within—and this was her 5^th time having breast cancer—so she could teach others how to live so they could transcend cancer. 

     So, what is your purpose? Is it self-centered or is it other-centered? If it is other-centered, how pure is that intention? A wise prophet once stated, “When [you] are in the service of your fellow beings, [you] are only in the service of your God.” 

     Any self-centered intention or purpose lacks the power necessary to attract the ingredients of good health into your life. 

     Next month we will talk about the mechanics of how we attract things into our life.

     Have a blessed holiday season,

     Dr. O.