Expressing Health First

by Dr. Kathryn Woodall, DC, CST

Dear Friends – RMAXers,

Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.
--Confucius

When I was in grade school, a teacher asked each member of my class to take two facial tissues from our boxes. Then she instructed us to take one facial tissue and tear it into pieces by pulling at each end. We all pulled apart our tissues and had them ripped to shreds in no time. Next, our teacher asked us to twist the other tissue until it was very tight and then to tear it into pieces by pulling at each end. Each student twisted a tissue and enthusiastically tried to tear it apart. To our surprise, there wasn’t a single student who could tear through a twisted tissue. We worked at it and worked at it, but the tissue would not pull apart. The teacher asked us why it was that we couldn’t shred something as flimsy as a facial tissue, and that caused many of us to try with renewed vigor. But try as we might, the twisted tissue could not be pulled apart.

Our habits are a lot like those tissues. Initially they are flimsy and easy to break. But as we wind them into our lives, our habits become cables which can seem unbreakable.

When we all agreed that the twisted tissues were not going to be pulled apart, our teacher asked us to leave the twisted tissues sitting on our desks and to get a new facial tissue from our boxes. She had us twist this new tissue until we were certain that it couldn’t be torn. Instead of having us attempt to tear it when it was fully wound, she told us to set it down and to pick up the other twisted tissue. She instructed that we should try again to tear it. Many of us could now tear the tissue because as we had been winding the new tissue, the old one had unwound itself enough to be broken.

Again, our habits are a lot like those tissues. Sometimes we will obsess over breaking bad habits that we have woven into our lives for years. However, the solution isn’t always to concentrate on breaking an undesirable habit. Often the solution is to form a new, healthy habit. By concentrating on a new habit, the other habit can “unwind” enough for us to successfully break it with greater ease. As an example: instead of trying to stop eating sweets, start building a habit of eating sweets only at the end of a complete, healthy, and filling meal. Don’t save room; don’t wait 20-30 minutes after the last bite of real food; and stick to eating it only if you still want it at the end of a full, balanced meal. You are creating a new habit of giving your body what it really needs when you are hungry, while displacing an old habit.

In some ways we are all kids who need to be told to set down the tissue that is frustrating us and to pick up a new one. If you are learning to ride a bike and someone tells you to watch out for the tree to your left, more often than not you will look at the tree and pedal right into it. This isn’t because you want to hit the tree; it is because the tree is what you are focusing on and are therefore drawn to. If you want a child to stop doing something, instead of just telling her to stop, give her something new to do. If you redirect a child in this manner, eventually she will be able to redirect herself so that you can just tell her to stop. But she must learn the skill first as a result of you showing her how to redirect her attention hundreds to hundreds of thousands of times. The same is true for your adult self. Give yourself something new to focus on, praise yourself when you are successful at it, and eventually you will also be able to tell yourself to stop a behavior you don’t find appealing because you will have learned to redirect yourself.

Consciously choosing your behaviors and actions is part of creating health. When it comes to training, CST practitioners make health their first priority. If you read through the training blogs on the RMAX Forum, you may also notice that learning to prioritize health-first training often spills over into the rest of life. Diets change, undesirable habits fall away, people grow, and there has even been the occasional mention of relationships improving. It doesn’t happen overnight, but most who experience it will tell you that it happens faster than they thought it would.

Jim Rohn says, "You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself." How consciously do you live? More often than not do you let your short term desires win out over your long term desires, and possibly even over your needs? A habit seems like such a small thing at times, but if you study your habits, you may realize that most of them are examples of how you prioritize your entire life. What are your habits saying about your priorities? Are they telling the story you want them to? If not, you are free to create new habits which tell a different story.

Until next time, may your actions today create a healthier you tomorrow.

Best regards,
Dr. Kathryn Woodall, DC, CST

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This column does not form a doctor patient relationship with Dr. Woodall or any guest commentator. You should always seek the guidance of your health care professional(s) prior to implementing changes which might impact your health.

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VOLUME 6 ISSUE 2

ISSN#: 1555-7723

Publisher: Scott Sonnon - Senior Editor: Ryan Murdock - Assistant Editors: Jeanne Gostnell - Adam Skogen - Contributing Editor: Dr. Kathryn J. Woodall, DC

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