Paradigm – is your map current?
Paradigms are an important aspect of creating health…they are the maps that we use to shape our experiences and behavior. This is the third (and final) installment from the basics of creating health as first published in the RMAX Magazine. (Volume and issue are listed below.) As the new year rolls around and people begin thinking about their health goals, hopefully the last three posts give them something to work with.
Dear Friends – RMAXers,
When it comes to creating physical health, the following choices are big factors:
- the food we eat
- the amount and type of movement we engage in
- the thoughts we have which are incorporated into our paradigm
Our food contains the building blocks for our bodies. Our food can be whole and contain optimal building blocks or it can be highly processed with very few building blocks. When we don’t get enough whole foods or we eat too many processed foods, illness and injury will result over time from the lack of building blocks. Choosing to use too many blocks will lead to storage issues such as obesity. The ideal option is choosing to use high quality building blocks in the amount that our bodies need to build, repair, maintain, and function optimally.
Our motion helps to distribute the building blocks we give our bodies and helps our nervous system interact with its environment. The role appropriate motion plays in creating health is too often overlooked.
In a discussion regarding how thoughts affect health there will be one side claiming your thoughts create your reality. That side would conclude that you are your thoughts. There will also be another side stating that thoughts are learned patterns and changeable habits. That side would conclude that you aren’t your thoughts. While they may seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, both sides are right. Your thoughts can help to shape your reality but not all thoughts need to be accepted as unchangeable reality.
Our thoughts serve to form a sort of map for us. They influence where we want to go, help us determine where we currently are, and warn us of dangers or delights which might be ahead. As with any map, it is only helpful as long as it is accurate. Since time changes almost everything, our maps will also need to change throughout our lives if they are to be helpful. A map formed by our thoughts can be called a paradigm. I believe that our thoughts affect our health when we choose, either consciously or by default, to incorporate them into our paradigm.
If thoughts do not affect us unless we incorporate them into our paradigm, why does it matter what we think? It matters because those things which become familiar to us become “truth” for us. So the things we repeat to ourselves can be incorporated into our paradigms, our map of how we view and interact with the world, without making the conscious decision to place them there. That is why one group says that your thoughts create your reality.
However, it is possible to realize that something which is very familiar is none-the-less inaccurate. An individual may question a recurrent thought and realize that the current map he is using contains errors. That is why the other group says that you are not your thoughts.
It is the thoughts you allow to repeat and those you accept as truth which create your paradigm, and the paradigm is what we are interested in when it comes to your health. If your paradigm says that you don’t deserve to be happy, that exercising only counts if you do it until you hurt, that you have to clean your plate because there are kids starving somewhere, or includes any other version of what some call reality, can you imagine how each of those “facts” will ultimately affect your health? Consider how life changing it could be for someone to question and challenge the paradigm linked to the voice in his head trying to get him to believe that he will never succeed. For a more in-depth view of this, see Coach Scott Sonnon’s Body-Flow™: Freedom from Fear-Reactivity book .
Now that we have explored how thoughts and paradigms affect your health, here are a few steps you can take to begin to be conscious of how your current thoughts are impacting you.
Step 1: Become aware of the thoughts you currently have. Take a few days to notice how many “I want,” “I need,” “I’m so,” “If only,” and “I have to,” thoughts you have. It may surprise you to realize that the majority of the chatter comes from things that were said to you by parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches, classmates, TV and radio shows, etc. Keep track for a day or two so that you have an indication of the inventory of your thoughts and write down the ones that occur most often as well as those which carry the largest amount of emotion with them.
Step 2: Realize that the reoccurring thoughts you have are at least to some degree habit and that while they occur often, they might not be true.
Step 3: Evaluate each thought from your written list to decide if it is valid and helpful. If it isn’t accurate, discard it.
If you catch yourself thinking something false, stop yourself and make the statement accurate. For example, “I’m so stupid” can be changed to “I can learn a better way and try again.” Keep in mind that the voice always encouraging you to do a little more also needs to be investigated to make sure that it isn’t pushing you into fatigue, illness, and injury. That aspect needs to be reminded that more isn’t better.
Step 4: Each night before going to bed, pick one positive attribute you have and write it down in a single sentence. Repeat it to yourself upon waking and at each meal the next day. It is also OK to substitute a sentence about something positive in your life. The point of this is to learn to dwell on the positive and to teach you that you get to choose what it is you think about.
In closing, remember that failure is part of learning any new skill. Attempting a task, making mistakes, adjusting, and trying again are all part of the equation which equals success. We fall on our duffs when learning to walk, we crash our bikes when learning to ride, we break our hearts when learning to love, and we face our deepest fears while learning to release them. We rage against those failures but if we look back we realize that as long as we kept trying, they were just part of the process. They might have even been necessary to carry us to the next level — to convince us that there has to be something better than what we feel now and to fuel our desire to experience it.
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.
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 5
ISSN#: 1555-7723
Publisher: Scott Sonnon – Senior Editor: Ryan Murdock – Assistant Editor: Jeanne Gostnell – Contributing Editor: Dr. Kathryn J. Woodall, DC
© 2007 RMAX.tv Productions All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
Nothing within this magazine intends to constitute an explanation of the use of any product or the carrying out of any exercise, procedure or process introduced by or within any material in the magazine. This site and its officers and employees accept no responsibility for any liability, injuries or damages arising out of any person’s attempt to rely upon any information contained herein. Consult your doctor before any exercise selection or program.
The opinions expressed and published on this web site are purely those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of RMAX.tv Productions, Scott Sonnon, the RMAX Staff, or any other person or organization.
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