Mother’s Day is set aside each year to appreciate the oldest and perhaps most prevalent role in our culture, motherhood. Moms are called upon to raise children, run households, be a neverending source of entertainment and diversion for kids, and address issues that no one else seems to be able to handle.

Moms contribute so much to our upbringing – they can serve as a sympathetic ear, a strong back, a willing taxi driver, an expert manager, a source of wisdom, a cheery voice, and a world class problem solver.

But one of the most important jobs that lands on Mom’s list is to oversee the family health and wellness. Mothers tend to have an intuition, a sixth sense about what’s right for their families. Often, the mother decides what the family eats, which activities are too dangerous to risk, and which doctors the family goes to.

This is why it’s important for mothers to understand the value of chiropractic care for themselves and their families. Often, when Mom begins her own spine and nerve system care with her chosen chiropractor, she opts to bring the children in for a check-up, to be sure that there are no early problems brewing, and sometimes even insists that Dad has to come in to get checked too.

Why do moms tend to care so much about bringing the family in for chiropractic care? Because mothers inherently know what’s good for their family, and keeping everyone healthy is far better than waiting to get sick and then trying to get better, which can be inconvenient, costly and painful.

It’s more logical to stay well than to have to get well, so moms all over the world bring their families in for regular check-ups and chiropractic adjustments when necessary. Faced with ongoing family decision-making, they usually just naturally know the right thing to do, so if you want to know about health, ask Mom!

Getting healthy depends on what you focus on.

This is more than just an interesting idea, it’s an important and valuable reality. Scientists tell us that the experience we have moment to moment and day to day throughout our lives depends on what we focus on. If that is true, it begs the question “What are you focused on?”

During more private moments, it is easier to notice what you are focused on because all you really have to do is “check in” with your internal chatter and how you are feeling. When things are quiet and you can be with your own thoughts, it is essential to notice what they are and make sure they, and you, are focused on the things you want, as opposed to thinking about the things you don’t want.

Why is this necessary? The human mind often does not notice the “negatives” in our thoughts. For example, if I say to you, “Whatever you do, don’t think about a pink polka dot elephant,” you might notice that a “pink polka dot elephant” instantly becomes your focus. This is because the mind ignores the “don’t” part (negative) and goes right to the “think about” part. This happens naturally most of the time in all of us.

So, if you think to yourself “just ignore the things that annoy you about him,” your tendency will be to focus on the “things that annoy you about him,” not the “ignore” — curious, isn’t it?

So, then, how can this support you in being healthier?

Well, what do you think about, when it comes to your health?

Are you thinking of not being sick? Your mind may be tricked into focusing on “being sick,” not the “not.” Are you thinking about not being in pain? Your mind will tend to focus on “being in pain.” Are you thinking about not having trouble sleeping, digesting, or breathing? Your mind will look right at the symptom, not the “not.”

Instead, you could concentrate on being well, feeling great, and sleeping, digesting and breathing well. By paying attention to the way you construct your thoughts, you can choose better words to express your feelings, and guide your mind toward better results.

So, try on, “I am relaxed, and it’s easy for me to fall asleep.” Or, think “my body works well and I am good at digesting my food and breathing normally.”

Or, “I practice good lifestyle habits like eating well, drinking enough water, and getting regular chiropractic adjustments so my spine and nerve system are healthy.” This is the way you can use your mind to help you be healthier.

Could it really be that simple? Clearly, you’ll have to do more to be healthy than just monitoring and managing your thoughts. But most doctors agree, it’s a secret weapon you can use to improve your chances at health and wellness, when you take the responsibility to create the right mental and emotional backdrop to your health habits.

You’ll still need to develop a healthy lifestyle, but if you want to be as healthy as possible, think about it!

Most people, when asked if they are healthy, usually respond based on the presence or absence of symptoms, as if having symptoms means they are sick, and not having symptoms means they are well.

This is a common misconception, fed by the media, by many doctors, and by the giant businesses that thrive on selling drugs and other symptom-removal products.

Actually, while there is a place for this line of thinking, modern-day health consumers realize that they can be sick and have no symptoms, like when someone feels fine but quietly has a serious disease like cancer or heart disease, or when someone experiences pain while not suffering any serious malady, like when you stub your toe or get a splinter.

The way you feel does provide some valuable information, but it is hardly the determining factor as to your level of health. It’s important to understand this in order to know how to properly care for yourself and your family.

So, you may be thinking, if the way you feel doesn’t tell you enough about your actual level of health, then how do you know if you are healthy or not?

Great question – and here’s where you can end the confusion. Unless you have objective, scientific ways of evaluating your health, you can be misled into thinking things are fine when they are not, or scared into thinking something is wrong when it isn’t. But if you have good information, you can make good decisions about your health habits and which kind of care to seek when you need it.

That’s why knowledgeable health consumers develop relationships with health and wellness advisors, to learn about their body function and understand their health status. It’s not foolproof, but it’s better to get regular examinations of your teeth, eyes, skin, heart, spine and nerve system, to be sure you are staying on course and picking up on any deviations from normal before they turn into something unpleasant or dangerous.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so visit your doctor of chiropractic, and ask about how he or she can advise you on the habits and lifestyle decisions that lead to a better quality of life – you’ll be glad you did!

Right about this time of year, many families and households are emerging from their winter slumbers and lifting their faces to bask in the springtime sun.

Whoever is the “neat freak” in the home makes some comment about “spring cleaning,” and the teenagers run for cover, knowing what that means – it’s that time of year to tear things apart, scrub them spotless and reset the environment to make the conditions as beneficial and enjoyable as possible. Leaving no stone unturned, there is washing, straightening, and repair until everything is shipshape.

Why do we bother with spring cleaning? Even those of us who are not especially driven to keep things in order recognize that unless at least around once a year we put some attention into it, there would be a gradual, relentless decline of the appearance and cleanliness of the home, which after a while would be very unpleasant.

So, we choose the arbitrary convention of “spring cleaning” to restore ourselves to at least a neutral position, if not an opportunity to make things a little nicer and a little better each year.

Those of us who adopt the same policy toward our health often improve our quality of life and increase our longevity. Sure, it’s great for those who have the discipline and passion to maintain their bodies meticulously at all times, but most of us are not quite so diligent – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be healthy. Just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something – if you could do a little “spring cleaning” in your body, it would significantly contribute to your overall well-being.

What if you decided to skip the extra dessert or night snacking? What if you got up a little early for a walk in the morning sun before breakfast? What about just sitting quietly for a few minutes each morning to connect with your higher self, or a Higher Power? Could you drink a little less coffee or soda or alcohol, could you choose healthier foods, could you park your car at the end of the lot and stroll a hundred yards to get your blood flowing, or finally quit smoking? Anything you do to make yourself clean out, get strong and move forward is a great gift to yourself.

If you don’t pick a time of year to get back on course, you may experience the same kind of gradual decline that happens to a home without attention. Why not give your chiropractor a call, and he or she can help you put together a “spring cleaning” program for your body that will make you healthier long-term and leave you feeling great!

Who’s in charge of your health? Who makes the best decisions for you and your family? Is it a doctor or other health professional? Or is it becoming increasingly clear that only you can make the most important decisions about your own health?

For many years, the doctor has been revered, looked up to as an important role model, and that should never change.

But ultimately, you are the one who must take the responsibility to choose your daily habits, select which professionals to consult, and make whatever mid-course corrections are required for you to have the best quality of life possible.

Yes, you may depend on doctors like your general practitioner, your chiropractor or your dentist to give you the latest information, either about a health problem or about improving your wellness and peak performance. These experts have been trained to notice, compile and communicate the best ideas and observations, and from there, many people relinquish their control and just accept whatever the doctor says.

It makes more sense for you to be an active participant in your own health and wellness process. Remember, the time you spend with the doctor is a tiny fraction of your overall time – what health choices are you making at all other times? What do you eat, how much do you sleep, what is your typical exercise routine, if any? How often do you visit your dentist, your medical doctor, or your chiropractor for maintenance or wellness care? Which specialists would contribute valuable distinctions to this process? Do you seek out a nutritionist, massage therapists, or personal trainers to help you take your health to a new level of excellence?

It is in no way disrespectful to differ with or expand upon a conclusion your doctor has drawn, especially if you do it respectfully. It’s not that you should ignore your professional advisors, but remember, it’s your body, and you know it and feel it better than anyone else, and ultimately you reap the rewards or pay the consequences of the decisions made, either by you or on your behalf. You can tip the scales in your favor by using common sense and following through on taking better care of yourself overall.

Clearly, in times of emergency, you need to change the balance and receive more input, but even in this situation, unless you are unable to participate, you should still play a major role in the direction of your own health and wellness care.

Putting together your team of health professionals will help you coordinate your and your family’s health and wellness, because the better the information you have to work with, the better decisions you can make. Developing communication among your advisors will coordinate the opinions you receive and give you the final word on what is in your family’s best interest.

The style of health care is changing, and each individual and family will be called upon to add more to health care delivery and to the conditions surrounding their own health and wellness. Stay current by reading, listening to and watching health related information, and put yourself at the top of your health and wellness decision-making team – your efforts will be repaid multifold in the form of a longer, better, less painful and more productive life.

Most of us realize that we live in a cause and effect world. If I touch a hot stove, my hand will burn. If I drive my car and use up all my gas without refilling the tank, I will coast to a stop. If I choose intelligent lifestyle habits and follow through on them, I will improve the quality of my life, cause and effect.

Each of us has a responsibility to observe how this cause and effect relationship influences our lives, so we can make the best decisions possible on our own behalf.

Think for a moment – many people believe that germs cause disease. But if that were true, wouldn’t everyone exposed to the germs get the disease? What could explain why this doesn’t happen? Could it be that it isn’t the germs, but rather the strength and resistance of the individual that determines whether or not he or she will get sick?

This is one of the revolutionary concepts that makes the chiropractic viewpoint on health care different. Instead of fighting germs with medicines, chiropractors work with you to get your body working at peak efficiency, so when you are exposed to germs, your body is stronger, and has a better chance of maintaining good function and good health.

How does the chiropractor do that? Your body’s control center is your brain, and the wiring system that connects the brain to the body parts is the nerve system, which is protected by the spinal bones. When this protective covering is in proper alignment, then the nerves are protected and the information from the brain gets to and from the body parts normally.

But if the spinal bones lose their proper alignment, then the nerves can be injured, disturbed or interfered with, which may or may not lead to pain right away, but surely leads to poorer body function.

If we live in a cause and effect world, then you want to make sure your brain is controlling your body properly. When your brain can connect with your body parts, it causes the effect of better body function and better health. An unhealthy spine causes bad communication, where a healthy spine causes good communication.

Your chiropractor can tell you, whether you currently have pain or not, if your spine is in proper alignment. If anyone in your family has not had a spinal exam recently, schedule a check-up as soon as possible.

Most of us believe that we have only two settings on our own personal Health-o-Meter – healthy, or sick. This over-simplification has been at the root of many health problems – feeling okay usually means that there are no apparent symptoms, but this is no guarantee of good health. Many of the most serious illnesses, including heart disease and cancer, may have no symptoms at all in the early stages.

But there is another issue with measuring your level of health by the presence or absence of symptoms – what most people call “healthy” is really just “not sick,” since most of us have spent so little time at peak performance levels, we don’t even realize what is available to us – glowing, vibrant, exuberant vitality that can be gained with a few simple lifestyle decisions any of us could make if we wanted to.

In the famous Alameda County Study conducted over thirty years in California, there were seven simple lifestyle choices that greatly increased your chance of longevity and better quality of life. These habits are:

1. Eating breakfast every morning
2. Sleeping seven or eight hours each night
3. Exercising regularly
4. Not smoking
5. Drinking less than five drinks at one sitting
6. Maintaining a desirable weight for your height
7. Avoiding snacks

Most of this seems pretty obvious, and none of it seems very difficult, but most of us could do a better job implementing even these basic health practices.

If you were to add to these fundamentals a daily diet of wholesome, natural foods, a process of stress reduction like meditation, prayer or life coaching, and some regular body maintenance like chiropractic care to keep your spine and nerve system healthy, you would be in prime shape to handle all that life has to throw at you, the high points and the challenges as well.

The question we all have to answer is … how much of your potential do you want to express, and what price are you willing to pay to express it? Your answer will shape your health, your success, and the quality of your relationships, too.

Raise your standards and expect more of yourself – you’ll see how small refinements in your typical daily activities can pay you dividends by adding more years to your life and more life to your years.

In the old days, people went to their doctors only when they were sick, usually very sick, received some advice and/or treatment, and then went home to heal, following the doctor’s instructions the best they could.

But in modern family health care, there is more to it. There are any number of health and wellness experts who don’t only help you through health crisis and emergency, but actually make recommendations about how to improve your quality of life and longevity, whether you are sick at this particular moment or not.

Developing a relationship with a team of wellness professionals is one smart way to do it, so you already have experts who know you and your family and can advise you properly, regardless of your current health status. But how do you select the right types of professionals, and once you know what you want, how do you pick someone you can count on?

Medical doctors have divided the body up into an assortment of specific specialties, with doctors whose primary focus might be the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the digestive system, or some other body part. The wellness process is a little different – you may still need a variety of specialists, but you start with the big picture – good body function.

Good body function comes from all the body parts working together in harmony, and that happens through the master system of the body, the brain and nerve system. So, you would want a chiropractor, who specializes in keeping the nerve system working well, to be on the team.

You must provide the right amount of the right kind of fuel for your body to burn, so you’d need someone to direct your attention on nutrition and proper eating habits.

You want to keep your muscles, bones and ligaments healthy, and build strength and coordination, so you must include the right amount of the right kind of exercise, and you may need a personal trainer or exercise physiologist to help you there.

You may need to learn to deal effectively with stress, so you may want to have a massage therapist, meditation teacher, some bio feedback training or a counselor of some sort to help in that area. Often, exercise and good nutrition work hand in hand with stress-reduction techniques to create more inner peace and less irritability in common situations that might otherwise bother you.

When you improve your eating, resting, exercising, thinking, and get your body in better working order, especially your spine and nerve system that control the other systems, it is only logical that you will experience better quality of life – and that’s the point of developing relationships with trustworthy wellness professionals, to enjoy the best quality of life and greatest longevity possible.

Your investment of time, energy and capital in this process takes you closer to that end, so start building your team of wellness advisors now, and reap the rewards for the rest of your life.

Ask your chiropractor about his or her recommendations for lifestyle habits and decisions, and refine your personal and family choices to take you toward health and wellness. Many doctors of chiropractic offer a variety of these services and products in addition to their chiropractic care, while others choose to interface with other professionals in their area to provide their patients with these worthwhile experiences.

Whichever strategy you choose, appreciate the logic of a natural wellness approach, and decide which improvements you’re going to make in your habits and lifestyle choices to move yourself and your family in this rewarding and life-enriching direction.

Most of us have grown up with the idea of the germ theory dominating our thoughts about health – from colds, viruses, infections, and many other maladies, we’ve been trained to think that germs cause disease.

But if this were true, then anyone who was exposed to those germs would get sick, cause and effect. This is not the case, as some people are more susceptible to “whatever is going around” and others rarely if ever get sick.

Is this just the luck of the draw, or are there some observations we can make about those who seem to be stronger, hardier and less likely to succumb to illness?

DD Palmer, the founder of the profession of chiropractic, said that there were three contributing factors to people’s health issues – physical stress, chemical stress, and psychological stress.

Even back in 1895, Dr. Palmer was aware of basic principles that are just as true today – that to facilitate health and prevent disease, we must:

• Make better lifestyle choices about eating and toxicity
• Avoid injuries and repetitive micro-trauma that can wear and tear the body
• Handle significant emotional events to reduce stress and develop an optimistic worldview.

In this way, we can begin to see that health is actually an “inside-out” game, where the condition of the person counts more than the presence of outside invaders like germs.

Take better care of yourself, and you improve your chances of having the “flu bug” skip you next time. If you understand that health really works inside-out, then you’ll take good care of yourself on the inside so you can express your health better on the outside!

Most of us realize that exercise has many benefits, but few understand the best way to exercise. See if you can identify which is a tip and which is a myth:

1. No pain, no gain.

MYTH! There is no relationship between how much you hurt during or after exercise and the ultimate benefit you receive. For most people, exercising moderately provides the desired healthy changes without unnecessary risk.

2. Weight training makes women bulky.

MYTH! It takes a program of significantly overloading muscles to dramatically increase bulk, and women can safely use weights to increase strength, tone muscle and increase lean muscle mass.

3. Exercise is good for seniors.

TIP! The weakness, loss of balance and osteoporosis that often accompany old age are actually improved by regular exercise. Exercise also boosts memory, helps to prevent dementia, and is a great social activity, too!

4. Exercise reduces stress.

TIP! Studies show that regular exercise, as little as thirty minutes three times each week, reduces stress chemicals in the brain and bloodstream.

5. It’s too late for me.

MYTH! No matter what your physical and mental condition, there are suitable and beneficial exercises that match up to your current status. Even sick and disabled people can improve their fitness and wellness with an appropriate program of exercise.

Exercise is one of the hidden assets each of us could cash in on. You don’t need to join a gym or invest in equipment – walking, dancing, yoga, t’ai chi or light aerobics can all be done in your home with a little guidance or instruction, which, if necessary, is usually available at little or no charge on the internet. Check it out, and get into exercise – it will reward you many times over!