When I celebrated my 40^th birthday last August (the staff in our office joke that I take the entire month of August to celebrate my birthdays), I decided that I would make every effort to live my life to the fullest from that point forward.  I would no longer put off taking those long weekend trips when the opportunities arose, I would indulge myself on occasion with ice cream when I felt like it, and I would stop waiting for someday to arrive to do the things I enjoy doing.  While I have been pretty good about not delaying my gratification, I have also become quite reflective in trying to make sure I am not missing anything and am doing all I can to be the best friend, doctor, boss, aunt, sister, and daughter I can be.  Lofty goals with an almost Pollyanna theme, I know, but I was up for the challenge. As August is just around the corner again I look back on the work I have done on me since last year and realize that I am a work in progress. When people ask how I am, I often answer that I am almost perfect and there is always room for improvement.  We are all almost perfect because we would not need to be here in this realm to learn lessons if we were perfect. I was talking to one of our staff members about life in general a couple of weeks ago and remembered a principle I was introduced to while I was a student at Life University.  I shared it with her and thought I would make some comments on it for this week’s column.  It is not specifically about chiropractic or about health but can change everything in your life if you let it.

I was introduced to Dr. Donald Epstein when I was in school because I attended every lecture I could to soak up all the chiropractic technique and philosophy that were available to me while I had it at my fingertips.  On the night I went to hear him speak he was discussing the subject of the Boomerang Principle, a book he had recently written.  The Boomerang Principle states very basically that what goes around comes around but with interest.  According to Dr. Epstein, we are all born with an imbedded boomerang of sorts that is the core of our make-up.  As more people become aware of the boomerang that we all control and how to use it the world can evolve into a much more peaceful, loving place to be.  It works something like this: imagine having a boomerang in your hand and into the boomerang you have the power to encode anything you want.  You know before you do this that as you release the boomerang it will travel the world and bring back to you whatever you send out but more of it.  Sending out a boomerang full of hate, criticism, anguish, spite, and absolute disregard for others will bring back a life full of all of those negative things and more.  It will also attract to you all the boomerangs of other people who have sent out the same types of negativity.  Soon you find that you have absorbed into your own being the hardships you sent out and a dwindling spiral sucks you in.  Failure, poverty, pain and generalized unhappiness follow the darker side of this boomerang.

On the other hand, you have the power to encode into your boomerang health, prosperity, peace, friendships, generosity, love and joy.  As you release your boomerang to the world the magnetism of it brings to you all of these things and much more.  Your boomerang travels the world and attracts the people who celebrate life to its fullest. These people make conscious choices to improve this world by making a genuine difference in their spheres of influence and apply the Boomerang Principle to everything.  When situations arise you have a choice to send out whatever you want to receive back in abundance.  It is not necessarily what happens to you in your life that makes the difference between happiness and misery.  The thing that makes the most difference is your own reaction to the things that happen to you and your effort to give to others what you want in return.  Dr. Epstein says that the Boomerang Principle “is your umbilical cord to the world of unlimited possibilities” because as you send out good to others only good can be returned.  He also says that patience is necessary because “God’s delay is not God’s denial.”  The longer your boomerang takes to return home, the greater amount of interest you will receive.

If you send out a boomerang that is filled with spite, watch out.  Your head might just be the one that rolls.  If you send out one that is filled with doing the right thing all the time you will be rewarded in innumerable ways.  As with everything in this life, the choice is ours to make.  We can create the ideal scene in our own lives.   Test the Principle for yourself.  As you send many boomerangs around your world every day, encode them gently with peace, prosperity, love, health and joy and watch as the wonders of life are drawn to you almost magically.  It works.  Treat your body and your spirit well.