Who wouldn’t want to hear those words? In our culture, looking good is highly valued, and we spend a significant chunk of our fortunes on grooming, clothing, jewelry and other adornments that improve the way we are perceived by those around us.
Yet, you’ve heard the expression “you can’t tell a book by its cover” – appearing good on the outside doesn’t mean that everything is working properly on the inside. In fact, sometimes health problems are sneaky and insidious, without any noticeable symptoms.
Blood pressure can creep upwards, wear and tear can erode the joints, and any number of subtle changes can occur that at first create no pain or obvious malfunction. There are really only two things you can do to help yourself.
First, you can choose the very best lifestyle habits available. Eat well. Reduce your stress. Exercise appropriately. Avoid unnecessary injury. Minimize toxicity by reading labels and staying away from excessive chemicals in your food.
Second, you can consult experts on body function and lifestyle design, building a wellness team with the services you prefer – nutritionist, personal trainer, life coach, massage therapist or body worker, and of course your doctor of chiropractic, who can help you coordinate the use of professionals like these and others.
There’s an old story about a young man and his mentor, walking and contemplating, when the student, looking up at the heavens, exclaimed, “I cannot believe that the ancient peoples of the world were so stupid as to think that the sun rotated around the earth!”
The old man looked up as well, and remarked, “Does it look any different to the two of us down here?”
The young man realized that his understanding of the earth rotating around the sun was from his previous knowledge, and that the sky really did look like the sun was revolving the earth – he could see how people were duped by the appearance of it.
And so are we sometimes misled when we hear people say, “You look great” – it may be true, but you’ll still need to take the responsibility of developing good health habits and building a team of professionals to help you get healthy and stay healthy, so you work as great on the inside as you look on the outside!