Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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Breaking Fear

There’s a saying, ‘We fear that which we do not know.’  Many will recite this as a way of self comforting after being criticized.  While I think this is true, I also think ‘we fear that which we do know.’

After the birth of our 3rd son, we joined the ranks for minivan owners.  If I could give advice to my 25 year old self, I would tell me, ‘Don’t fear the minivan, those things are freakn’ sweet.’

We got a used one, with all the features possible.  Since it wasn’t a hassle to get 3 kids into the back of a sedan anymore, we were more open to driving around a bit.  Little did we know, we had a battery terminal that could pop off the positive terminal just by blowing on it.  My wife found out the hard way after being stranded in a parking lot after a mom’s group.  Thankfully, when it appeared to be a dead battery, the cable had come off.

It doesn’t seem like a big problem except now we know something.  We know that there could be a possibility of hitting a pot hole (a probability of that here in Colorado Springs), it could shake the cable loose and then risk the battery not being charged while driving. The fear of getting somewhere, enjoying our time together, and then not being able to start the van back up, permeated through our thoughts.

Constant #fear is just as damaging as drug addictions, trans fats, and cubicle living. Click To Tweet

I decided that I would use Google University to see how to change the battery terminal.  Surprisingly, it looked like something I could handle, and I’m not a car guy.  I built up the confidence, went to the car parts store, found all the parts I needed in less than 2 minutes and was ready to tackle the project of saving the minivan.

I opened the hood up, located the battery cables and was dismayed at all the extra cables that weren’t on the Google videos. I began to fear that which I did not know, especially when it comes to electricity.  Long story short, under the many suggestions from my wife, I called our car whiz, motor-cross racing friend.

He looked at it, assessed the situation and fixed the problem in about 8 minutes.

What’s the point?  The point is that fear is paralyzing, whether you know what you’re getting yourself into or you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.  As I watch and observe our nation during this political season, I think fear of the known and unknown is destroying our nation’s physical health just as much as our low fat diet recommendations, sedentary lifestyles, sugar obsessions, and badges of busyness.

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The Not-So-Obvious Toxic Top 10

Health comes down to 2 primary categories, sufficiency and purity.  It’s easier to create sufficiency because you can keep adding good and necessary steps.  It’s tougher to create purity because you have to remove or avoid things that you most likely love.  Toxins are one of those things that are all around us and we have to be diligent to avoid.

Toxin: A substance (physical or energetic) that places a stress or challenge to the physiological systems of the body and whose net effect at a given time is inflammatory, poisonous, depleting, and/or disrupting to the harmonious functioning of a whole being. 

To make it easier, I’ve created a Toxic Top Ten of things that I feel people often overlook in their health journey.  Many focus on just the chemical toxins around us and get overwhelmed.  Start with these not-so-obvious toxic top ten to jump start your detox.   These are in no order of hierarchy.poison skull

Worry

Worry is a powerful stimulator of the fight or flight response.  If someone is constantly in fight or flight, the body will move into a series of events that rips the body apart.  Digestion, fertility, thyroid function, and immune function get thrown to the way side.  How do you combat worry?  You put things into perspective.

If I find myself worrying, I play worse case scenario of that event actually happening.  I just opened up a new office and there is a bit of worry that goes with a risk like that.   What is the worse case scenario if it flops?  Is my or my family’s life going to be in danger?  Nope.  Will my or my family’s health be in jeopardy?  Not likely.  Could we lose our house?  Maybe, but not for a year.   People live in foreclosed houses for months after foreclosures and in that time, I can go delivery pizza or something to make ends meat.

I would have life, I would have shelter, and I would have health.  There’s not much to worry about then is there?  The worry comes from comparison of your previous situation or future anticipation.  When you actually sit and take a moment to be thankful for what you have and realize, life is pretty good, worry is hard to do.  You can’t worry and have gratitude at the same time.  Someone in prison has all they need.  It’s the comparison of what they had or could have outside that jail cell that sparks worry and discontent.

Gossip

Dave Ramsey defines gossip as ‘discussing a problem with someone that can’t affect the outcome.’  If people stopped talking every time they were about to discuss a problem with someone that can’t affect the outcome, we would live in a quieter, more peaceful, and productive world. An end result would be a lot more solutions in this world.

Instead of gabbing about problems with someone that has no power, that person will take action and create change.  Less gossip, more action.  You don’t like the action?  Instead of sitting around talking about the most recent change with someone that can’t do anything about it, go make your own change.  Be the change you want to see in the world.

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