Occupy Your Life

Occupy Your Life

If it were up to me the word of the year for 2011 would be Occupy, consistent with Time Magazine's designated Person of the Year: The Protestor.

I fully support and embrace The Occupy Movement and have written my own manifesto of grievances and demands, excerpted below:
Of this we are certain:

1. The system is broken and corrupt and the fix will NOT come from those who created these problems.
2. The status quo will only guarantee and accelerate our demise and as such, is unacceptable.
3. The fix requires a new paradigm; one that values people over profits, and sustainability of life on the planet over unsustainable corporate growth/profits.

Goal:

We are part of a global movement. It is our responsibility, as American and World Citizens and patriots, to reclaim our democracy and restore world peace, social and environmental justice.

Solutions:

As environmentalist/activist Paul Hawkin said: “The solution will be found in diversity. This movement is humanity’s immune response to resist and heal political disease, economic infection and ecologic corruption caused by ideology.”

Fixing the daunting problems we face will require that we work both within and outside of the system.

(For the purpose of this blog, Occupy Your Life, I will skip to the relevant changes at the personal level that I deem necessary to facilitate and create the global change we need.)

The single greatest thing we can do outside of the system is to unite in our vision, cause efforts, and voice.

Along the way to the revolution, we too have to change. It would be hypocritical to believe and act otherwise. We cannot do business as usual and expect different results and things around us to change. As Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Things we can do:

1. Make your health a top priority; take personal responsibility for your life and health, to the extent that you are able.
2. Become a critical thinker: actively resist and then analyze ALL information and the source (i.e.: follow the money), rather than passively accepting and absorbing whatever you hear, from whatever source.
3. Learn more and raise your standards of what you demand of yourself.
4. Make your family and your children a top priority; spend time with, and educate, your children.
5. Turn off the TV. Stop listening to the propaganda and fear mongering.
6. Create, or join, an employee union.
7. Become a political activist; find and join causes that support humanity and our planet.
8. VOTE! And, vote out all career politicians (more than 10-15 years in office).
9. Socialize: find reasons to unite with people to find commonality.
10. Buy local: support small local businesses and farms.
11. Go green.
12. Plant your own garden and learn how to cook good food. Minimize eating of all crap processed foods.
13. Vote with your dollars. Do not support any corporation or financial institution that undermines our personal and/or financial health and new our world order of We The People.
14. Repeatedly and relentlessly, call and lobby your politicians, at every level, to represent the interests of We the People…and inform them of the consequences of their failure to do so.
15. Generally, as best possible, spend less and save more. Buy within your means. Buy less of what you want, and focus on what you need.

If not me, then who?
If not now, then when?    Hillel

A Doctor's Touch

A Doctor's Touch

One of the most important things in life anyone can have is a caring and competent medical doctor, the likes of Dr. Abraham Verghese, the doctor in this video.

His call for touch, while foreign to medical doctors today, is routine to chiropractors. In fact, it is the origin of the word (from the Greek: cheir- referring to the hand, and praktos, meaning done....ie; done by hand).

As a chiropractor I have always been honored and moved by the doctor-patient relationship; the histories and emotions patients share; the trust they place in me, and that they let me touch them, to examine and treat them.

Sadly, for many people, I may be the only other human contact they have that, or any other, day. And, the importance of caring human touch/contact, in our culture, is way undervalued and poorly understood. I know, and am acutely aware, that I too, benefit from that very human contact and connection with my patients.

In early childhood touch could actually be considered a vital nutrient. ”Failure to thrive is a medical condition where an infant/child fails to grow or gain weight appropriately over a consistent period of time. In orphanages, the number one cause of Failure to Thrive is simply a lack of touch, stimulation and love. A child may even die due to missing these essential requirements for growth.”

I would suggest that older children and adults also fail to thrive without contact and touch. In fact, research indicates that even owning a pet (which implies contact and touch) helps the elderly live longer. That’s how important touch is!.

Recall the rush of holding the hand of someone you love; the healing touch of your mother's hand when you bumped your head or hurt yourself; the energy that passes between two people in a caring embrace.

We are electro-chemical--energy beings and what passes between us in a touch with good intentions, has very nurturing and healing properties.

It is more than obvious that working with patients goes beyond technology and absolutely requires a healing touch. I feel privileged to be licensed to speak with and to touch people in the context of helping them reclaim their lives by reclaiming their health.