Enkindle Wellness

Tag: Knowing. Network Chiropractic

  • Living on the Edge of Chaos

    We all live on the edge of chaos every time something changes. It does not matter what the change is or when the change occurred. This change can be personal, national, financial, emotional, or psychological. It can be external or internal. When change happens we are forced to move to the edge of chaos to deal with it.

    This is particularly true if the situation forcing our change is new to us: divorce, bankruptcy, unanticipated wealth, death of a loved one, business failure, rules change, failed relationships, etc.

    Living on the edge of chaos is where all great ideas happen and real change (personal, professional, interpersonal) occurs. This is what we need to learn to deal with and manage so that it does not destroy us, force us into fear based decisions or make us complacent.

    Living on the edge of chaos forces us to think differently to solve a problem. Living on the edge of chaos forces us to make painful choices, to think differently about a situation, to solicit new inputs, and take new actions to fully experience the pain this change has caused.

    Living on the edge of chaos, for this change to be effective, requires that we take in information that may not have been important in the past. It requires that we take ownership of the situation, for in total ownership we are empowered to take the action required. If we do not own something we cannot effectively change it.

    Living on the edge of chaos requires that we think about the situation from a more global perspective. It requires us to see things as they are, not as we want them to be. It requires us to understand the impact of our actions on others. It requires us to make informed, responsible and deliberate choices.

    Out of chaos we are able to create a new higher sense of order that allows us to be flexible enough to better deal with the problems of being human.  Interestingly though, we are totally “in control” only went we are totally okay with whatever happens. We develop a sense of trust, not such that everything will be magically alright, but a trust that we will handle whatever happens in the best way that our resources will allow. We watch with awareness the chaos arising without judging ourselves. It does require us to note our actions and learn from our observations how we can act more faithfully from now on by being accepting of ourselves and being fair and objective. It’s a “tough love” approach.

    Network Chiropractic Care can offer support for a life on the edge of chaos. As we further develop in the levels of Network Care, in association with other positive actions such as observing our eating habits or changing our levels of physical activity or increasing community involvement or focusing on our relationships and our spiritual practices, we begin to find living at the edge of chaos is really interesting. In fact we welcome the chaos because we know that by accepting its challenge we become more able to contribute to the world.

    A commitment to Network Care can enable us to become more resourceful and therefore break through chaos and into a new way of feeling, thinking and acting. Network care can also enkindle the creation of the chaos necessary for change. More importantly however, it can be the facilitator for moving beyond the chaos.

    Adapted from “Living on the Edge of  Chaos” by Ron  Finklestein

    More Chaos

    To learn more about the chaos we experience, click on the link to this article: I Love Chaos Bill Harris . While the article is quite long, it’s well worth the read if you are interested in this subject.  Bill Harris is the director of Centerpointe Research Institute the producers of Holosync audio meditation programs. I have used these programs for about 6 years and have found them to be very powerful.

    Bill writes a blog which has many interesting articles written in his conversational style. Some of his more recent posts are more about political and financial topics, I find some of his most interesting posts are the earlier ones about the stages of development humans go through. You can access these by clicking on the month and year of the post on Archives section of his blog page.

  • “I’m Stuck”

    It’s great when people come to see me and say they are “stuck” or “blocked” in some aspect of their body or their life. This is because realising you are stuck is the point at which moving forward is possible.

    “It seems as if I keep making progress then I hit a barrier, I feel like I’m running around in circles, I’ve tried EVERTHING, it’s SO FRUSTRATING!”

    If you think of something, it could be a pain (or any other aspect of your life), that you are experiencing (or have experienced in the past) a feeling of being stuck or blocked; observe the feeling that you “have tried everything.” And you probably have indeed tried lots of things, often treatments that are designed to “fix” the problem.

    These treatments will usually give symptomatic relief and psychological relief because a “professional” has told you they have found the source of your symptoms and given it a name (a diagnosis).  I’m not saying this is “bad” because it can be crucial and lifesaving.  But it is also the reason that our health care system fails many of the people who suffer chronic diseases and pain.

    When you are focused on and are receiving treatments aimed at “fixing” the problem you may get relief, but you continually dissipate the energy that is required to bring about real change. I know about this because I spent 20 years as a manual chiropractor, with the best of intentions based on my understanding at that time: trying to “fix” people’s problems. (Not to mention trying to “fix” my own problems.) I finally realised that I was only helping people to stay stuck in a “holding pattern” where they got relief from their symptoms (e.g. their headache) for a short period of time then the headache would come back because nothing had changed in their life.

    Fortunately there was the occasional person who did move out of that holding pattern and I noticed that these people often, not only resolved their symptom pattern but told me about changes they had made in their life – “changed my whole diet”, “left the job I hated” etc. These people inspired me to search for a way of working where I could help people break through their stuckness and achieve more of what they want to do in their lives. This is what I do now.

    Life creates layers of blockages within us. These blockages originally occur at times of stress, often when we are young and have a lesser ability to cope than an adult. These blockages are not bad things when they originally occur as they help us to be safe and to cope. Later in adult life they come out as symptoms and a restriction in our ability to be who we are capable of being. It is a lifelong process of clearing these blockages.

    When a person realises and expresses that they are stuck then the energy for change is available.

    Say out loud, with conviction; “I’M STUCK!!!”.

    Notice the energy that arises in saying this and a sense, in the background, that there is a spark of possibility that change can occur. Once that spark has occurred there is energy for change and my “work” can help you use that energy to move forward in the aspect of your life that is blocked.

    Once the energy for change is set free, you may find yourself wanting to say “Enough of this”, “I’m drawing a line in the sand”, or “I have a plan and I’m moving forward.” The energy that was bound up in the blockage is now flowing and creating real change.

  • Being vs Doing – Resolving the Paradox

    Being vs Doing – Resolving the Paradox

    The only thing you ever have is now.If we are “supposed to be” perfect in the moment how do we change ourselves and the world for the better?

    This apparent paradox is the old question of Being vs Doing. Wisdom calls for us to accept things as they are and at the same time we know that we want to change things. How can this be achieved? I have to say that I pondered this over for several years and the answer seemed to be there, like it was hanging in space, but I could not grasp it. I have since realised that I was trying to understand a “big picture’ concept using the “small detail” part of my mind. I will explain……

    I was inspired to understand the “answer” to this paradox, about 4 years ago, by a person who comes to see me. At that stage I had seen him a few times and one day, when I asked him what changes he was noticing with the Network Chiropractic Care, he said that there was a paradox (I don’t remember what the particular paradox was) that he had been searching for an answer to for many years and in the previous week he had finally understood it.

    The crucial thing I noticed was that when he said the words “in the previous week I have finally understood it”, he changed his posture to a slightly more erect one and tilted his head back a little. Clearly he had found the resolution of his paradox by accessing his “big picture” mind. The Network care he had received had made a new higher level posture more available to him and had contributed to his being able to achieve this insight.

    Most people who experience Network Care become aware of positive changes to their posture and often describe it using such words as “feeling taller”, “more connected”, “more grounded”, “more powerful”,  “more feminine / masculine”, “more at ease”, and many other positive descriptions.

    An aspect of the change in posture is the position of the person’s head becoming level, or slightly tilted up, (their eyes look straight ahead) rather than tilting down (to look at the ground in front of them). It is proven that we access a different part of our brain depending on the posture of our head.

    The tilted down posture gives more access to our busy mind, where we focus on practical detailed tasks and where we think more about our “problems”. In Network we call this the Lower Mind. The level or slightly tilted up head position accesses more of our Upper Mind. This is where our “big picture” thinking occurs.

    As an experiment try saying the words, “feeling taller”, “more connected” etc. that are in the paragraph above; first with your head down looking at the floor in front of you, then standing straighter, looking ahead and notice the difference in how you feel inside. Then try saying a few words like “I’m hopeless”, “I never get things right”, “it’s all his/her fault” (you can make up more it you want – we all have/have had plenty) using the two different postures. In the upright posture some of the “negative” thoughts may even sound silly.

    The Upper Mind is where we access our creativity and philosophical ideas. Here, you will notice, answers tend to come in moments of clarity or “Ah Ha’s” as opposed to the detailed logical progression of the Lower Mind’s processes. Our Lower Mind’s thoughts tend to be much more influenced, mostly unconsciously, by our physical and emotional injuries.

    This doesn’t make the Lower Mind bad or something to “get rid of” – it’s a wonderful, essential part of our make-up as a human being. But it’s important to realise that with Network Care we gain greater access to our Upper Mind and therefore have more choices about which aspect of our mind we use in different situations.

    Imagine writing a shopping list for a special meal you want to create. You tend to use your Upper Mind to get a “big picture’ of the combination of dishes you would like to serve and how you will present them, then you switch to your Lower Mind to think about the ingredients you have in the cupboard and which ones you will have to buy etc. i.e. the details. You might notice yourself switching back and forth between your Upper and Lower Minds to check that the details and the big picture are congruent.

    Now, back to the Being Vs Doing paradox. I agree with Eckhart Tolle who says:

    “The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.”

    When we talk about being in the present moment, we are describing the act of gathering our attention and energy in the here and now, focusing on what is around us and what is happening in our life right now in the moment.

    So if you are drinking a cup of coffee, you are noticing the flavour and temperature of the coffee and the feel of the cup in your hand; if you are reading this article, you are focusing fully on these words; if you are listening to a friend, you are giving all your attention to him or her and not looking at your phone or allowing your thoughts to wander.

    You cannot live in this world without doing. As you further develop the art of being fully present in the moment, then everything you do will become more purposeful and meaningful.

    The important message to remember is that by being fully present in each and every moment, you will be able to do your very best work and accomplish your full potential. Learn how to be first, and then your best doing will follow……..and the paradox will disappear!

     

  • Learning to Know

    Learning to Know

     

    I have always been fascinated by the task of having to re-learn things I thought I already knew. Clearly everyone has experienced this, so here are a few reflections on this mysterious and mostly frustrating aspect of life.
    Most of us have decided at some stage to follow advice for a better way of living. Whether it is to “know” to: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”; or to “know” that: “You shouldn’t get angry and stressed as it doesn’t help you and is bad for your health.”
    There are millions of words of advice that we are exposed to – especially on Facebook – advice that that we “know” is valuable and inspiring, yet why is it that “knowing” is not enough to integrate valuable advice into our lives in a permanent way? Why do we spend such a lot of our lives re-learning what we thought we already knew?
    So what actually is “knowing”? Is it that we only really “know” something when we live it as a way of life – when it has become a practice rather than an idea?
    I believe we can divide “knowing” into four stages, from thinking we know something, to it becoming a way of life.
    Stage 1: Thinking we “know”.
    This is the beginning and weakest stage of knowing. We know something intellectually and can feel good about ourselves for “knowing” it. This satisfaction in “knowing” at this stage is often what tricks our mind into telling us that we have done enough “work” on this thing so we forget about it and continue unconsciously with our lives. Nothing has changed.
    Stage 2: Understanding.
    We may study and think about the very thing that we “know” will help us to change. We may even reach a level of understanding. But this is still at the level of the conscious mind. Also. too often at this stage, the mind is telling us reasons for not carrying out the change we want, telling us that,   “it’s not that important” or “it’s too hard” or “I haven’t got time” or something similar. We can become exhausted by these internal arguments and mostly nothing changes or if only for a short time.
    Stage 3: Living it.
    This is a higher stage of knowing that is only reached in a small percentage of changes in our lives. “Knowing” has evolved beyond the level of the mind but it still is mostly a mind component. Here we can fall into the trap of thinking that we know everything there is to know about changing. We can become experts in theory but fail in our practice. And so our capacity to completely change is actually compromised.
    Stage 4: A way of life.
    At this stage we no longer “think” about change because it has become a way of life. It is integrated into our way of living. This happens quite rarely and yet is essential for a successful life. When a change hasn’t reached Stage 4 then we will go through these stages again and again to re-learn what we thought we already knew.
    As life is never static it is still possible to lose a “knowing” that was a way of life. The key is to notice when we are not doing something that we “know”. The most import thing about noticing to create positive change is that we just observe and not judge.
    Network Care can assist us to “know” at a higher stage because it helps us to be more present and less “stuck in our head” by clearing phyisical and emotional blockages that have built up over the years.