Your Bodies Innate Intelligence

By David Laskowski, Herbalist
Viable Options - N. Kansas City, MO

After I had a few years experience as an herbalist, I started having some thoughts as to how and why my clients were getting healthy through the services we were offering. One of the means that your body will get healthy is it's innate ability to do so. By this I mean that you were created with a built-in mechanism for having optimum health. Traditional Chinese Medicine, and most alternative / complementary modalities, acknowledge this mechanism. Let's get into this process.

TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), as well as chiropractic acknowledge the fact that your body is always striving for balance. Our neurologic system, our organs, our endocrine system and our immune system have the ability to signal the body to produce chemicals and hormones when they are needed. The relationship between your hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, parathyroid, gonads and ovaries is built-in, this relationship being what I would call innate intelligence.

You could certainly call this intelligence something resulting from genetics but I consider it a gift from our Creator. The more we learn about subtle energy and how we react to the world around us, to me it makes sense that our Creator gave us this gift as a way for our bodies to cope with our ever changing environment. As we have listened to the small voice over the years, we have discovered ways to help our bodies find balance when it becomes overwhelmed by our lifestyle, stress, toxins, drug side effects, emotional upsets and the other issues of modern day living.

As an example, let's say I feel like I am coming down with a cold. The first thing that I do is get a colonic and get a chiropractic adjustment. The colonic moves the toxins out of my colon and allows my immune system to work on the virus or bacteria that has invaded my body. The chiropractic adjustment allows my nervous system to send any signals needed to get my bodies many systems into play to fight off the cold. So far, over the last 20 years, I have not had a cold or flu linger for more than a day or two. I do piggy-back this approach with several herbal formulas that assist on cleaning, rebuilding and circulating. These formulas also fight the virus and bacteria that may have invaded my system. They are my replacement for over-the-counter medication and a needless trip to the doctor. Obviously, if one were to take this approach to a cold or flu and one had other health issues, a trip to the doctor may be appropriate, commonsense being the guide.

Start taking the time to listen to your body and what it is telling you. Do you have chronic issues such as pain or fatigue? Take a personal inventory of your lifestyle, diet, emotional status and how much rest you are getting. Is your body trying to tell you something is wrong? If you honestly feel that it is yes, then seek out an appropriate health care practitioner for help. If we do this exercise often, we can not only eliminate issues like cancer and heart disease but we can enjoy each day to it's fullest since we can actually say that we feel good.

Be well!

Dave Laskowski, Herbalist
Viable Options - N. Kansas City, MO

The overall life cycle of a human being is birth, life and death. It sounds a little simple doesn't it? The birth and death are set for all but the life part can be actively improved upon. When you improve on the life part you can prolong your lifespan and prevent premature disease and death.

Chinese medicine divides the causes of disease into 1.) the six evil qi, 2.) the seven passions, and 3.) diet and stress.

Wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness and heat are called the six qi when they are normal. The six qi describe the fluctuations and progressions in teh weather and climate throughout the year. This is according to the natural law. The human body needs these changes and automatically adjusts to and can cope with them during our everyday life. Let's look at the circumstances that can cause these six qi to become evil for you and bring on sickness.

Let's say that you are really run down, have been going without proper sleep and have been living on fast foods. Let's say the weather has been exceptionally damp and cold and you have had to spend a lot of time outdoors. Let's say that during this time it's the traditional cold and flu season. Under these circumstances, what do you think the chances are that you are either going to come down with a cold or the flu? I would say the chances are high! Under these circumstances you really can not do much about the weather but you certainly can work on getting better rest and a better diet. One of the tricks behind living a long life is changing the things you can in your life, diet and sleep for example. This way you do not become a victim to the things you can not change like the weather.

Balancing your emotions is also essential to living a long life. If your life if filled with anger, brooding, sadness and fear, the organs in your body that relate to these emotions will take the hit. For example, if your life is filled with anger, then your liver will take hit. Often angry people will drink alcohol on a daily basis in a vain attempt to subdue the anger, wrong move. Now the liver is taking on the emotional issue and trying to deal with filtering out the alcohol, a double slam that can lead to severe health issues.

A great philosophy for increasing longevity is flowing through life. A constant and regular lifestyle with appropriate amounts of rest, work, play, sleep, exercise, food, play, and human interaction will help you flow through life. When you spend most of your day flowing through life, the ups and downs that show up won't take their toll on your health and allow you to recover quickly from the rough spots of life and illnesses that show up.