2500 blog posts!?

Have I mentioned I love my patients?  My practice is called Life Healing Life... as in your life touches me and mine and mine touches you and yours and there is healing!  As opposed to doctor healing patient.  That very doctor centric, I know everything, you know nothing let me fix you (or sorry, I can't fix you... it's back to your problem) kind of model of medicine.

So, I am constantly learning things from patients. I could list several awesome things I learned this week alone :)  Hopefully they've learned a few things from me too. One link someone sent me was to a blogger who had some great stuff on magical thinking (see my post last week about my take on this).

Another thing I took away from that blogger was HOW he blogged... he had no less than 2500 blog posts since 2002!)  He writes little 1-2 paragraph blog posts (as apposed to the 3 part series I tend to gravitate towards... you don't even want to know how many drafts in progress I have!). And it got me thinking. What if I wrote just little posts several times per week (in addition to how I normally post)?  So I'm going to give it a whirl!

So here's my thought of the day.  Did you know that your fight or flight response is automatic?  (You probably did) It makes intuitive sense to most, that the stress response doesn't take you willfully engaging it. Those precious milliseconds could count big time when you are being chased by a tiger or threatened with harm. But in today's world (with very few tigers or real threats to life and limb) your body hasn't learned the difference between something you are freaked out about (say, the result of your next pregnancy test or a conflict you are having in your life) and a tiger. It is on high alert and it is exhausting!

And now for the flip side. Did you know that your rest and relax response is nearly completely dependent on you willfully turning it on? You have to mindfully tell your body to relax before it relaxes. So if you don't ever do this, it is never fully relaxing (again... exhausting!)  A common refrain in my practice (and in my head) is, 'when in doubt breathe!' Deep breathing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to send your body the message that it is okay to let the guard down and save some energy (and stress hormones!). It doesn't have to be anything fancy... just take some time to think... I'm breathing in... and out.... in.... and out... and see how it feels. Even if you have to remind yourself many times each day, it is a lovely thing and the more time your body spends in a balanced state (with healthy amounts of both rest and relax and fight or flight mode) the healthier you will be!

When in doubt, BREATHE!
Ahhhhhhh,
Nicole