The 7 Habits of People Who Overcome Pain

A few weeks ago, I wrote this out to give to my patients.  I tell them that if they are not overcoming their pain and locked in a state of suffering, probably, one, two, three or more of these seven habits are not being developed.

The 7 Habits of People Who Overcome Pain

 1.  Honor Your Chiropractic Adjustments

An aligned spine will balance out your muscles, allow your vertebral joints to move and function properly, and allow the intelligence of your nervous system to flow without interference.

2.  Perfect Your Smile and Your Posture

Putting on a happy face releases your body’s natural endorphins.  So even if you are not happy, practicing your beautiful smile will eventually make you happy.  Learning to sit, stand and walk with good posture will help keep the body strong and stable.

3.  Stay Hydrated

Drink half your body weight in ounces.  In other words, a 150 pound person should drink 75 ounces of water a day.

4.  Stretch Out the Muscles

Shoot for a total of 12 minutes of focused stretching throughout the day— a minute here, a couple of minutes there.  Work the entire body, but give more attention to the problem areas.

5.  Reduce Free Radical Damage

When there is too much oxidative stress in the body, inflammation increases drastically to harmful levels.  The best ways to control the oxidative stress caused by free radical damage are: sleep more, eat healthy, and take a good antioxidant nutritional supplement.

6.  Minimize Chair Time

Whenever and wherever possible, do not sit longer than 20 minutes at a time without taking at least a 20 second break.  Every month, try to decrease your total daily chair time by 5-10% until the back is pain-free.

7.  Just Breathe

Practice deep, slow breathing as a way to calm the mind and relax the body.

Pain in life is inevitable, but suffering is not.  Pain is what the world does to you.  Suffering is what you do to yourself.