How do you avoid physical, chemical and emotional stress? The short answer is: You don’t. I know that sounds pessimistic. But only on the surface. Avoidance is the wrong mindset. To avoid is to escape, withdrawal, flee, retreat.
What we need to do is confront stress. To confront is to face, challenge, stand up to, defy. Avoidance feeds the chaos that is stress. What we need to do is strive for order. Confrontation gives strength to order.
To use an analogy, if stress and strength were in a tug-of-war match, avoidance is throwing your hands up in defeat at stress while confrontation is digging your heels into the ground for more strength.
I must emphasize that when I talk of confrontation, it is coming from a place of goodwill. Healthy confrontation leads to positive outcomes while unhealthy confrontation does the opposite. Similar to how a well-spirited dialogue between friends can help grow the relationship, a hate-fueled argument can turn the best of friends into enemies. It is all about context.
Also, this is not an uninformed kind of confrontation. Some stress is best avoided. Healthy confrontation requires an educated conscious understanding.
There is a well-known quote that states, “We can not direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” This idea fits perfectly within the Chiropractic health mindset. Having the word “adjust” in the quote doesn’t hurt either. Chaos abounds, but order can tame. Chaotic winds can be ordered by sails to direct a boat to a destination. Each of us is an example of this principle.
We are all made out of the same raw, chaotic energy. But what makes us unique is that we have harnessed it into a refined order we call life. There is an intelligence that prevails every one of us. An intelligence that takes lifeless electricity and turns it into a heartbeat, a contracting muscle or a thought.
The main conduit used by this intelligence is the Nerve System. The Nerve System brings order to all the other systems of the body. Sticking with the above quote, the Nerve System is similar to the sails of the boat. What is incredible about Chiropractic, is that it can help adjust your sails in the right direction. But way more than just adjusting the sails, we can strengthen them as well. Since the stronger the sail, the better it can confront the winds of change.
A specific Chiropractic adjustment not only improves the sails but keeps them as strong as possible. Improvement in both structure and function can be obtained through a specific adjustment. How is this done?
The Nerve System has 4 main functions: it controls all the movements we make, the sensations we feel, regulates all body organs, and relates us to the outside world. Stress effects the sensitivity, perception and behavior of these functions. This can create tension and imbalance in the body. The Nerve System, specifically the brainstem, must confront the stress.
If the brainstem is working at its best, it can adapt the stress, return to homeostasis and strengthen the system. Normal function occurs and health can be obtained. If the brainstem is not working at its best, it will compensate for the stress, diverge from homeostasis and weaken the system. Abnormal function happens and sickness can result. A physical presentation of this compensation is a vertebral subluxation.
A subluxation lowers our resistance to present and future stress. And similar to how misery loves company, stress loves company as well. With a lower resistance to stress, more and more stress can pile on with ease. A real mountain out of a molehill situation.
With a specific Chiropractic adjustment, we can set aright what is causing abnormal function. This can bring structural balance and functional ease back into the system. Adaptation can be at its greatest potential. The Nerve System is strengthened. We can confront stress to the best of our ability.
This is where we ought to be when it comes to stress: preventing its exposure, strengthening our reserve and overcoming their obstacles.
So when life flexes its stress at you, you need to flex right back with your strength. And you are only as strong as your Nerve System.
- Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.
