Meeting Your Needs

If your symptoms are a message designed to notify you of a need, how do we decide what you are needing and then provide that to turn off the message?  If we can answer that question, we have a high probability of improving your health!

There are 3 levels of inquiring what these symptoms/messages mean.  

Level 1:  Your symptom questionnaires.  We have categorized hundreds of symptoms by system, organ, gland, and by areas of the brain.  If your scores are over 50% of the possible maximum score, we know that organ, gland, or area of the brain is under a great deal of stress and demanding care.  As you approach 80-100% of the total possible symptoms, we might say that area is “screaming” for attention.

Level 2:  Kinesiology.  If we are attempting to identify patterns of stress and inflammation, posture and muscle tone are simple to view.  Just stand up and notice that one shoulder is higher, the hips are twisted to the right, etc.  This observation provides clues to your internal patterns.  In order to move any joint in any direction, we know with absolute certainty that one muscle or muscle group has increased in tone, and the opposing muscle(s) have decreased in tone.  We locate the muscles decreased in tone (weaker), and begin to ask what this pattern of muscle change is adapting to (what you are needing).  

Level 3:  Blood Chemistry.  Your labs are a window into your internal patterns.  We can objectively identify patterns of stress in any organ or system.  These labs tell your story.  Not your life story, but where life has brought you to right this moment.  We can quantify the effects of stress and inflammation and see, by the numbers, the impact they have had on your health.  We can measure your most vital elements, oxygen and glucose, during every visit.   

Not only does this 3 tiered evaluation approach provide pointers and identify patterns, it then offers a target to shoot for.  Reduce symptoms by meeting the internal needs.  Balance posture and muscle balance through neurological and energetic treatments.  Balance blood chemistry by using food and nutrition to soothe, stimulate and nourish…followed by retesting to make sure we are achieving our goals.  

Physiological Needs

The basic needs of your cells… the building blocks of you… includes oxygen and glucose.  Stress and inflammation compromise both.  Glucose can be measured with a simple glucometer, and oxygen can be measured with a pulse oximeter.  We can instantly know if we have met your physiological needs through this in office testing.  These needs are so critical that you will not improve your condition without improving these numbers.  They are vital to survival, and vital to healing and growth.  If we can improve these two numbers, I would place a sizeable bet on your health improving.  

Other physiological needs include water, and nutrients, including protein and fats (healthy fats!), which are the building blocks of your body.  A rough analogy to a vehicle, which is what your body is for you, in part…the protein and fats are the steel and rubber, the glucose (carbohydrates) is the gasoline, vitamins and minerals are like the spark plugs, fiber for emissions, water for coolant…oxygen, like a vehicle, is needed to ignite the fuel.  Botanicals and herbs are like oil and gasoline additives…to improve performance!  

Like the title of my book asks… “When did Natural Become the Alternative?”  These are the needs that must be met to improve your health.  And if your health improves, regulation improves, performance improves…and sooner or later, if we keep meeting your greatest needs…you no longer qualify for the disease or condition you were diagnosed with.  

Emotional Needs

Your emotional needs, based on Five Element Chinese Medicine philosophy, can be summarized as Structure and Security, Acceptance and Inclusion, Nurturing and Support, Validation and Value, and Reassurance and Responsiveness.  And, YES, compromising these needs has physiological effects…meaning shifts in stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline.

Not achieving emotional needs ignites the stress response internally, just like danger, lack of oxygen, or blood sugar imbalances.  If we are good listeners, and respond the only way that is possible, by choosing a different action, you can meet and nourish all your emotional needs, just as you can nourish your body with improved oxygen and healthy nutrients.  

Structure and Security includes safety and boundaries.  Think of Charlie Brown, always being talked into kicking that darn ball, despite everything within him telling him “No!”  The result is pain.

Acceptance and Inclusion includes being part of something bigger than you…a part of a team.  Think of a caretaker type, doing so much for everyone else but not receiving any appreciation.  That hurts!

Nurturing and Support include close relationships that lift you up when you are down…knowing someone “has your back.”  No man is an island…think of people who are counter culture to the point that they offend others by making them wrong, ultimately pushing them away.  Ouch.

Validation and Value means being ok with who you are…possibly even liking you.  Think of the fixer who tries to make everything right for everyone else, only to receive resentment in response.  Frustrating!

Reassurance and Responsiveness includes the ability to face adversity and change direction.  Think of the overachiever who tries to please through getting things done, only to receive criticism in response.  Exhausting!

The key to emotional needs is good or bad habits.  Good habits, like honesty, asking for agreements, working on your message, working on your voice, you integrity…they lead to nourishing your emotional needs…they lead to growth.  

Poor habits, based on bad strategies, such as caretaking, invisibility, convincing, fixing, and overachieving…which are grounded in emotional pain, continue to erode your emotional needs until you withdraw, give up, or otherwise throw in the towel.  

Five element Chinese philosophy allows us to notice your negative patterns and design a plan to meet your needs.  IF, and that’s a BIG “IF” ….you allow yourself to notice the pain.  Bad strategies are all a plan to avoid the pain…either through accepting a burden or defending yourself, others, and ideas.  The problem is that these patterns are exhausting and compromise your health, by activating cortisol and adrenaline…a stress pattern…and activating your WORST genetic potential!  

Habits are nothing more than repetition, and with new repetition (and a willingness), you can begin a new habit today to meet your emotional needs.  And that feels GOOD!