Well, ladies and gentlemen, in the opening paragraph of last
week's email, I said I was going to be attending the "Landmark
Forum" and would let you know if I recommended it. After spending
an awesome weekend inventing new possibilities for myself, I can
confidently say that I don't just recommend it it, but I strongly
suggest it. Although I will be relating a few things in the coming
weeks that I learned in the LF, there really is no accurate way of
describing what you could get out of attending...you literally just
have to check it out. I guarantee you this, though: if you go,
you'll discover things about yourself that will put you in a
position to get everything out of life that you truly want.
So, this week in well-being, I owe you a condition of the
week. I was told by at least one person that last week's email was
one of the most beneficial that I had written to date. That's
awesome! Honestly, I thought it may very well have been the one
that would've made people go "what is this dude talking about?"
Nonetheless, the information presented was invaluable to me, so I
wanted to share it with you. The majority of today's newsletter
will be a condition of the week that is so simple, it's hard to
get. I started writing it last week, but realized it'd be a very
long newsletter. I wanted to write it in such a way that would
leave you with as little doubt as possible...I'll get to that in a
minute...
First, I want to give you a sample of what I learned over
the weekend. Over the past 4 years while living in St. Louis, I
have in many ways neglected to be the quality of friend that I
strive to be for those that I was once very close with back in North
Carolina. It took many years to build those friendships, and while
I don't consider them to be lost, I do think that they have been
weakened while I was away. Just days from returning to North
Carolina, I am creating the possibility that I am a friend worthy of
such a title. On many occasions, I've stressed the importance of
friendship in our lives. It came as a bit of a surprise, then, that
while really giving myself a good, long look in the mirror, I was
staring at a person who had not truly lived up to his end of the
bargain. To those friends, I look forward to us being each other's
confidants once again. I have missed that closeness.
In the Landmark Forum, you discover many things about the
person you claim to be. All the while, you find out that there's
quite a bit about you that you've made up over the years because you
wanted to be right and make others wrong...because you wanted to be
true and make others false...because you couldn't get over your own
opinion, when it was always just your opinion. The fact of the
matter is this: if you get past those simple issues that we have
learned to make such a big deal out of, then you can have some
pretty amazing relationships with people. Think about it...what is
there to fight, argue, or complain about if we get over ourselves
and stop trying to always be right and true to our opinions?
Nothing!
Today, I encourage you to call someone that you feel you
have unresolved issues with and get those issues completed. Again,
if you get past the righteousness, the truth, and the opinions,
there's a blank slate for you to make new relationships with
people. It's awesome...
Condition of the Week:
Low Back Pain
Low back pain is something
that over 80% of the world's population experiences during their
lifetime. Second only to headaches as the most common neurologic
ailment, low back pain is the number one reason for job-related
disability in the United States. Over $50 billion per year is spent
on the condition.
It is also one of the most
misunderstood conditions that you'll find. Much like the number one
neurologic ailment, headaches, low back pain has been attributed to
many things. Common to each of those "things" is a nerve
irritation. Irritation to a nerve is comparable to sitting at your
desk and being repeatedly tapped on the shoulder by one of your
co-workers. With nerve irritation, though, it is as if the
co-worker follows you home, tapping you on the shoulder during all
of your meals, during your showers, and during your sleep. In a
word, that's pretty "irritating" is it not?
When building a house, the
most important thing is laying down a good foundation with its
surrounding support structures. It has been said that one can build
a crooked house on a solid foundation and the house will stand.
However, if one builds a well-crafted house on a substandard
foundation, the house is destined to collapse. Problems with the
house's foundation lead to problems elsewhere that get patched up,
but often come back. Perhaps other problems arise. Ultimately, if
the foundation is not addressed, then the house is going to slowly
but surely break down and crumble.
When the body is building
itself, the most important thing is laying down a good foundation
with its surrounding support structures. The brainstem is that
foundation, and its support structures are the skull and the top
bones in the spine. If the sustaining structures don't support the
foundation, but instead interfere with it, then we've got a
problem. Problems at the foundation lead to problems elsewhere that
get patched up, but often come back. Perhaps other problems arise.
Ultimately, if the foundation is not addressed, then the house is
going to slowly but surely break down and crumble.
Irritation to the nerves
occurs when the support structures interfere with the foundation of
the body, which is the brainstem. Recall that the brainstem is the
origin for every nerve in the body. There are over 1 trillion nerve
fibers in the brainstem. If you recreated it using 1-inch thick
copper wires, the brainstem would be over 27 FEET wide. Your body's
foundation sits in a couple of two inch-wide openings. I'll say it
for you: "Wow"
Low back pain is simply one of
the many "other problems" that may arise when the
foundation/brainstem of the body is compromised. There are people
out that there are great at patching that up, but it always seems to
come back. Take it from someone who started having low back pain
when he was 13 years old. 13 years old! I got it patched up for a
long time, but several more of those "other problems" arose and I
was lucky enough to find someone who could help with my foundation.
Since having the support structures of my foundation restored to
their normal position, I haven't had even the slightest hint of low
back pain.
To really drive home the
point, I want to offer you another example…
Ophidiophobia is the fear of
snakes. People don't like low back pain any more than they like
snakes. But did you know that snakes are actually vertebrates just
like us? People often think that they are not and assume that
snakes don't have spines. However, they most definitely do.
The point of bringing up
snakes is this: have you ever seen someone grab a snake by its
head? The snake's entire body twists and turns and torques to try
and relieve the pressure on its head/neck region.
Every other vertebrate,
including us, does the same thing. When the head is not level, the
rest of the body will turn, torque, and twist to relieve the
pressure on the brainstem and get the head level again.
Human-beings don't have the flexibility in their spines that many
other vertebrates do, so when our heads pull out of position, our
spines are more susceptible to compensations that cause us a lot of
discomfort. Low back pain is one of those many compensations…
The lesson to be learned is
that low back pain is not caused by something in the lower back.
Low back pain is an "other problem" resulting from a more serious
issue. Cleaning up a puddle of water does not address the leaky
faucet that caused it. Patching up a pain the low back does not
address the subluxation (misalignment of one of the top two
vertebrae) to the foundation that caused it. When we lose that
delicate balance between the top bones in the spine and the skull,
the rest of the body compensates. Address the compensation and the
problem returns along with several more of those "other problems."
Address the cause and the problem goes away along with several more
of those "other problems."
