What DO You DO When You Are Feeling Good?

By: Daryl Berman, DC

A lesson you learn working in a chiropractic office is that people are motivated by pain.

You have likely experienced this yourself.

A problem arises, seems relatively minor, and gets no attention – until it gets worse, and worse, and worse, and DEMANDS your ATTENTION with PAIN. 

When pain gets past a certain threshold, it dominates your attention.

Then another funny thing happens – it demands action.  In other words, you try to get away from what is happening.

But on the other hand, what do you do when you are feeling good?

You again likely have a specific pattern.  One that is unique and different from everybody else.  

Maybe you learn a new sport or outdoor activity. Or maybe you double down on doing your thing that you do (just the way you do it) that makes you, YOU.

And when your energy is good, your body feels good, and your mind follows, seeing optimism everywhere and in everything, you also do the same thing as everyone else.

More.  You just have your own version of it that is different from everyone else.  

What you do MORE of, that is.

The key to the other half of this equation (the other side of pain = motivation), is that as part of doing MORE, the tendency most people have, (and you most likely do as well) is to push the envelope.  

And this doing MORE, pushing the envelope, does two things.  It helps build you up – new skills, new experiences, moving past your previous physical abilities.  Doing More creates BECOMING MORE.

But it can also break you down.  Life has risks, movement has risks, exercise and sport carries risk.

On the other hand, not doing these things at all – and choosing sedentism as a lifestyle, carries more than risk.  It is inherently damaging.  And the worse that you generally feel – if you are like most people, the less you move.  The less you do.  You become not MORE, but LESS.

This concept then becomes a game of understanding how to get your body performing well enough so that you feel good and do more.  

And then can take advantage of that increased activity.  And not have it break you down. 

Because who hasn’t had grand plans to pick up a challenge – start running, lose weight, feel better about yourself, look better and feel better in your clothes, and more confident – only to be waylaid within weeks or even DAYS and not be able to physically accomplish what your mind set out to do?

A little pain starts to arise, and how easy is it to think “that’s a bad sign, maybe I better not?”