TOP PRIORITY

----TOP PRIORITY----

Priority is defined as “that which takes precedence” . . . “that which is more important”. We handle our lives on a priority basis in doing those things which seem most important to us at the time. The word priority takes on a more significant meaning to those patients/practice members who are sincerely interested in regaining their health. People go to a doctor because they hurt somewhere, or some function of the body is not normal. Whatever the initial problem, it may or may not be in priority. If the area of pain happens to be in priority, you will feel great after the first treatment/adjustment and be convinced that your doctor has worked a miracle.


There is a decided difference in “not hurting” and “regaining health”. The elimination of pain is more easily accomplished but a return to health can be a long and hard fought struggle. The end result of the return to health, however, far outweighs the mere subsiding of pain. If you are choosing the return to health, you must understand that the body will heal itself on a priority basis. Your body’s healing energy will be directed to repairing the most serious problem that you have. To actually get well, the body must be allowed the time and the opportunity to repair everything that needs repair. The body will do this on a very definite priority schedule.


If you think about this, it is quite reasonable. Everything that the body does is reasonable, logical, even though at times we are inclined to feel that it might not be. Intense pain seems totally wrong, and yet it is the perfectly logical process for the body to warn that something is wrong. Pain and other symptoms will change as the priority of the body changes. All function and repair is according to priority. We run our lives on priority. You might like to go fishing, but you realize that you have to go to work to make money to pay bills. Going to work will take priority over going fishing. Each day we make innumerable decisions and judgements, and we act according to what we decide is priority.


Occasionally we might make a mistake in establishing our priorities, but the innate intelligence within the body does not make mistakes. This infinite wisdom that created you from two cells and guided your development and growth never makes a mistake in priority. It always chooses wisely and decisively. If your painful shoulder is not responding as quickly as you (and your doctor) would like it to, you can be assured that your body is directing the healing force to some part of your body that needs the attention more at that particular time. Some other area of your body is in higher priority. Tomorrow or the next day, an entirely different part of your body may be in the top priority.


This happens because your body rebuilds itself as a total unit and not piece by piece. That is, it would be foolish for your body to completely rebuild and repair your kidneys if your heart were to last only two more days. It will, for example, improve your kidneys perhaps 5%, then change priority and work on your heart. When the heart is improved to the point at which it is no longer the worst thing wrong with you, then our body’s wisdom will direct its attention to another organ or part of your body. It is a little like remodeling your kitchen. The carpenters reach a certain point and then the plumbers take over. When they have done just so much, the electricians have a job to do. It should all be well planned and coordinated and all finished at the same time.


Your body’s energy must be balanced and flowing to allow your body the chance to accurately select its top priority, and to do the proper job of making repairs. Rebuilding and repair is done by your body when you sleep. Just how well it is done depends on how well your body’s energy is balanced and flowing. During our waking hours, the body is concerned with activity, balance, and all the thousands of little evaluations and reflexes that allow us to stand, walk, eat, and all the other things we do. There just is not energy available at this time for repair. If you are busy riding a bicycle, you do not have time to trim your fingernails.


The body requires a lot of energy just standing upright. In fact, this job of standing is actually fighting against the effects of gravity which is always a priority situation. When you lie down, the “righting reflex” should be automatically turned off, and in a balanced body, it will be. If your energy is out of balance because you are subluxated, your body’s communication will be faulty, and some of the postural muscles may still be engaged. This is evidenced in those people who cannot relax when they lie down.
Let us put it another way. When the body is upright, the conscious mind is in action. We function in relationship to the information we derive from our senses – what we see, hear, smell, etc. Our innate intelligence, or that intelligence that built us, is busy with the maintenance of our bodies . . . the housekeeping chores.


When we lie down, the conscious mind should be shut off and innate intelligence should take over complete control of the body. Only then can this intelligence do the repair and rebuilding. The person who is subluxated and whose body is out of balance energy-wise and whose body is therefore not communicating properly is unable to “turn off” the conscious mind. It is still active, thus interfering with the Innate repair of the body. Repair is an Innate or sub-conscious function, not a function of the conscious mind.
When the conscious mind remains active during sleep, we sleep poorly and awaken just as tired as when we went to bed.


Medications of any kind will alter the priority of the body by fooling the body’s intelligence. An aspirin may mask the pain of a headache, but this is accomplished only at the expense of interrupting the body’s normal communication. If the fire alarm is disconnected, pushing the buzzer will accomplish nothing. The fire is certainly in priority, but if communication system is not intact, no one will find out about the fire and nothing will be done about it.


The body’s use of priority is seldom a totally one-sided situation. More often it is perhaps 75% and 25%. For example, a patient comes into our office with a severe sciatic pain. Her scans reveal imbalance at the level of the spine that innervates the heart. Her exam and history confirms there is serious heart trouble. The sciatic condition is actually a minor problem when compared to the condition of the heart (major). That which is causing pain is not necessarily that which is the most serious to survival.


We begin adjusting this practice member and gradually the sciatic pain diminishes and at the same time cardiac function also improves. During the course of care, the symptoms of leg pain can diminish and then recur several times while the body’s wisdom alternates repair between the major and the lesser condition.


A re-check of the spine and the scans show an improvement in the lumbar spine and pelvis structure related to the lessened sciatic pain, but it may also show a marked decrease in the imbalance at the area that innervates the heart. The body wisely places the most serious condition in priority, but evidently the major problem needs only a portion of the available energy and the rest can be directed to helping the lesser problem.


Oftentimes you will experience a pendulum swing – your neck may feel better than ever but your low back is awful. The next day the pendulum may swing and your neck may feel awful and your low back may feel great. The pendulum swings from left to right and from up to down.


In reality, to really get well, you must keep your body free of subluxations, follow a good nutritional program, maintain a positive mental outlook, and have patience in allowing sufficient time for your body to heal itself. Make sure that you are doing nothing to stimulate or to inhibit your body. The beautiful intelligence within your body, that built your body, can then follow its own priority schedule. Keep me informed of changes in how you feel, but be happy with the ups and the downs, as these represent priority changes and indicate that you are truly on the road back to good health.