In 1964, Mick Jagger sang about “time being on your side”. Today, his words and “moves” still keep us anchored to a reality we all share.
When it comes to time; we all have the same amount. Sixty seconds in a minute. One hundred and sixty eight hours in a week and so many minutes to wait for the same plane. Indeed, if we are all slaves to the same master of chronological time, have you ever asked yourself why so many of us are SO BUSY, while others seem to have more than enough?
The Ancient Greeks took their understanding of Time from those before them. Essentially, like quantum mechanics and modern physics theory describes today, time exhibits a dualistic nature. As well as having a quantitative or chronological (Chronos) nature which most of us understand, it also has a relative nature understood best in relationship to a particular moment or season (Kairos), which very few of us understand.
In Chiropractic we say one needs to learn to exhibit a state of both present time consciousness (ex. what season is it) and present timing consciousness (ex. length of time it takes to run 1 km) in order to maximally benefit another human being in any healthy interaction and true to its word this understanding and skill is only developed over time.
The former helps us keep to a schedule, measure effectiveness, bake a cake and celebrate birthdays, while the latter with its more qualitative meaning relates more to our level of self awareness with a particular moment or season. It is the strength of this awareness which today’s research shows relates 100% to our overall sense of health & well-being and ability to deal better with stress so we can enjoy better long term health and wellness. As we cultivate it, we build a better innate relationship and connection toward not only “being treated”, but as well how our feelings of health, acceptance and peace are required to experience a life of wellness.
D.D. Palmer, the founder of Chiropractic, before Einstein, took these translational understandings of time and incorporated them into his writings on essential Chiropractic theory. Thanks to philosophy expounded upon by Dr. Stephenson, principle number six of the thirty three principles states that “There is no process in life that does not require time”. To this end, we in Chiropractic, together respect the natural, holistically grounded idea that all of us are healing and in a healing state, it’s only a matter of how we strengthen our relationship to time that matters most, as one of the over 300 books written about Edgar Cayce, will also testify.
Now, decades later, with this new advanced understanding taking a foothold in our primary health care system, the dominant health care field of medication and surgery utilization is having to also recognize how important it is to include TIME as an ingredient for regaining health & living with wellness. Indeed, with so many more people replacing their primary health care models in line with those that honour time, like Chiropractic, Massage Therapy & Midwifery…just to name a few, we will reduce hospital wait times and escalating provincial health care costs associated with adverse effects of medication and unnecessary surgeries that in fact diminish both quality and quantity of life.
The idea of a intervention, pill, potion, lotion or surgery, is simply NOT holding our attention anymore. Having come from the industrial, hi-tech, digital, environmental revolutions, we are now living the Time based health & wellness revolution which I believe is at the core of our “sluggish economy”.
This is why so many forms of healthcare seen as alternative or complimentary, like Chiropractic, continue to explode in our developing world because they embrace vitalistically this principle as it relates to how we take care of ourselves both with respect to chronological time and as well time in relationship to the moment. Like not only how often we: get adjusted, eat, pray, hug, exercise, work, sleep, express, share, relax, mediate, create, journal, play, but also how well we do these things. As your Chiropractor, I want to help you do both of these better each and every day.
So next year, let’s remember that Chiropractic isn’t about treating anything, but rather is about reminding us that Time is indeed on our side and with a healthier spine & nerve system, we will not only enjoy life more, but will also give our soul the best opportunity to better align itself up with it’s authentic nature and destiny which our one and only universe has in store for each one of us.
Our next workshop is going to be on January 25th, 2012. Until then, we all join together to wish you a joy filled Christmas holiday season with your family & friends and a healthy 2012!
