Our bodies are brilliant, self-healing, self-regulating systems. We have everything we need to be healthy already inside of us.
Sometimes we forget this.

The majority of the time, our bodies will move through symptoms, sickness and disease without any outside assistance. However, we often will intervene with medications or surgery before our bodies have been given the opportunity to heal naturally.

When we jump to intervention in our children’s health what we are teaching them is that they need help from the outside to heal. One of the best gifts we can give our children for their future health and well-being is to allow them the opportunity to heal themselves before we intervene with drugs or herbs to make them feel better. There is always a time and a place for emergency medical care and as a parent you must trust yourself to know when that point is. All I am suggesting is that point may be past where we normally make it.

I want to tell you Johnny’s story. When Johnny was aged 2 to 4 he had ear infections; he was taken to the doctor and prescribed antibiotics and he felt better. When Johnny was 3 he had the flu with a fever; he was given Tylenol, his fever dropped, and he felt better. When Johnny was 5 he had the flu and he was vomiting; he was given Gravol and he felt better. In his childhood whenever he had a headache he was given Aspirin and he would feel better. Each time Johnny had symptoms in his body he was given medication to suppress the symptoms and he felt better. When Johnny was 15, he was suffering from depression. Where do you think Johnny turned to feel better? Johnny started using marijuanna, he felt better. But after a few years the marijuanna was no longer making him feel better and he turned to using cocaine. Now Johnny feels that he needs to use cocaine to feel good.

By using medications every time Johnny experienced a health event, he was taught from a very young age that he and his body needed help from the outside to heal and feel good. He was not empowered in the abilities that he had to heal himself and care for himself. When he was feeling depressed he did not trust that he had the power inside of himself to heal, therefore, he turned to recreational drugs.

Recreational drug use in North America is higher than it has ever been. Governments are fighting the war on drugs and losing, why? Our society has become highly dependent on medications for our health care and it has become normal to regularly be medicating our bodies even with numerous medications at a time. I believe that we need to shift our focus from fighting the effects (recreational drug use) to looking at a primary cause (overuse of medications and a lack of trust in our bodies and its innate intelligence).

We need to be empowering our young people in their ability to heal themselves and be powerful self-sufficient human beings. Each time we use an outside intervention to try and fix a health or any other problem for our children we take their power away. The more we can trust in our children’s innate intelligence and abilities the more they will trust in themselves. Our bodies and minds are capable of incredible feats and acts of healing.

Chiropractic prescribes to an inside-out philosophy. What does this mean? This means that we have everything we need inside of us to be successful in life and to heal. In Chiropractic we believe that our innate intelligence (internal wisdom) knows what is best for us. We encourage people to trust in the ability of their body to heal. We empower people to “follow their heart” or “listen to their gut feelings”. The educated mind was a blank slate when we were born and we have been accumulating a finite amount of information and knowledge to form up our ideas and perspectives about the world. The innate mind has always, and will always, have infinite knowledge and wisdom, and the more we can listen to and trust our innate the more powerful we will be.

Too often we look outside of ourselves for answers. We think that more money, a new house, a new car, a new baby, a new relationship, or that new medication will be the thing to save us. Living from the outside-in will always leave us unfulfilled. When we can live from the inside-out that is when the magic happens.

Empower our children in trusting their innate intelligence. Provide them with choices in everything they do, from what they eat to what they wear, to the sports they play. When they feel like they have a choice they feel like they are in control. When they observe that their bodies can heal themselves they feel powerful. The future of our society rests in the hands of our children; let us give them the best start to life possible through inside-out empowerment.