Did you have a pain producing or pain reducing weekend? It’s all in the way you do the things you do.

(The Way You Do The Things You Do - Bing video )

Consider if you will the ordinary events of an beautiful May weekend in Fairfield County, Connecticut in the extraordinary year of 2024. In this year, we don’t need AI to predict  if you are on the path towards pain reduction or of pain production. Our paths are determined to a large degree by the way we perform the most ordinary and inevitable of daily (and lifelong) activities.  We’re either maintaining or improving our health on one side or going into the Twilight Zone of declining health and vitality. on the other. He not busy being born is busy dying. (It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - YouTube )

The way you do the things you always  do: think, breathe, move, eat, drink,  and the things we sometimes do, sit, get up,play games, work out and use computers and phones, read, drive, do yardwork and go out on the town  ALL decidedly point us toward one path or the other, pain production or pain reduction. I want to get specific on the things we always do:

Think: Bob Marley was right.  Positive Vibrations help. (Bing Videos ) Don’t think in that negative way!

Breathe: The way you breathe can influence your life in important ways. Your experience of pain and your overall sense of feeling calm and healthy (or not) are strongly affected by HOW you breathe. To simplify, is your typical breathing shallow, pain and anxiety producing with small breaths, or full and deep with appropriately large breaths? And what happens when you consciously try to take in a large breath? Do you just expand your upper chest, or does plentiful air get down into your lower lungs, as evidenced by the movement of your abdomen as your diaphragm moves?

Movement: Our bodies and our brains crave healthy movement. And lots of it! We are designed magnificently to move. Good, healthy movement is like a symphony, harmonizing strength, flexibility and endurance in a balanced rhythm. Like a good song, and here’s one I truly love, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. (Bing Videos )

Good movement typically involves the whole body, as in walking, swimming, yoga and weight training. It doesn’t have to be a grind. A twenty minute walk or jog, a few minutes of stretching a day will help fantastically. Some of the best benefits are found in going from doing nothing to doing a little. Even little bursts – ten seconds every ten minutes, fifteen seconds every fifteen minutes of simple movement done regularly during any repetitive activity like using a phone or computer, reading, sewing, raking leaves, making leaf mulch (one of my major activities this spring, fortunately now done), redistributing leaf mulch (also done as of the end of this weekend) pulling weeds, and the one we don’t even think about anymore with our recent mild winters, shoveling snow.

Conversely, unhealthy movement  is marked by movement in positions of inherent strain and awkwardness, such as the ever unpopular one I frequently warn patients about, reaching for something  in a way that causes your nose to go out past your toes, a classic set-up for injuring or aggravating your already painful lower back. Common examples are reaching over to pull one more weed when you are tired and don’t want to move your feet over a little, or reaching for something behind everything in the back of your closet off to the side. Or everybody’s favorite tasks of mopping, vacuuming, and raking. Easy to overreach to the side, past your feet.

Then there is something I see every day I am at Georgetown Chiropractic, people reaching off to the side for their keys and phone on the chair in my treatment room. Moving in this manner can cause spinal joints to lock up, with irritation to the nerves followed by muscle spasm and pain. Even if there is no problem 99.9% of the time, these tasks are so common that eventually there’s a problem. The straw that breaks the camel’s back  can be  just reaching for a cookie on the counter.

Speaking of food…wait, not yet. Even if you are hungry.

Other unhealthy movement is the heroic weekend warrior, trying to get in a whole week’s worth of fun and games after being sedentary all week and not obeying my advice of taking  fifteen second breaks every  fifteen minutes of repetitive activity, and a sweet one-minute off after one hour.

And we can’t forget plain old being clumsy causing a jolt to the spine, like slipping off a curb, or tripping on the stairs. That’s never good.

Back to food, finally! One of our true obsessions. At least mine. Am I alone?

Food:

Eating natural whole foods over processed junk is akin to giving your body a VIP ticket to optimal health and vitality. Picture this: vibrant fruits and vegetables bursting with nutrients, lean proteins teeming with amino acids, and whole grains brimming with fiber, all coming together to form a symphony of nourishment for your body. By opting for nature's bounty, you're not just filling your plate; you're fueling your cells with the building blocks they crave, fortifying your immune system, and bolstering your defenses against disease. Bid farewell to the nagging pains and sluggishness that often accompany a diet laden with processed foods, and say hello to a life brimming with energy, vitality, and a renewed zest for living. Bottom line: If the food comes from nature, consider eating it. If it is processed or horror of horrors, ultra-processed, think again.

All that good food can make you thirsty

Drink: Water, the elixir of life, holds unparalleled value over its sugary counterparts, packaged juice and soda. Imagine a crystal-clear stream coursing through your body, hydrating every cell, flushing out toxins, and keeping your systems running smoothly. Unlike juice or soda, laden with artificial sweeteners and empty calories, water nourishes, leaving you refreshed and revitalized. It's the ultimate beverage choice, promoting optimal health, radiant skin, and a clear mind. Embrace water, and let its purity quench your thirst for vitality.

Other great drinks are a little (as in the traditional small, skinny juice glass size) fresh juice. And however much coffee or tea you enjoy - the choice of drinking it plain or with a little or a lot of sugar is one of those fork in the road moments. Plain coffee and tea has numerous health benefits, but several times daily sugar consumption can only be bad for our health.

To sum it all up: We all think, breathe, move, eat, and drink. Might as well do it in a pain reducing, health producing way.