I recently read that depression and anxiety have increased 25% since 2020. Almost half of our population is obese, with childhood obesity reaching epidemic numbers. And an estimated 38% of Americans use prescription painkillers on a regular basis to deaden ongoing physical pain. It is clear to anyone looking that we are headed in the wrong direction, veering out of control.
While we would all love to be heading in a positive direction, instead of the severely negative one we are currently going in, we have to slow the downhill trajectory, turn to face the opposite way, then begin back on the road to success, abundance, and optimal living.
A good start would be to identify the cause of the problems at hand. The list is long for sure. So, where do we begin? In my world, the world of chiropractic, problems get broken down into three categories. Because there are three of them, and they all start with the letter “T,” they are often referred to as “The Three T’s.” These are traumas, toxins, and thoughts.
Traumas are the most obvious and well understood. If your body is struck hard, skin can tear, muscles can bruise, and bones can break. Our bodies get banged up during the process of being born, learning to walk, climb, and ride bikes, and we get jarred around playing sports, getting into car accidents, and with slips and falls. We are not designed to be sedentary, but most Americans do not get enough physical activity each day, with roughly 25% of the population considered completely sedentary. If the cause of one’s problems in life are physical, then attention and energy must be put into addressing that physical component, and physical work is required to fix it.
The second “T” is toxins. Toxins wreak havoc on human health. Our exposure to air pollution, a tainted water supply, plastics, artificial coloring and flavors in our food, and the tens of thousands of chemicals that our ancestors never encountered, are responsible for a lot of the sickness and disease we see today. An often-overlooked toxin that I believe will be shown to be highly harmful to human health is electromagnetic frequencies (EMF’s). With the rampant use of cell phones and the ever-increasing number of cell towers and presence of Wi-Fi, this “T” will give a hard shove to human health in the negative direction that we are already heading in.
The third, and most underestimated and underappreciated “T” is thoughts. The mind is so powerful. What we think about… we bring about. We have thousands of thoughts each day, and a large percentage of those thoughts are negative. We dwell on the past, and we worry about the future. We think we’ll be happy one day, when we get to that imagined magical spot in life, achieve that incredible thing, or have that amazing item. The present moment is missed and lost. Our focus on negative events, the things we don’t have, and the people that have wronged us or we don’t think like us has catastrophic effects on how our cells function, how our heart pumps, how our immune system operates, and how we heal. Much of the sickness, disease, depression, anxiety, and unhappiness stems from our negative and toxic thinking.
I know I did not include strategies or solutions to countering these three “T’s,” but change starts with awareness. Identifying the three T’s… traumas, toxins, and thoughts, and noting that they are affecting you and your health is a start. We all are affected by not just one of these, but a combination of all three. All three can be addressed and worked on. Identify which one is causing the most harm in your life, and go to work on that. And know that fixing a physical problem requires physical work, fixing a toxin problem requires addressing your exposure to the toxin, and fixing a thought problem requires thinking differently.
Our current healthcare system is trying to make you believe that chemicals (drugs) are the answer to most of your problems. That solution has failed miserably and actually has contributed to our downhill spiral. Right now, past traumas, your exposure to toxins, and your negative thoughts and thinking patterns are getting in the way of you being fully well. Start working on the three “T’s” and you will see your health, and life, start to head in a more positive direction.
