true healing, from the inside out
how preventative medicine is real medicine
as a former football player, I didn’t really consider the possibility I would be the one to get injured, by concussions specifically, until they happened. it’s the warrior’s ego to play as if you won’t get injured, as if you’re immune to the long-term damage that could occur by not listening to the warning signs, risk for injury, injury itself, and whether or not you’re ready to get back, the damage that will do, and finding a way to get back to the field no matter the cost.
of course, as a linebacker I eventually incurred concussions when all of a sudden I went into hyperdrive trying to figure out how to return to the field as quickly as possible.
I had trained all year, my entire life, to play in just these 12 games. I thought I could rest when the season was over.
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I thought I knew myself well enough to know whether or not I had healed sufficiently to return to the field.
ff course, being concussed, and motivated to return without once thinking about the future or how these concussions could affect my long term health, or whether or not they would put me or someone else at greater risk for a different injury, there was a limitation in my perception that I couldn’t see or didn’t want to admit was there.
I desperately wanted to play and I would do anything to get back out there.
after three concussions, the third being the last and final straw as I had put myself back on the field too early, having been worried about my chances to make the roster for the first time, I immediately took off into the professional world in the unkempt ambition to continue striving as I’ve always known how to do.
I wanted, and needed, to make money, like my peers. I knew I was still experiencing issues, but I didn’t know how to slow down. I had never built that skill. I knew what I should do. I didn’t know whether or not I really had to do it. I didn’t want to believe I had to.
I thought I could outwork the health problem and slowly chip away at the boulder weighing on my back.
this way of operating caused a massive delay in the healing process, 7+ years of slow, arduous progress that coupled with severe anxiety, depression, insomnia, social isolation, and a lost purpose. luckily, I had the wherewithal to detect this problem was not improving by the current strategy and wanted more out of my life than just allowing it continue by way of self-medicated repression.
after having gone the biomedical, pharmaceutical route to no avail, I then made subtle changes in my routine, looking to various “alternative” or more holistic healthcare practitioners, such as Chinese medicine and functional medicine, which provided a solid foundation of healing I could return to when I ventured too far away from inner health.
even then, there was still something I couldn’t detect that continued to trigger health problems.
it wasn’t until I went deeper into myself, sources of trauma in my life I long avoided, that I was able to stop my mind from defending from those attacks, however great or small. I thought without the striving, or out-working the competition, I would not survive. this was entrained through my football career. this is the skill that allowed me to have success in the sport and continue development throughout college and the pros.
the belief I embodied as a young football player, and afterward, specifically was:
health is something I can worry about when it really becomes a problem.
then, and only then, will I be forced to do something about it.
this is the now vs. later dilemma.
now vs. later
the major problem of human kind is that we want things now, but cannot see, do not want to see the long-term consequences of taking the bait.
we’ll choose the more immediate source of pleasure, something that provides immediate resolution to a current problem, foregoing what is possible had we waited for something better.
we settle in disbelief there could possibly be more in store for us, that we, of all people, are worthy of receiving such great reward, or that we are capable of surviving the unknown path that does not guarantee the thing we could take now. we think that what we see is all we’ll get, might as well take it while we have the chance.
young, ambitious, and naive, in football, we make the decision to sacrifice our health, our bodies, now, in hopes that we won’t get permanently injured and, even better, that we could win the lottery, although we aren’t so sure, as we aren’t shown the long-term consequences of playing a sport for that long, despite how much money and insurance we’re given.
what we see on tv is the glamour of the sport, the money and limelight, players who talk positively about the sport and make money on tv long after their careers on the field are over.
what is not shown, for good business reasons, are the stories about players after their careers are over who don’t take care of their money, as they never learned how to control their insatiable drive to win and want more than they have, or have lost their health at a much earlier age than they expected.
it is this now vs. later mentality that is the decision we make in every moment that defines preventative medicine.
questions we ask in every moment are:
do i allow my sensory desires to dictate my action, taking energy away from me, holding me in a place of comfort?
do I decide to sacrifice my immediate health for the possibility of immediate fortune?
or
do I say no to the temptation to ruin my body now, so that I can live a long, healthy life, trusting that is the life that is best for me and my ability to continue to grow and develop and impact the world?
this decision is difficult to recognize and change, especially when the temptation is so great that it’s hard to pass up, but if we trust that saying no to the immediate is in our best interest, we’ll learn how strong and integral we become, full of health, aligned in love.
this is the mindset that led to my extended healing experience. it is my stubbornness, my unwillingness to believe there could be more for me, if I were to release the need to have what I want now.
i don’t have to change until it’s bad enough.
only when I get a career-ending concussion that takes 7+ years to heal, will I realize that maybe I should have done something about it sooner.
only when I am in the hospital with needles sticking into my arm, worried whether or not I’ll survive a blood infection, will I wake up to the fact that it’s time to make a change in how I take care of myself.
this belief almost led to my downfall as one that I almost was unable to recover from, as well as what seemed to be lost years of my life, though now I adore them as a critical period of learning more about myself and how to listen to my body.
it is this belief, of wanting what we see now, that prevents true healing, that provides for a lucrative business structure in a medical system profiting off of excess back-end stress loads.
what I’ve learned through my health journey, after earning a masters in integrative medicine, writing somewhat of a thesis project, a more formal, research-based article on this very topic, is that preventative medicine is not just a type of medicine, but is the truest form of medicine, healing individuals into optimal health and maintaining that state, as it places human being being at the center of the healing plan, putting the onus on the person to take initiative to do the work to be a healthy and live a healthy life in belief that this way of life is better, as it aims to prevent pre-mature death & disease states that inhibit a long and healthy life that could not only fatally overwhelm your body, but also your finances and those supporting you.
in this blog, I’ll discuss true healing from the inside out and how preventative medicine is real medicine, and why your best life occurs with this very mindset.
what is preventative medicine?
preventative medicine is a way of life in support of your daily, overall health, livelihood, relationships, happiness, and productivity.
preventative medicine is also the belief in a hyper-intelligent, beyond comprehension, being, entity, God, Source, Love, etc. who ingeniously designed the intricate framework for living and living well on a daily basis, not one day in the future. it is the belief that your body can return to health, as my body and mind did despite the overload placed upon it after years of playing a dangerous, high-impact sport, given the right nutrients and environment, and as you’ll see there is no clear separation between integrative and preventative medicine, as both have the same beliefs.
preventative medicine begins with self-awareness, which is the ability to detect or sense when the body is off, such as when we feel tired or when we are hungry, but sometimes even those signals are difficult to detect.
why are signals difficult to detect?
signals are drowned out by the noise of life, stimulants, excitements, substances, and other forms of medication that serve to provide you with immediate resolution from signals.
pain is a signal, just as joy, love, elation, sadness, fear. without signals, you wouldn’t survive, otherwise you would walk without awareness or fear into the middle of a busy intersection and think nothing of it. see ya!
the fun kind of signals are not hard to enjoy, whereas difficult emotions we easily want to repress. repressed emotions are not just ephemeral, or non-existent, but the fact that you can sense them means they have real, tangible energy.
for example, when you have a fever, that is energy you experience. your body is in the process reacting to and defending your body from something inside, an infection of some kind. the fever is a good, natural response to danger, such as fear, as it is the warming of the body that is serving to fry the harmful bacteria before it runs rampant. fever is good. it’s a sign your body is working.
the problem arrives when you take medication because it’s an uncomfortable feeling to have a fever. this is an immediate resolution to a problem that represses the fever signal for immediate comfort.
repressed energy doesn’t go away, in fact, it only exacerbates or elongates the healing process.
so too, facing again a traumatic situation can easily be repressed with various forms of self-prescribed medication, tv, sugar, retail-therapy, anxiety medication, alcohol, social media, etc. distraction doesn’t solve the problem. it only prevents you from experiencing pain.
of course, pain sucks. but there is a purpose for it, like a fever. it’s an indicator something is off. repression is like damming a river to prevent one area from flooding, when really it’s causing flooding or storage in another area. the water or energy needs to flow to release pent up energy, or else it will cause unconscious damage elsewhere.
while the benefit is immediate, the consequence is delayed. it is this delayed consequence we tend to forget or believe we’ll be able to fix. the problem occurs when the problem goes away and we don’t have the urgency to fix it anymore. we’ll continue to reach for the immediate relief because well, it provides immediate relief, except now we’re not healed, we’re dependent on that source of energy to repress the thing that keeps us sheltered in a state of dis-ease.
when you distract your attention from pain with inconspicuous forms of medication, the energy is stored somewhere beyond your awareness and will continue to contribute to your life experience in ways that you cannot detect until you address the problem.
how preventative medicine affects your daily life
preventative medicine is not what happens when things get so bad I need to go to a doctor.
it’s a way of life in that you behave in expectation that you will receive body signals and that you will listen to them. body signals are not to be repressed, but to be listened to.
throughout your work day, or even rest days, you have decisions to make that will contribute or become a detriment to your state of inner peace.
the question to ask yourself is:
will this fill or deplete my body?
do I sit longer to complete this task? (depletion)
do I feed my senses with highly stimulating delights that do not serve my body? (depletion)
do I stand up to walk, restore energy flow, eat food that nourishes me, drink water with electrolytes, and focus my mind on the bigger tasks of the day? (restoration)
do I listen to my heart’s needs? (restoration)
am I filled with purpose? (restoration)
like a king, president, or pastor who doesn’t listen to their people, their people will eventually rise up against tyranny when they feel their needs aren’t met. they will revolt, as they should, when their is not coordination between the mind, masculine, figure-head, and the body, feminine, people.
when mind and body work together for a common good, in unison, there is harmony and peace.
preventative medicine then requires an understanding of how the body works and how it’s connected to the environment. the body has specific biological needs that when met, restore energetic flow, like an un-dammed river.
these biological needs include:
sleep - 7-8 hours of high-quality rest, counterbalance to a productive day and proper development
food - high-quality, natural, and colorful foods, herbs, seeds, animals, rich in micronutrients, digested well
water - clean, pure, electrolytic drinking water
safety - shelter from weather, enemy nations, internal sources of contention
community - strong, integral communities that support continued self-development
connection to earth - natural, lush spaces to roam with water, trees, healthy soil
movement - consistent movement throughout the day
productivity - work that supports the health of every individual, strength of the community
*self-improvement - daily balance that allows for work to progress in continual escalation of growth
*this may fall in line with psychological needs, except psychology is not independent from biology so this will stay.
when these needs are met on a daily basis, energy is allowed to flow, supporting internal vitality and providing a foundation that allows the body to overcome expected challenges.
benefits of preventative medicine
there are many benefits to preventative medicine that you may not be able to see, as I didn’t when I was blinded by my love for football. these include:
immediate health - every day is a devotion to your health and well-being and you live every moment in alignment with your highest self, always improving, enjoying every moment.
independence/autonomy- you don’t depend on anything except for your own devotion to your health, nature, and the Creator of the world, universe, and beyond our awareness.
stress resilience - stress comes and you have the tools to overcome. you do not get concerned that you’ll succumb to the pressure. instead, you’ll see stress as the pathway toward your growth.
self-esteem - by embracing your fear of painful events, you understand how fear is only a defense mechanism, not a real source of energy, which means that you understand your power to overcome stress and are not limited by your fear. you feel confident, full of inner integrity, and trust in your devotion to self to restore any problems that arise.
moral integrity - your belief in this way of life is how you make decisions, how you make money, how you treat others and the natural world. this leaves yourself, others, and the earth better than how you found it.
increased productivity and fruitfulness- with increased vitality, clarity, and energy, a sharpened axe, each swing will provide more effect, more cut into the core. in turn, you will easily produce fruit as a natural response to self-nourishment. it is not more work, but more alignment that is missing for increased productivity. it requires first that you believe that you being healthy is primary in every decision you make.
death insurance - sure enough, we all are going to die at some point. it’s not about if but when. so what matters is not preventing death or insuring what happens when, but instead maximizing life in every moment, expecting continual self-investment to be elongating how fully we live our daily life.
insurance against fatal stress loads - failing to nourish our bodies daily will result in excess stress loads later on that could be fatal. your daily investment is not only giving you life, but reducing the necessary treatment in case of an emergency situation, such as what happened during my recent hospital stay.
improves treatment efficacy during emergency cases - all treatments work better not when the problem is already out of control, like a malicious tumor, but before the tumor is detected. the body has cancer all the time, in every moment. resolving the problem of cancer is based on whether or not your body’s immune system is strong enough to prevent it from spreading. in these cases, detecting it early, and feeding the body with cellular optimization nutrients to support it’s integrity, restoring energy flow, will provide the greatest effect for disease amelioration.
what are the costs?
while there are innumerable benefits, certainly these must come at a cost. similar to how you invest in an education you expect to pay off with a better job in the end, so too, this investment into health now is a way of honoring the structure of reality you live in, in yourself, that when you are healthy and aligned in mind, body, and spirit, you are productive, fruitful, and satisfied.
what more is there to want than to be satisfied in every waking moment?
how to start living a preventative medicine lifestyle
as mentioned earlier, preventative medicine is about awareness, detecting signals.
begin with a self-assessment to understand exactly where you are health wise. I wrote about another energy assessment in another post, and this will be similar.
the self-assessment will look at your current health, without going into finer testing, which I believe in most cases is unnecessary to detect a problem.
conduct this self-assessment and store the answers in a safe location where you can check your progress.
ask yourself without judgment:
energy - how are my energy levels throughout the day? when do I get tired? how do I stay awake? do I feel energized or do I feel like I’m dragging along?
look test - don’t judge. do I like how I look? am I overweight, middle, underweight? do I look tired? is my skin vibrant and healthy? is my hair dense and lush or sparse and balding?
sleep - how long do I sleep? do I wake up feeling rested? is my sleeping environment conducive for high-quality sleep?
movement - do I move consistently throughout the day? do I move too much or too little?
diet - which foods do I eat to support the day’s demands? how do I feel after eating them? how colorful are my food choices? how is my digestion? what is the quality of my bowel movements?
community - am I spending time with friends and family who support me, who fill me with energy rather than deplete me? am I inspired, uplifted by the people around me, or am I constantly having to recharge before going back out into the world?
purpose - do I feel like my work is purposeful? do I enjoy the day-to-day? do I enjoy work? am I improving as a person? what is my overall life aim and how does my work contribute to that aim? is my work a means to an end?
belief - what one thing matters most to me? what is the primary factor in my decisions, how I operate my life? where does my health come into play when it comes to making decisions? do I believe I can change? do I believe in love?
these basic questions can be taken further if you’d like. feel free to write on them as much as you feel comfortable with. ask yourself questions about what you wrote, such as why? where does that mindset come from? is that true? is that what I want? is that healthy?
after doing the self-assessment, make note of how you could improve each of the factors associated with health. don’t judge. don’t shame yourself for where you are. just notice. come into detection mode about how you are living your life and how that affects your health.
noticing your health is the first step and it is the step that begins the process you’ll never look back from.
the most difficult part is the noticing, coming into awareness of truth, as we have learned, as we tend to want to repress things too cumbersome to ingest.
if there is anything that you take away from this blog post, it’s that you are loved and you are capable of healing. preventative medicine is the belief that you as a human being are capable of changing, that it’s okay and actually completely normal to have gone through trauma, to have messed up, to have not taken care of yourself as you probably should have, but no matter where you are in your journey, it’s never too late.
health and vitality is available to you, now, today! it begins with a decision to believe beyond all other distractions that you are capable of healing.
how to begin your journey
with that being said, doing this alone is a lonely process and there will be obstacles that are often too challenging to overcome alone. it requires an outside source, one that has been in your shoes to be able to help lift you out, with grace and compassion.
this is where integrative health coaching comes in.
while coaching is a term I have wanted to avoid at all costs, as I’d rather use the term mentor or guide, though there are certainly biases with each, coach is more searchable and applicable in today’s world, so coach it is.
a coach is someone who walks with you during every step of the journey, providing the framework for your escape from the old life, casting a vision for a better future, and helping you walk with courage into a different world, full of health and vitality.
this reality is here and it’s waiting for you to walk into it.
certainly, it is not required to get a health coach to step into this reality, and I certainly believe you can do it without help, but having someone to guide you definitely makes it easier.
if you’re interested in coaching, i’m here to listen to where you are and where you want to go. I’ll provide a more comprehensive health assessment and discuss a plan to help you move from survival mode into active and vibrant living, every moment being a fully awakened chance to love and enjoy life to the fullest.
this isn’t a dream world. this is a reality that is available now.
schedule a free discovery call today and I’ll show you what we can do together.
you are not alone. you are capable of healing. i believe in you.
thanks for reading.
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thank you.
in love,
david
