I am finally committing my practice to offer sports medicine from a Naturopathic perspective. Living an active life is one of the key components to living a healthy life. I truly believe this and have realized this is one of the sole reasons I am in practice as a Naturopathic physician. Every move I have made in my life has included the stress relieving, energy producing, mental clarity and catharsis of exercise. I was a dancer through my elementary and high school years, I became a runner and cycle instructor when I was out of college and now I am pedaling my own set of wheels every chance I get. I look back and realize where we spend most of our time and energy in our lives is what our hearts ascertain to be our destiny. With this same view, if you are spending your time longing to do something year after year...instead of longing for it…DO IT.
Through my work as a Naturopath, I am always looking at how to integrate the mental and physical plane. As a cycle instructor I am also looking at how to integrate the mental and physical plane…huh. One of the founding truths of exercise is that most of it is mental and if we do not work on that aspect we will never perform to our full capacity…never. Meditation is the same as exercise but it is with movement and cardiovascular effort. Optimal health is the same as meditation as it requires us to ‘listen’ to our bodies to truly heal, it requires us to let go in order to release. No matter the medicine, chronic disease will not shift unless YOU shift. I am whittling my way into this truth through exercise. This is a pathway to healing and totally free if you choose. I have often read, ‘the best health insurance is a gym membership’ which represents the fact that no matter if it is a gym or activity outside the gym, you are investing in your health.
So here it is, if you work at physical activity then you will want to develop all the tools you can to perform better. Even if you never run a marathon or any kind of race, you are still allowed to seek these tools. The thing is, like any other issue in our lives, we are flooded with obstacles and most of them link with health. If you are not digesting properly and can’t finish your run, you are stunted, if you are distracted by a relationship that ended and can’t push yourself to get out there, you are stunted, if you are aging and finding it frustrating that you can’t keep weight off, you are stunted. But you do not have to be, and if you ask for help, it will float down onto your lap in an envelope from the sky. Change really is this accessible.
