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RESIST HARDENING OF THE ATTITUDES
By Dalton Roberts
Chattanooga Times Free Press
11-1-02
If you want to know how old you are, don't look at your birth
certificate. Look at your attitudes.
Henry Ford said, "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at
twenty or eighty."
What attitudes determine our true age? Number one is our attitude toward
life. Do we consider it a stress or an interesting challenge? If you
view it as a stress you will experience it as stress. Each day it will
take a horrendous toll on your health.
Exercise can become stressful. Here's a simple test: decide to walk two
miles and see if you start thinking, "two miles." If so, you
are dreading it. And dread does some nasty things to the body. Now go
back to walking but every now and then skip along for a few yards.
Skipping adds playfulness.
Self-image is vital, too. Hardening of the arteries was seen in
autopsies of young boys during the Vietnam War. Some say it's our fast
food diet. That is part of the explanation but hardening of the
attitudes is a bigger problem. We have become who we thought we were
many years ago and are busy right now becoming who we have decided we
want to become. Our attitudes create a mold into which we pour our daily
experiences.
Our attitude toward our body is important. If we view it as something
with a certain lifespan like a car, we will be watching for signs of
wear. We will be focused on our disabilities and not our abilities. If
time alone ages the body, why are some people in their eighties
functioning better than others half their age? I know my body works
better now than it did 30 years ago when I was mistreating it. The body
responds immediately to respect and loving attention.
Pain ages us dramatically. Do not get dependent on drugs alone to handle
your pain.
I watched pain play out in different ways with my parents. My father
never seemed old to me. Even in his last days before he died at 83. He
remained active and spent a lot of time at his lathe, making beautiful
wood items. Mother didn't visibly age until the pain got her down.
For years, I have gone to Bob Long for massage because I have my
mother's tendency to arthritis. He has kept me almost pain-free and
suggested herbal remedies that do not habituate. He is a Seventh Day
Adventist and I discovered long ago that I could learn a lot about
health from them. To complement his expert care, I start each day
stretching and doing simple in-bed exercises. I also go to a
chiropractor. In my experience, spinal alignment is a major move toward
being pain-free.
What if you cannot afford massage and chiropractic? Swap massages with a
wife, husband or friend. We seem to instinctively know the moves that
make our body feel more at ease and it is a simple matter to teach
someone those basics. Some will criticize me for daring to suggest
helping ourselves with things they see as the domain of professionals
but until we take responsibility for our own bodies we are locked into a
dependent way of life.
Every home should have a massage table. My father made mine in his
woodworking shop but good ones can be purchased for less than a good
recliner. Less time in a recliner and more time on a massage table could
do as much as anything to get pain out of your life.
So what do all these techniques have to do with attitudes? They reflect
an attitude toward life of always looking for simple solutions to the
pains and problems that are a part of life on this planet. The
over-arching attitude we need is, "There are things I can do to
feel good and enjoy my life and I am going to discover them."
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