Waking up early…Set the Tone for the Day!

Waking up early…Set the Tone for the Day!

There are some people that handle all of the stresses of the day with ultimate ease.  Every obstacle or situation they have to deal with is a breeze, everything rolls off of their back (if things don’t roll off your back then you may be experiencing emotional back pain, just saying!).  If you are one of those lucky “easy rollers” maybe you don’t need to read on; yet if you want to improve your amazing stress free life, or if you are like the rest of us that react imperfectly to stress, then read on! 

I work hard to place positive messages in my brain first thing every morning.  By doing this, I can shape my own "reality" into what I envision, rather than waiting for someone else to put messages in my head, messages that may or may not be positive.  When you begin your day by placing positive messages into your head, you are much more likely to be more resilient and in a better mood the rest of the day.  It's just that simple. Did you ever wake up “on the wrong side of the bed”?  Did you ever have stressful or bad news in the morning that ruined the rest of your day?  I don’t know about you but I always feel better when I start the day off on a positive note.

Why do I do this?  Because I want the best for me and I want the best for the people I interact with every day.  If I’m not at the top of my game then it makes it more challenging to help others.

 So- what does that really mean?  Here is an example of what I do every day for my morning ritual:

The alarm clock is set for 4:45AM but 80% of the time I don't even need an alarm, I’m just up a few minutes before it goes off.  I know it’s early yet I have found that in order to really get my head in the right place before I leave for the office in the morning I prefer to take my time and perform certain rituals.  I need time to fit all of these things in so I choose to wake up early.  Maybe your routine is much simpler; maybe you don’t have to be at the office so early.  Wake up whenever is best for you.

  As soon as my eyes open, my first conscious thoughts go towards prayer.  I’ve been saying the same one every day for years; it works for me.  It gets me to feel connected to G-d and the magic of the world right from the start.

I’ll skip the details of my bathroom habits and simply state that while I’m waiting for my shower water to heat up I spend a few minutes writing down what I am grateful for.  I choose to write 3-7 things to quickly journal about.  

After getting dressed I go downstairs for breakfast (lately nuts or seeds) and I take my supplements with a big glass of water.  Then it’s back upstairs to meditate 20-25 minutes.

Now it’s time to kiss my family farewell, fill up my 40oz water bottle, grab my coffee, high fiber gluten free crackers and off to the car. 

During my hour commute I listen to something uplifting; whether it’s a recording from my coach; a philosophy podcast; or an interview with someone that I am interested in; I must put something positive in my head before I get into the office!

All of these morning rituals developed over time…NOT overnight!  I put one in a time and gradually started waking up earlier.  I actually fought my coach on almost every suggestion he made and then did a little bit of it anyway because I knew it was the right thing to do I (how did you know? Unspecific).  On follow up conversations he praised me for what I had done and then asked me to do more.  Each time I added a piece, my life improved.  I don’t know why we can’t just snap our fingers and change…it really IS that easy but if it takes a while…don’t worry…you have a lifetime! 

 Just remember, these rituals are for YOU!  Many of us have kids, pets, significant others that are part of our mornings as well.  Find that extra time for yourself and you will be a better person for them.

So, to sum up, the rule for this post is:

RULE—create my own morning ritual that lifts me up!

Things to think about adding:

·         Prayer             

·         Meditation

·         Exercise

·         Stretching

·         Goals

·         Journaling

·         Grateful List

·         Nourishing food

·         Water

·         Supplements

Dr. Jason Piken, a 1996 graduate of New York Chiropractic College. During Chiropractic College he became proficient in Gonstead (a system of analyzing the spine) and has since spent hundreds of seminar-hours broadening his technique skills to include, Chiropractic Biophysics and Applied Kinesiology. For more information about Dr. Piken, please visit his website at www.innatechiro.com.

Why call this blog “The Rules”?

I grew up a very picky eater. I mean really picky.  This wasn’t because I had food allergies or some religious restrictions, I just had these incredibly peculiar taste buds.  I probably limited my life to fifteen or so foods, and every food had rules attached.  For example, I loved tuna fish but it had to be eaten on an English muffin…ONLY a Thomas’s English muffin!  Not toast and eeeeewww definitely not plain…if it fell off the English muffin onto the plate I probably wouldn’t touch it.  Another rule, two different foods could not touch each other on the same plate…If one pea rolled over and touched the chicken cutlet then that pea was not to be eaten.  I guess I forced my Mom to do more dishes because I preferred everything in their own separate environments.  Ice cream had to be chocolate. Plain chocolate. No chips. Only chocolate. The list went on and on.  These were the first “rules” of life that I created and for what reason?  I have no idea.

 Eventually my eating habits changed.  One of the few blessings that came out of my College fraternity’s hazing was that I was forced to eat all sorts of disgusting foods that broke my rules.  I figured that if I could eat a mixture of sardines/baked beans/spoonful’s of mustard/and a gigantic industrial sized can of Chef Boyardee meat ravioli…all mixed together…none of which I on their own...then I could begin to try some foods that were outside my rules for pure enjoyment.  This did not necessarily make me a healthier eater, but it did expand my palate a bit.   My life was filled with McDonald’s hamburger eating contests (I think I remember 5 being my max), pizza, General Tso’s chicken, KFC, and bagels, with the occasional head of broccoli thrown in.

 I had no reason to stop eating all the fast food and snacks though, I just had a wider range of crap that I ate.  I thought there were no consequences.  I could eat whatever I wanted and I still remained a skinny kid. I felt physically OK, so …why change?  My rules were working for me and I thought they were delicious.

Things eventually changed.  I turned 26 and suddenly everything was in question when I developed “Acid Reflux”.  It became clear that even though I learned a lot about nutrition in Chiropractic College… I learned the proper amounts of proteins, carbs and fats, I never followed any of the rules about the quality of my food.  For the first time I realized that my body was speaking to me.  It was giving me a signal. This signal was a symptom called “Acid Reflux”. And that “Acid Reflux” was telling me that my rules weren’t actually working so great.   And, luckily, instead of looking for a pill or quick fix to get rid of the symptom (or just dealing with it because it “wasn’t so bad”), I actually stopped for a moment and asked myself, “Why?”  Why was I getting this symptom?

Asking the question, “Why?” …was the first step to revising the rules of my life.  It is a question that can apply to anyone and to any symptom, be it acid reflux, anger, guilt, anxiety, constipation, high blood pressure, “Why?” should always be the question.

 In fact, the main lesson that I learned from becoming a chiropractor is that we all are born with an innate intelligence.  The Innate Intelligence is the wisdom that our body was born with.  It is the wisdom that knows how to grow hair, heal a cut, digest our foods, and deal with toxins. This is the intelligence that keeps the body healthy and alive.  Think of all the things that your body does every second just to keep you from falling down when you stand!  There are so many processes that go on that we are unaware of.  That’s Innate Intelligence at work.  If we are in touch with that innate intelligence, that inner wisdom and truly listen to it…you can!  It will always guide us to making the right decisions.  It will guide us to our very own perfect rules.

We all have rules.  Whether or not they are working out well for us is a different question. Sometimes we have set up rules for ourselves that don’t actually support our health or what we really need, they keep us stuck in a certain lifestyle and prevent us from truly being happy.  This happens because we haven’t spent all our lives making every decision based upon the question; is this the healthiest choice I can make?  Give me a break…the first couple decades we are brainwashed into thinking whatever our parents and the advertising companies exposed us to.  It is as we get older and begin making decisions to set us up for a lifetime that we should ask… is this the healthiest choice I can make? 

The reason that I live my life the way I do right now is not because my parents brought me up this way.  It’s not because of my religious beliefs, or the people around me.  No, it’s because I know what I want. I want to live an abundant life! I want to be able to play on the floor with my great grandchildren.  I want to play golf.  I still want to see patients at my office.  I want to cut my own toenails when I’m 96! And, most importantly I want an amazing relationship with my family forever!  It’s because of this I created a new set of rules; rules tailored to me that are based off of a knowledge of my body and understanding of how it communicates with me.

 In the coming posts I will be teaching you some rules that I have learned about the body, most of them through personal experience, and other rules that I have learned through the experience of my family or my patients.  This blog will give the reader a practical approach to life and hopefully offer some “rules” for you to follow that will make your life better.  If you don’t like MY rules then change them a bit…make them fit your life but don’t make the mistake of not pushing yourself to make big changes if those changes will get you closer to your goals.  I know it because I live it!  Let’s Begin!

Dr. Jason Piken, a 1996 graduate of New York Chiropractic College. During Chiropractic College he became proficient in Gonstead (a system of analyzing the spine) and has since spent hundreds of seminar-hours broadening his technique skills to include, Chiropractic Biophysics and Applied Kinesiology. For more information about Dr. Piken, please visit his website at www.innatechiro.com.