The Science of Change

Those who disobey the laws of Heaven and Earth have a lifetime of calamities, while those who follow the laws remain free from dangerous illness. - Huang Ti Nei Ching, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine THE MYSTERY. THE BEAUTY AND THE MAGIC OF LIFE, growth and health are all centered around one word: change. Everyone wants to grow, to heal, to awaken and to improve in a myriad of ways. You'll never see a book entitled How to Stay the Same. Resisting change is impossible. We cannot prevent our cute babies from growing into teenagers; we cannot hold onto the moment, no matter how precious, for to prevent change is to prevent living. To live is to remain in the sea of time and space and that means change. Change We would rather die than change. - W.H. Auden Healers of all kinds have been frustrated at the seeming in­ability of some people to change. People often resist the very change they need. Before an egg can grow into a chicken, it must first totally cease to be an egg. Each thing must lose its original identity before it can be something else. Therefore, before a thing is transformed into something else, it must come to the level of No-thingness.... - Dov Baer (Maggidof Mezeritch) To face No-thingness is terrifying; it's as if we're standing on a diving board above a high cliff. Until we jump, we don't know the joy and exhilaration of change and growth. Instead, we just know where we are and feel the fear of the unknown. Many people would rather slink back off the diving board and return to safe, comfortable sickness. Too many people choose the safe, comfortable and boring path. That this leads to stagnation and death is rarely apparent at first. By the time the si­lent, slow, smothering of the soul deteriorates into fragile old age, we don't have the energy or will to act and create the change we so dearly need. Bifurcation Point The secret of health and happiness lies in suc­cessful adjustment to the ever changing condi­tions on this globe; the penalties for failure in this great process of adaptation are disease and unhappiness. - Hans Selye In 1977, Ilya Prigogine won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, the theory of dissipative struc- tures and the phenomenon of self-organization. Prigogine described how open systems relate to environmen­tal stress. What is an open system? An open system is a person, animal, plant, business, school, government or anything that is exchanging energy/information with its environment. We (and other open systems) can deal with only so much stress. Eventually stress will overwhelm us and we'll reach a bifurcation point—a fork in the road of our well-being. We now have a choice. We can either die or change. There are only two choices in life: growth or death. Those that are not busy being born are busv dyin'. - Bob Dylan Breaking the cycle Change can be difficult. Even sick, dysfunctional ways of thinking and acting are comfortable and safe. We have a ten­dency to escape from the healthy and return to the sick and may do it over and over until we break that vicious cycle. We may do it until our new, healthier ways are as comfortable (hopefully more comfortable) than our unhealthy ways. To change means to travel to the unknown. The unknown is scaiy. Who knows what devils may lurk outside our comfort­able sphere? Choosing Life or Death Good health is a process of continuous adaptation to the myriad microbes, irritants, pressures and problems which daily challenge man. - Rene Dubos Life is characterized by flexibility, openness, balance, movement, strength and communication. In contrast, death is characterized by rigidity, inflexibility, weakness, imbal­ance, depletion and insularity. When he is born, man is soft and weak; In death, he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees Are supple and soft in life. And brittle and dry in death. Truly, to be stiff and hard is the way of death; To be soft and supple is the way of life. - Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tze Rut-busting A successful healer helps people get "unstuck" from their dysfunctional mind/ body rut. Stagnant energy gets moving. Where we are cold in our body, mind and spirit, we are warmed; where we are overheated, we are cooled. We return to balance, for it is only from a balanced state that we can move safely forward. In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was ac­complished by moving energy - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Sick and dying people are stuck; the goal of healing is to get them out of their ruts. The qualities of life and health— flexibility, openness, flow of energy, balance, strength, power and commu­nication—are rut-busters. Promoting the flow of energy and information by eliminating subluxations is a powerful part of the healing process. Dr. Tedd Koren is the most widely read Doctor of Chiro­practic in the world today. Writing for Koren Publica- lions (www.korenpublications.com), over 50 million of his chiropractic brochures, books, posters, pads, of­fice forms, stickers and other unique products including materials on the childhood vaccination controversy are in distribution. Dr. Koren produces a monthly news­letter for patients. For information, go to www.patientnewsletter.com. Dr. Ko­ren has also developed Koren Spe­cific Technique, a breakthrough in patient care. For information, go to www.teddkorenseminars.com. Dr. Koren can be reached at tkoren@korenpublications. com. EZX9