The Solution to Resolution

Hi Natural Health Family.

It’s officially the new year. I hope that everyone had a safe New Year's and is looking forward to the new year. With the new year we typically think of more goals to accomplish. I have recently seen more people instead wanting to take it slow during the beginning of January as we just got through the holiday season. There are many roads to success but today let’s talk about something I feel doesn’t get discussed online or is not brought up enough.

Have you ever wanted to do something new but it eventually slowly died out? At first we have the desire to take action and we start to take the steps. However, after a while something shifts, it gets to a point where it feels too difficult and then we go back to the old ways. Why is that? Have you ever questioned that? Well, based on neurobiology, neurochemistry, and neurophysiology, (big words that mean how our brain and bodies work) it involves an actual “rewiring” of our brain and a change in our neural networks. So what does this mean? When you start to do something different you have that burst of newness, but there comes a point where we hit a wall, “it feels hard to keep doing.” This is our brain creating new synaptic connections (again rewiring). Old science and studies showed that are brains are fixed and that we lose brain cells as we get older, which would lead us to assume that our brain and bodies just deteriorate over time. But our new and current understanding blows that assumption and perspective completely out of the water. As we start to do different actions this brings on a stimulation to our brain and nervous system to create new synapses which produce different chemicals influencing the make up of our body. So it’s not so much just doing different activities to reach our goals or aspirations, but ultimately, to becoming someone new.

This year, have the goals, the aspirations, and the desire to achieve those dreams. However, I encourage you to take these steps with ease, with grace. Not so much to struggle and strain to push yourself, but to act as if you were already that self. It takes courage to achieve what we want in life, that can even include being healthy. With that said, in a world of instant gratification, taking small steps to create something new and finding enjoyment in that process can ultimately be the most satisfying reward itself. 

Have a great start to a happy new year.

-Dr. Chip