“Wellness” and “wellness care” are terms that have gotten thrown around a lot in recent times. That “wellness” has entered the American vocabulary would be a good thing if it means that people are actually getting more well. But the statistics on obesity and preventative, “lifestyle diseases” (heart disease, diabetes, cancer) tell us that this is not the case.
Often the underlying idea seems to be that “wellness” is what you do when there are no obvious, serious problems to be solved. Without crippling pain or disease, wellness is then seen as the province of “preventative care,” or worse– a luxury reserved for those enlightened individuals who have somehow graduated to a level beyond pain.
First of all, the idea that we ever, once and for all, graduate to a painless, problem-free state is a myth. This quote recently made me laugh: “The next time you think you’re enlightened, go visit your family for three days!”
The idea is that with healing we never really “move beyond,” but rather are given the opportunity to experience at a deeper level, with each passing day, the energy within the patterns and tensions that have made up our lives. This growth is what healing and true “wellness care” are really about.
Wellness is an approach, not an end-goal or special care reserved for the already well. The time for a wellness care approach, therefore, is always. Not to wait until some mythical future point after one is finished fighting disease and dealing with the problems. Does a type-2 diabetic with 3 spinal surgeries and metastatic cancer need wellness care any less than an apparently healthy woman of the same age? No. In fact, she probably needs wellness care more.
When we allow ourselves to experience wellness care, without imposing a timeline or agenda for the healing process, we allow ourselves to truly heal. Treat disease, get more disease. Treat wellness, get more wellness.
Chiropractic care is the original wellness care because from the beginning it has focused on strengthening and expanding the natural wellness within. Many millions of “miracles” have occurred through chiropractic care. Asthma has vanished. Infertile couples have gotten pregnant. Depression lifts. The list goes on and on. Such occurs not through treating the disease or the illness, but through focusing on wellness and letting the body do the rest.
