Being Healthy Starts with the Nervous System

by Mar 5, 2021Health

What does health mean?

If we start by looking at the definition of health you will find that it talks about the mental, physical, spiritual well-being all being connected, all moving forward, all in a really good place. Everything functioning at full capacity. 

According to Webster’s, the definition of health is

  1. the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit
  2. the general condition of the body
  3. a condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well
  4. general condition or state

Sounds good right?

Where does health come from?

In our office, we talk a lot about conception to birth because that’s a big part of any family’s life. This is where health starts. 

We’ve got a couple of cells and they come together and they start forming what will eventually be a human being, a little kid. And so the first thing that those cells get to work on is a divide and they form a primitive streak. 

This primitive streak then becomes your brain and your spinal cord! 

So, the first thing that’s formed is your brain and spinal cord because every single cell, organ, and system in your body comes from that by product. 

We know as adults, we can get a kidney transplant, you can tinker with your heart, you can lose half the function of your lungs. You can do a lot of things with (or to) your body.

But if you stop the connection from your brain telling your body what to do and you stop that neurological pathway, you either die or you become paralyzed from the neck down.

And that’s just the truth. 

Being Healthy Starts with the Nervous System

So, the primitive streak is formed, your nervous system starts forming, and so your nervous system sees what it needs, kind of like a thermostat. The thermostat is measuring the environment, and when something is not suitable, they make changes. 

Air conditioner pops on, maybe the heater pops on. And so we have that tool from the very, very beginning. 

But as adults, and now sometimes even young kids, we’re just really good at stressing that system out beyond its capabilities. 

How do we live a healthier life (for the whole family?)

When you get asked that question of, “how can I become more healthy”, or “what should I do to be healthier” it’s such a big conversation and so it’s really, really tough. 

You could be talking nutrition, you could be talking mental health, you could be talking working out, essential oils… I mean, there are just many things that you could talk about and it becomes incredibly challenging to really boil it down. 

And really the way that my mind works is I like to think linear, you know. A + B equals C sort of type of thinking. And so for us, obviously, you know, we focus on families. 

And more than that, we focus on the nervous system or the function of the nervous system.

Let me tell you a story.

Last night I’m sitting there and I’m stretching with my son. And you know, I’m just tight, I’m on my feet all day. So we’re laying on the floor, we’re stretching and he’s like, “Hey, Dad. Show me the stretches you’re doing.” And so I’m showing him some basic stretching, you know: put your one leg out, tuck the other one in, reach for your toes sort of stuff and he can see that I’m struggling with some of those things. But man, he just straight up reaches and snatches his toe. And he goes, “That’s easy, Dad.” 

Why is this story relevant to you? Because I believe that a lot of the things that we’re looking for as far as our health, we’ve already had as a kid.

And I believe that that reason is because our kids don’t have decades’ worth of stress on their body and on their health and they have not been functioning from a detriment or from a deficit for years and years and years and years. 

If we are burning the candle at both ends, artificially stemming in ourselves, not feeding our body the proper nutrition, mentally having constant negative thoughts we’re gonna go down that same track.

We will not reach our ultimate health goals.

At Impact, we talk about how health always starts with the nervous system. 

If your nervous system is not functioning the way it should, if your body is stuck in that fight or flight mode, your bodies gonna assimilate it and get it to spread back out to the places it needs to be for your health. Do you think your sleep is gonna be good? Do you think you’re gonna feel well enough to move your body to high capacity and workout the way you want to workout? 

So again, when we start talking about health, we start talking about this dynamic system and it all starts with the nervous system. 

Your own body neurologically has to be functioning as close to a hundred percent as possible before we start adding and subtracting all these different things. 

Want to know how your body is functioning? Schedule an appointment for a consultation and scans and take your first step to a healthier you!