The Well Within

By Dr. Allison Barriscale
Pride Wellness Columnist
Sent with permission from Pride News Magazine (www.pridenewsmagazine.com)
 

How are you?  I'm well. 

In this greeting, "well" is one's perception of how they are doing. Is then wellness also self perceived? 

What can "well" mean?

Wellness has become a very popular term in today's society, however it is often used loosely without being defined. To begin our discussion of wellness let us look at some current definitions of health, a concept which we all have ideas about and one that is more well defined.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and emotional well-being not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition provides a good starting place, but is ambiguous; in the first part, describing "complete physical, mental, and emotional well-being" (i.e. health is complete well-being), and in the second describing what health is not, as opposed to what health is.

This definition is powerful however, because it emphasizes that health is not merely the absence of symptoms, but it raises more questions than provides answers. What is disease? What is pain? What are symptoms? Are symptoms signs of health or disease/sickness? Is the absence of symptoms a sign of health or of dis-ease? Symptoms/pain may not be a reliable gauge to assess our state of health and well-being.

The following definition was published in the Physician's Desk Reference (2003). Health is "a state characterized by anatomical, physiological, and psychological integrity, ability to perform personally valued family, work, and community roles; ability to deal with physical, biological, and psychological and social stress; a feeling of well-being and freedom from the risk of disease and ultimately death."

This definition expands our discussion introducing the concept of integrity emphasizing the idea that our emotions, thoughts and beliefs greatly influence our physiology. Although this definition is more comprehensive, relating the importance of experience and stressing psychosocial concepts, it remains ambiguous with regards to the exact nature of health.

It seems clear from our review of these definitions that health is a multifaceted concept that is ever evolving, but what about our discussion of wellness? How does wellness relate to health? What is this feeling of well-being and freedom? And where does it come from? I have been studying these concepts for 5 years and am both amazed and inspired by what is possible within the body and within the context of wellness.

Schuster, Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, defines wellness in relation to physical, psychological, mental, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual health domains. A health domain can be any particular area or realm of your life that you can perceive and actively evaluate yourself. Wellness is thought to integrate these domains and necessarily draws on the level of individual self-perception, applying the earlier concept of wholeness from The Physician's Desk Reference definition. In other words, we determine whether we are well or not and wellness is conceptualized as our generalized self-perception of health.

Wellness is about the state of an individual and how they perceive their life situation. It is a dynamic situation determined by the individual. Only the individual can judge his level of wellness. On the contrary, health of an individual or tissue can be measured externally and be quantified without the contribution of the individual's perspective. While your "health" may depend on the results of some test, in wellness there is no need to know what is "wrong". Rather, in wellness our energy is directed to what is right in the body and focuses our intention to promote the _expression of that unseen power.

Certainly, we can measure blood pressure and cholesterol levels of a person, which may indicate the current integrity of their cardiovascular system, however this gives us no information on the level of wellness of an individual. Indeed, measurement and judgement about our state of health have nothing to do with wellness. I find this extremely empowering because it moves the focus away from what is quantitatively wrong (i.e. the specific circumstances or content of the problem) and shifts our attention to how the individual is feeling and emphasizes the context of their experience. This allows for the possibility that even people with so-called "terminal" conditions may be well in their body and in their being.

Can we put our energy and focus on what is right rather than what is wrong in our bodies and our lives? A brilliant Chiropractor named Jean Bellavalle used to tell people: "There is nothing I can do about what is wrong with you. What I can do however is address what is right in you. You cannot fight darkness, you must turn on the light. You cannot fight disease, you must turn on Life."  Wellness focuses on the _expression of Life, and health comes easily and naturally in this context.


Café of Life Testimonial


I joined an exercise program about a year ago.  Every Monday at this program there was a massage therapist offering her services.  So one day I tried it out and her advice to me was to go and see a chiropractor for my back.  She gave me a business card of a chiropractic office and as you can guess it was Allison's card for the Café of Life!

I was more than a bit skeptical at the idea of seeing a chiropractor, but thought it just might help me with my back pain.  So I made the call.  I had my consultation with Allison and most of my worries were put to rest as I became intrigued with Allison's enthusiasm and passion for what she does.  I could tell that this was going to be more than just going into to get a back adjustment.  This I hope would be an answer to a problem I had been looking for since a long time.

I had tried other remedies such as going to a doctor and taking pills.  I had massage therapy prescribed by a doctor, but the effects were not long lasting.  So the search continued. 

During the consultation with Allison, I told her of many problems I thought I had. These included but not limited to sinus congestion, possible asthma, anger issues and relationship issues. I always looked at things negatively (i.e. if I had a cough I immediately assumed that it meant lung cancer and eventually death).   In November 2004 I also had a spell of passing out and being very light headed all the time.  The doctor was at a loss for what could be causing this.  I was very scared and got tested for everything from brain tumours to diabetes and nothing.  The fainting stopped and I left it figuring it was just one of those things. My initial assessment showed energy concentrated in certain areas and these corresponded to the things I had told Allison about.  I was especially happy to see that stored tension at C2 can be associated with fainting spells!  I am sure Allison remembers my reaction because I became so excited and relieved.  Here was an answer to something that had me convinced I could be dying.  So after seeing all this information I was more than ready to get started.

My first few visits were interesting; I felt the effects like a wave going through my body.  It became easy to let go and as I kept in mind that the body is able to take care of me, that's its job.  After about two weeks of adjustments, I started to feel some changes.  The most significant change I would say has been an overall feeling of calmness and having a clear head/mind.  I started to change at home.  My relationships with my partner and our daughter had been a tense before and now I was able to see how my actions were affecting them and how they acted toward me and each other.  I became able to make decisions without thinking about them for days and continuously wondering if I had made the right decision.   I started to let go of other things in my life, like all the grudges I was holding against people who I don't even know anymore. 

There have been physical changes also.  My sinuses have drained; throughout the June hot spell with all the humidity I didn't have any breathing problems of any kind.  Any other time I would have had to take asthma medications.  I have started to lose weight.  I now think before I eat.  I pay attention to what and how much I eat.  I figure that if my body is going to take care of me I need to feed it properly. 

My family has also benefited from my chiropractic care; we eat, communicate, and relate to each other better.  Another big change in my life is where I live. Toronto has been good to us, but it is not where we want to live, so we have looked into moving to Kingston and it looks like we will be moving there at the end of the summer.  This has been a big decision in our lives that we were able to make together and really think things through.  I attribute this to my being in chiropractic care and learning to make decisions that are good for everybody involved. 

This has been my story, I really can't say enough about how my life has changed and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to experience chiropractic.  I believed that I had no choice in my life, that I would live in pain forever and that looking at the negative side of everything was the best way to look.  I no longer assume that everything is going to lead to cancer or death.  I realize that sometimes our bodies are just talking to us and trying to get our attention.  I would encourage people to give chiropractic a try, it took me many years to try and I have had such a wonderful experience.  I am not currently in care, but will return in the fall.  It's not that it's not working for me; I have just made the decision to take time for me and my family and do things I have neglected for years.  I would definitely recommend chiropractic care for anyone.  You never know what could happen.  You might just find yourself a better person on the inside and out.

Gratefully,
B.B.