longevity

I have a confession to make.  The only things I really know for sure are the things I’ve done wrong.

I am in my 50s now; and I am old enough to realize that almost everything I thought I knew as a child, a teenager, and as a young adult, changed at some point.

When I was in college, I used to give advice to everyone. EVERYONE.

I honestly don’t know how anyone tolerated me.  If my memory is correct, I must have been insufferable.

I don’t know who told me that I was right about everything, but I most certainly thought that I was!  I look back now on those years and laugh.  I’m glad I can laugh.

Turns out, I was only right about some things.

I was right that I was good at writing. I was right that I have a good ear for music.

I was right in thinking that everyone should be loving and compassionate to each other, animals, plants, nature, and the planet itself.  I was right that we have a responsibility to do so.

I was right that love is a verb. It is not a stagnant state, one that simply exists. It is something we choose to embrace and act upon.

I was right thinking that the most important people in the world are the ones who choose, through blood or choice, to love us, to have our back, always, even when they know we are wrong.

This last is especially true.

About almost everything else, I was wrong.

That’s why I find it interesting when people younger than me automatically assume I have answers to life, the universe, and everything. They actually listen to me as if what I am saying carries weight.

I do have answers. I have always had answers.

I’m just not sure that they are right answers; and if they are indeed right, I don’t know if they will be right tomorrow.

It’s kind of an awkward thing to admit.

I mean, I am a doctor, by profession and training.

My specialties are chiropractic and natural longevity. I have a lot of schooling, training, and clinical experience to back up my opinions, and I try to keep on top of current science and research so that I can best serve my clients and patients.

I often find that what science believed was correct twenty years ago changes too.

Twenty years ago, we thought that genes determined our destiny. Now we know that the proteins that surround our genes determine the expression of the genes, and that we must protect the health of the proteins, as well as the genes, so that we can express ourselves properly.

That one statement is huge. It is also so new that there are still doctors alive who don’t know it.  But science knows it, and now you know it.

Fifteen years ago, we thought that the nervous system communicated only via its axons and dendrites. Now we know that harmonic resonance and electromagnetic waves can cause whole cities of nerves to fire simultaneously, instantaneously.

Huge.

Just two years ago, we thought that the only cleansing mechanism in the brain was cerebral spinal fluid. Now we know that the brain has lymphatic drainage, like the rest of the body. That may not sound like a big deal to you, but anatomy books the world over have to change, and doctors have to take this into account when addressing brain health.

In short, these are all game changers. They have changed the way science is approaching not only health care, but how we develop technology, bioengineering, chemistry…everything.

And those are only a few of the things that have changed since I was a teenager, even since I was a doctoral student.

There is something else that I think is true, but I haven’t told you yet.

Ready?

Here it is.

There is an intelligence that informs the structure and function of all physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual expression. It informs the structure of all consciousness itself, in all its forms. It is, in fact, universal, and each manifestation of the universal expresses a face of that consciousness. That consciousness also includes, but is not limited to, the universe itself.

Big words, right?

Science can’t prove that one yet. But faith and philosophy systems have been intuiting this truth at least since we figured out how the tides work, and how to light fire.

I’m willing to bet that’s true.

Chiropractic thinks it’s true.  That’s a big part of the reason I am a chiropractor.

I am also willing to bet that your body knows a lot more than any book written on the human body. Your body has a wisdom that lends itself toward life and the exploration of consciousness, and it wants to express itself through health as much as a plant in spring wants to grow toward the sun.

I think we have a responsibility to care for our bodies as much as we care for the ones we love. That we need to have our own backs, even when we make mistakes.

When we love ourselves enough to care for ourselves, we love life itself. We love the universal intelligence in us all.

Just something to think about.

I think about it every day.

By the way: the only reason I am sharing this, and everything I do, is because I love you.

Truly.

I want us to grow old together.  I want us to get smarter and wiser every day, without losing our sense of wonder.

I want us to be okay with knowing that we are going to learn new things as we go; and to know that the power of love never changes.

Let’s grow old well.  Together.

— Claire