The 3 Keys to Changing Your Health by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc

Motivation, Discipline, & Persistence

This book is meant to be primarily practical. It contains theory and philosophy as well, but its main function is to be a tool to improve your life. But most of the solutions in this book are not one-time magic bullets. You must continue to apply many of these frequently in order to bring yourself back into balance, and to maintain that balance.

NEW HABITS, NEW LIFESTYLE

But, as imperfect humans in a very demanding and distracting society, we have difficulty acquiring and maintaining new habits. In fact, it's much easier to keep a good habit than to create a new good habit, and it's tragically easy to let go of a new good habit. So, this book would be incomplete if it didn't help you form and keep new good habits.

Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.

- Confucius

Another issue that needs to be addressed is that many of the solutions in this book (e.g. food choices, sleep schedule, exercise, etc.) are lifestyle changes. And changing the way we live is not easy. You may have adopted some of your bad habits to make up for imbalances in other parts of your life.

For example, you may reward yourself with sweets or ice creams at the end of the day because your work is so stressful. Yes, you feel so much better when you reward yourself that way. But, if sweets are aggravating or perpetuating one of your health complaints, e.g. low energy level, then your reward is actually shooting yourself in the foot. Your low energy level may be what makes your workday so stressful! Or your sweets may be perpetuating your weight problem- and some of the stress of the day may come from constantly feeling insecure about yourself because you're overweight. It's easy to get caught in vicious cycles like this. And it's a little uncomfortable getting out of them.

In the above examples, you might have to eschew the sweets and take herbs or enzymes instead. When you get these right, you'll have less cravings, and it'll be easier to eliminate the sweets. But you still have to make that decision and stand by it.

To change, we need clarity, willingness, and discipline - and how to get and keep these things is, I believe, the major human obstacle to better health and a better world.

* Without clarity, we don't know we need to change.

* Without willingness, we cannot adopt better habits.

* Without discipline, we cannot keep from falling back into the old habits.

Without these three qualities, we are at the mercy of our own unhealthy cravings and obsessions. These cravings may give us short term comfort, but in the long run, they lead only to disease and death.

The Chinese Medicine Physiology of DECISION MAKING and PERSISTENCE

You have to make decisions to change your health, and if you don't persist in your changes, nothing gets better. Let's talk a little bit about the Chinese medicine physiology and psychology of decision making and decision keeping:

1. PERCEPTION, CLARITY, AND CALM

The Heart-system is not only a blood pumper, but also relates to our overall consciousness. If we have a problem here, our perception of life, of ourselves, and of our habits may be distorted. Heart-system problems most often show up as anxiety and insomnia, so you may have to deal with these first. Certain imbalances can obstruct clarity, or create mental and emotional unrest. Once you have more calm and clarity from the remedies in those chapters, it will be easier to deal with your other problems.

2. ORGANIZING AND CATEGORIZING YOUR OPTIONS

The Spleen-system digests not only foods, but also ideas, concepts, etc. Once we have perceived our lives and our habits, then we analyze and categorize them. This requires energy, so if you have trouble with digestion, worry, or low energy, this part of the decision making process will be more difficult. In fact, this book may be hard to digest! Herbs, enzymes, different food choices, etc. will help you here, and then it'll be easier to deal with other problems in your life.

3. EVALUATING THE GOOD AND BAD

Some Chinese medicine authorities maintain that the Small Intestine is involved with separating good from bad options- but this may also involve the Spleen, Heart, Kidney and Bladder. People have trouble distinguishing good and bad options for a number of reasons- you may lack the Heart's clarity, or the Spleen's strength of analysis. Some SI acupoints do have mental functions like SI3, so that would be a good point to add to other points like: P5, P6, SP4, ST40, and ST41. You'll find more answers relating to your specific patterns in the anxiety, insomnia, and depression chapters.

Although you can certainly make philosophical arguments about how much gray there is in the world, decisions are much easier when you take a black and white perspective.

As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself.

- Adelle Davis

4. MAKING A DECISION

After you've analyzed your options and decided which is best, you must make a decision. The most important organ for decision is the Gallbladder. Gall is not just physiological bile (part of the digestive process), but also a psychoemotional quality. You've probably heard it used of someone who was thought to be overly assertive: "Can you imagine- the gall!" Our oldest medical sourcebook, the Nei Jing, says, "The gallbladder is, like a judge in the imperial court, the one that decides."

Translator Philippe Sionneau adds, "The Gallbladder is the organ that endows an individual with the ability to resolve, make decisions, and settle on a resolution. In the case where the Gallbladder Qi is abundant, decision-making ability is firm. In the case where the Gallbladder Qi is empty, the individual loses the capacity to decide; determination wanes; it transforms into fear, cowardice, and indecision. In the everyday language of China, it is said that a person with a small gallbladder (Dan Xiao) is shy, fearful, and cowardly, whereas a person with a large Gallbladder (Dan Da) is bold, intrepid, brave, and daring. The state of the gallbladder is proportional to the individual's force of character."

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

- William Penn (1644 - 1718)

More Decision Quotes

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.

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BIO:

Acupuncturist, Herbalist, and Medical Professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.

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