What is a Paradigm?
No, it is not two coins (sorry, I couldn’t pass up a good pun!)
It is much more powerful than that; it’s the way you look at things, it is your thoughts.

Thoughts drive behavior and behavior controls results.

Dr. Dan what are you talking about?!
I’m saying that you become what you think about all day long.

For example:
I’m overweight, but I want to lose weight. You stay heavy.
I don’t want to get sick (covid). You stress and decrease your immunity.
I’m sick, but I want to be healthy. You stay ill.
I’m old, but I would like to feel younger. You feel old.

Years ago, I had a patient that asked me about investing in an expensive water purifier. I told him that he needed to drink more water but didn’t need the purifier which cost $6000. Truth be told, I knew he already bought it but he needed to have affirmation that it was the right choice so he didn’t have buyer’s remorse.

Months later, I ran into him and he came up to me and said. “Dr. Dan, you were wrong! I bought that filter and I started drinking more water, exercising, and changed my diet. I have lost 20 pounds!”  My response was that I was happy he had great success and it seemed like the machine was a bargain for him.

The truth is, his patterns and thoughts changed because paradigm is a multitude of habits. He needed to spend $6000 to make himself change his habits. It wasn’t the filtered water that helped him lose the weight. It was that he drank more water, ate a better diet, and then started exercising regularly. One good habit leads to another good habit which leads to yet another and on the flip side, one bad habit begets the next as well.

What this fella did right, is that he started thinking about health rather than illness.

So here is some advice: If you want to lose weight don’t talk about losing weight because you are putting your energy into being heavy. Think about being healthy and choose healthy thoughts, and your weight will decrease.

If you are thinking about getting rid of disease, stop owning the disease and put your energy towards your health.

Think about what you want, not what you have, and that will change your paradigm which will change your behavior and give you much better results.

Half a year ago my shoulders were really hurting from two biking accidents from 2014 and 2015.  They hurt so much that I entertained the idea that maybe my best days might be over…HA! When I stopped thinking about how much my shoulders hurt and decided on lifting weights so that they were stronger I saw results. It hurt at first, but I realized that my shoulders weren’t hurting because of my accidents but because I wasn’t taking the right steps to keep them strong and recovered.

Again, once you change your paradigm (thoughts) it will change your habits, and you will see an improvement in results.

You control your health and these days we all need to focus on health not sickness.  It is important in these times to have the endurance to remain positive in our thoughts.

Watch less TV and news and be positive!