I love the Olympics, especially the happiness the winter Olympics bring. It literally has an edge. Many of its sports rely on the edge, including skiing, snowboarding, all the sledding sports and skating! If you don’t catch that edge, all that training is for nothing. When the best skier in the world, Mikaela Shiffrin, failed to catch an edge in her most dominant race, she was devastated. When Michigan native Baumgarner messed up on his snowboard run, he thought he would never get a second chance in the Olympics again. 16 years ago Lindsey Jacobellis, another snowboarder, missed an edge near the finish line and saw gold slip to sliver.

16 years later she wins the gold two times in three days where the second run helped redeem Baumgarnters’. Shiffrin placed 9th in the giant slalom and actually looked relieved just two days after her mishaps. Why would a decorated Olympic athlete be relieved with 9th place? Because her confidence had been broken. She hadn’t made it across the finish line in 2 races so finishing 9th was progress.

Arthur Brooks talks about the secret to satisfaction in life. He says that once we achieve or acquire a goal, we need to move on to something else. He references the Rollings Stones iconic hit song and states that instead of “I can’t get no satisfaction” it should be “I can’t keep no satisfaction. “

Our health mirrors this concept. You don’t get healthy and then you’re there. Maintaining health is the real challenge. You must be constantly looking for improvement.  Our body is just a temporary house for the soul. I believe our soul is on a continuous journey to experience the human condition. Our body, which we are just leasing from God, is the outer expression of how we are managing many of those experiences.

So don’t look at achieving health or the maintaining it as a burden. Look it as an opportunity to progress in your human experience. Sometimes, like Mikala Shiffrin, you can be on top but then take a step back and have to rebuild from square one. Sometimes, like Lindsey Jacobellis you make a silly youthful error that you pay for and it takes years and maturity to reach satisfaction.

The difference between satisfaction and happiness is that happiness is a state of being and can be long lasting. Satisfaction is the state of accomplishment and always requires progress.

We love chiropractic because we have so many tools that we can share to empower you to improved health.  We feel improved health in body will help you with greater health in mind and soul. The beauty of the tools we use whether it be adjustments, home exercises, nutrition etc. are that they are simple and timeless. It will give you the ability (when mixed with time) to experience the satisfaction of continued health.

So go for the gold, choose to be happy, but continuously progress in your journey in health!

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