VOMIT

My chiropractor, Dr. Barrington, keeps a white board up in the lobby with general health info, news and encouraging things on it.

This is the sign I saw as I walked into his office the other day. 

So, of course I said it out loud and looked at him questionably.

With a secretive, knowing grin, he took me back for my adjustment and told me his intention with the sign was to remind him to ask his patients this question:

"If you go out to a nice dinner and then come home and two hours later you are sick and vomiting, would you say you are healthy or sick?" I knew it must be a trick question but I went with the obvious anyways and answered, "I would have to say sick- but probably from food poisoning." Well of course that was the wrong answer, but partially correct. He went on to explain that because it WAS food poisoning and my body was getting rid of the offensive intruder, that means I am healthy because my body was doing what it was supposed to do.

Ahhh, of course. Makes sense, right? He went on to apply that to how chiropractic care 

( which has been close to miraculous for me, I should add ) works and how the body is wonderfully made to heal itself when things are opened up and flowing correctly. 

 

Now, I HATE vomiting. It is something I will avoid if at all possible. Besides the awful sick feeling, it also makes me feel out of control. So for me, this was an important new perspective. I should not try to stand in the way of my body's natural way of healing itself.

As I went on with my day, another application occurred to me. My pastors wife had encouraged me through my grief process to write all my feelings out- she called it vomiting on paper. I did a couple of times, but I wanted to avoid the out of control sick feeling that thinking about all the hard stuff gives me.  Thinking about this, I realized I have the same aversion to expressing strong emotions as I do to vomiting. Dr. Barrington's analogy certainly applies here as well. Letting go of all the ugly emotions inside may make me feel like I am sick, but would actually mean I was healthy and functioning correctly by expelling them. This is also why God gave us tears, we are more healthy when they flow. I struggle with this because I am not healthy emotionally, I do not function as intended for various reasons. This insight has been extremely helpful to me however, and I am praying that God will heal me and help me stop fighting against vomiting all that hard stuff, even if it means feeling out of control occasionally.

In order to get my body adjusted and working properly again, I went to Dr. Barrington three times a week for quite awhile, now I only go twice, and soon I will probably just have to maintain once a week. If the analogy follows through I could start by going to God ( the spiritual chiropractor) a few times a week in prayer just for the purpose of expressing all that hard stuff inside, letting it all out to Him who knows it is all there anyways, reading the Bible and allowing Him to adjust my spirit as my earthly emotions are released. Perhaps in time then I will have less and less need for adjustment ( not less need for God!) and my spirit will function the way it was intended to. 

It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it? 

I love how God works through people and whiteboards!