What to Do When Your Internal Fire is Dying Out?

When I was young, I had this undeniable, stronger than life sense of excitement for what life had to offer. 

I had an inherent trust in the idea of potential.  Possibilities gave rise to the promise of undiscovered beauty around every corner and under every rock.  The world was an inspiring place and life was made to be loved.

Some call this the innocence of childhood, the “la la land” version of the ideal…but certainly not realistic.  Most of us, however, can identify with this nostalgia to some degree.  At some point or another, we’ve all had a glimpse of inspiration, a knowing that life is meant to be expressed fully and that we are all meant to live our individual definition of success. 

After 18 years of sharing in the life of my community (as a chiropractor), I see that we all want the same thing.  We want to be happy, we want our kids to love life, we want to be inspired. 

If we agree that we all share this in common, why aren’t we talking about how and why we’ve lost trust in our potential.

Everyday, I have conversations with parents who’ve been told by family members, teachers and doctors that they and their children are physically, emotionally, and/or potentially dysfunctional.  Our kids are on ADHD meds, anxiety meds, reflux meds, asthma meds, constipation meds, colic meds, growth meds, and we we’re told we need 69 vaccines by the age to 18 to not be killed by the world around us.

We develop our premises for life’s truths by the age of 7.  We tell our kids that they are capable of anything, yet we constantly imply (in our cultural, societal and medical behaviors) that we don’t trust in the fact that we were all born with all the potential that we need to thrive.  We confuse them with our contradictions and our incongruencies. 

We have “well-baby checks” that revolve around vaccinating.   We have front door signs in schools that specify that “this is a drug-free zone” where school nurses hand out schedule II narcotics at lunchtime.  We have “thrive pharmacies”.  We live in a society where antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed class of medication.  We diagnose 3-year-olds with ADHD and drug them for it.

If this is the world our kids live in, then where does that put us on the totem pole of potential in adulthood?

What does it mean to thrive?  To live a life of potential?  To trust in our innate ability to heal?  To believe in the full expression of who we were born to be?  And why aren’t we asking these questions and having these discussions at our well-baby checks and in putting together school curriculums?

We were all absolutely born with a raging, hungry fire but our observation is that the fire is dying.

We are inspired by everyone we meet.  We ignite the spark of potential, without drugs or excuses. 

We exist to IGNITE THE SPARK IN EVERYONE.