hive-natural-health

When Pain Shows Up...What Does it Mean?

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:00:04 GMT

P ay A ttention I nside N ow

You remember how much fun it was to listen to lectures all day in school? A teacher/professor would show a few slides, say a few words, and hand out assignments. With their slides, they’d likely have a main point that they’d either bold or underline (or maybe one of those odd ones who italicize everything ) in order for you to get the gist. But sometimes, they’d say these one-off things that wouldn’t be written in any of their slides, and for whatever reason, it just stuck with you. We had a rather colorful elderly man who taught our first-year philosophy class in grad school. You know the type: Says whatever he wants, carries a briefcase around, and repeats himself so frequently that you wonder if he really knows where he is. One time – we’ll call him Roy – Roy was going off about all the wrong things with our healthcare system, not following any of his slides or outlines. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he delivers the most significant thing I learned in all of grad school: “Pain is an acronym. It means Pay Attention Inside Now.”

Not only did I write it down and underline and italicize it that day, but I also think about it every day in our office. Frankly put, pain is just your body’s way of telling you three things: 1) What – pay attention . 2) Where – inside. 3) When - now. The how is entirely too lengthy for this newsletter (and honestly kind of boring), but the why is fascinating. Why is your body communicating this signal to you? Why now? Does it mean something is going “wrong” in your body? Does it mean something is “broken” and needs to “be fixed”?

It’s okay to experience the feeling of pain; in fact, the reality that you can experience feelings is a gift from God. The same reason you can feel pain is the same reason you feel cozy when sipping on your favorite coffee, or joy when you’re running around with the kiddos at the park, or excitement for your spouse’s promotion at work. There’s a condition where people don’t feel pain at all. It’s called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). “Sounds like a dream life!” Not exactly. In fact, do you know what the average life expectancy is for someone with CIP? For the most severe forms, the mid-20’s. Yikes. Why does that happen? They have an inability to notice when they cut their hand open from a knife, when they’re getting too hot or cold, or when they have a 100+ fever. They can’t pay attention to what’s going on inside their body. So while feeling pain can be both incredibly frustrating and debilitating, it’s also lifesaving.

“But when one of my kids is in pain, something surely has to be wrong, right?” Kiddos dealing with pain saddens me deeply. They have their whole lives ahead of them, and as a parent, if one of my kids were to deal with chronic pain, I’d move heaven and earth to try to support them. Desmond was one of those kids. From an early age, he began to notice “random” leg aches and pains. As he got older, these “random” pains became more constant, an everyday part of his life. Despite this, he got really into calisthenics and strength training, learning to master one-arm pull-ups and L-sit holds. Pretty fit kid. We assessed him and found that he had both tremendous mobility and stability. From a movement perspective, everything in his body was functioning at tip-top shape.

But even though he could move really well through most of our assessment, he still had pain as he did them. Here lies the most important question: If he has great mobility and stability, but still has pain, is something wrong? Let me ask you, if you have a day where you don’t “feel” like going to work, does that mean something is wrong? Or if you’re flying across the country to visit family, and the day of the flight, you’re not “in the mood” to get on the plane, is something wrong with that? Certainly not! As a fallen human, you experience moods and feelings that shift constantly throughout the day. If I only did things based on my feelings, I’d drink coffee, on the hour, every hour, from the time I wake up until I go to bed, but I recognize that my sleep might be “a tad” perturbed from that, so I stick to one cup in the morning. So while feelings are important to recognize, feelings aren’t facts . And what did we say pain was? It’s a feeling; a feeling that your body wants you to pay attention to.

There is a healthy tension between paying attention to your body and simultaneously not letting your body’s feelings run your life. That’s why I think habits and routines are so valuable: they serve as excellent fallback tools on days when we don’t feel our best. There are days I train in the gym when I don’t feel like it because I feel so beat up and sore, and days when I seem to have found a massive bag of motivation. But in either case, I try not to pay too much attention and just get in the gym. In the same way, I’m the person who never feels like getting on a flight, so I bribe myself with cold brew coffee at the airport. That stuff helps me pay attention to everything!

Before You Buy a Standing Desk, Read This

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:22:19 GMT

What's your best posture?

“Sitting is the new smoking.” This was the headline of an article I read a while back that described the deleterious effects of sitting on your body. “Your hip flexors get super glued down, your core turns off, and you’re essentially the lowest scum of the earth if you decide to sit” (Okay, the article didn’t explicitly state that last part, but I felt like that’s what they really wanted to say). After reading it, I made every effort to avoid sitting entirely except for two situations – driving and my sacred toilet time. I was the quirky guy, always standing on airplanes or trying to sit in the lotus position at restaurants… I got some looks.

But there was always a method to my madness. Just as your body adapts to strength training by building muscle, it adapts to the postures you put it in. In fact, right now, as you (hopefully) are reading this newsletter, your body is adapting. If you’re sitting, it’s one adaptation; if you’re lying flat on your belly, a different adaptation; and if you’re listening to an AI-generated summary of this newsletter while your kids are “helping” you fold the laundry, still adapting.

Let’s say you’re reclining on your couch at the end of a long day, and your butt is sinking deeper into the cushions. After about half an hour, you’re in your groove. The kids are asleep, and you and your spouse are watching reruns of your favorite early-2000s sitcom. But then you need to get off your throne and attend to the unforeseen situation on the baby monitor (if it’s anything like our house, it's your toddler frantically trying to escape his bed). You try to “spring up” from that position, only to realize your “spring” doesn’t feel like it was loaded properly. Not only does this remind you that you need a new couch, but it also reminds you of a very important process your body is undergoing. A process called creep .

Creep is the gradual lengthening and deformation of tissue over time. Huh? Layman’s terms, please, Nick! Your body adapts to the positions you put it in . I say gradual, because it’s barely noticeable at first – after a few minutes on the couch, you don’t notice any change in your hips. But hang out there long enough – say 30 minutes – the muscles, ligaments, and tendons around your hips have adapted to their new position. As you’ve become more glued to your show, so have your hip flexors and anterior joint capsule. And how do things feel when glued together? Remember how it felt to “spring up” from the couch?

“Okay, so then if I were sitting for 30 minutes, can I just stand for 30 minutes and unglue my hips?” I love the way you’re thinking. Answer: kind of. My friend Daniel had a similar thought. He was having some “tight hips” from sitting a lot, so he decided to get a standing desk for his home office. He saw a problem and took the initiative to try to change something; much respect. Instead of sitting for 8 hours, he split it so he stood for half the day and sat the other half. 4 hours sitting, 4 hours standing, tit for tat. What did he notice? “My hips feel better, but now my knee doesn’t feel great.” I asked him how he split his sitting and standing: “I’ll sit for 2 hours, stand for 2, sit for 2, etc.” 2 hours in any one position is a lot for the body, regardless of how “great” the posture is.

We pondered and developed a strategy in which he’d switch positions more frequently: 20 minutes sitting, 20 minutes standing, and 20 minutes lying on the floor. Two weeks later, Daniel comes in all smiley and excited, “You won’t believe it, my knee pain went away.” Then I explained to him the process of creep, how your body adapts to the positions you’re in, and how frequently changing positions forces your body to adapt differently, keeping things unglued. In his case, changing postures that frequently keep any Elmer's products away from his knees and hips.

So if you’re looking for the best posture, I believe it’s achieved by switching positions frequently. The best posture is your next posture . If you sit all the time, try standing up every half hour for several minutes. If you always stand for work, try sitting or lying on the floor occasionally. If you frequently find yourself in the strangest positions, such as trying to change your son’s diaper at swim school, maybe sitting for a few minutes here and there won’t be the worst thing. That’s right, you just heard a Chiropractor say sitting might not be the worst thing for you. It all depends on your unique situation. And if you’re going to stand on airplanes, make sure it’s not when the flight attendants are giving out drink orders that include hot coffee, just saying.

Is Chiropractic Care Beneficial Before or After Your Child’s Oral Release Procedure?

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:19:41 GMT

Empowering Choices for Your Family's Peace of Mind

Is it better to start something sooner or later? Say it’s December 23rd, and you’ve been wanting to start exercising more consistently. You could start now and get ahead of the New Year's rush, or, ya know, you’ll be traveling over Christmas and New Year's, so does it just make sense to wait until after you return from your travels to start your new exercise plan?

In the above scenario, it depends on your goal. If your goal is to be more consistent with exercise in general, starting sooner can be a very fruitful strategy. Even if you’re traveling, and you only managed to get 1 exercise session in, is 1 > 0? Something is greater than nothing.

When To Come In?

The point of this article is not to dwell on what causes tongue-ties or weigh the pros and cons of the release. Instead, know that starting Chiropractic Care early can help ease your worries about the procedure and support your goals. If you’re unsure about timing, just remember: something is greater than nothing.

“But won’t all the progress we make with Chiropractic be undone if we get the release procedure?” I hear ya! You’re trying to be as efficient and effective as possible for your baby’s sake; let’s first celebrate that. Let’s return to our person deciding whether or not to start exercising the day before Christmas Eve. If their program has them exercising 3 days/week, and they exercise just once during their week of travel, would all their progress be negated when they start the following week? Maybe. Again, what’s the goal? If it’s being more consistent, then progress looks like getting any exercise in.

From our experience, babies who receive Chiropractic Care before their release procedure often find the process easier and recover faster . If you can schedule before the release, that's great. If it's after, that’s okay too. Remember, something is greater than nothing, and your decision can help you feel more in control of your baby's care.