Welcome to my blog. I have decided to call him Burt. Introducing Burt is going to be like introducing someone that I have only just met, because the truth is that I do not know exactly what I am going to put on here. I don’t know what sort of a beast Burt will end up being. As I get to know Burt, so will you. Every week, Burt will ask me some difficult questions, and I will try to answer.. One week Burt will want to chat about conscious parenting, another day he might want to talk about the concept of “biohacking”. Sometimes, like for my very first post, Burt will ask me something so difficult that I will dedicate a mini-series to properly answer it. Burt seems like a curious guy, and I am looking forward to getting to know him.
As a practising chiropractor, I see many people like Burt. Every day I see people in pain from herniated discs, headaches, sciatica, carpal tunnel and such things. People are motivated to change when they have pain and suffering, so I understand that. But my job is to reconnect my clients with a higher state of health, vitality, and wellbeing. So I also get asked about vitamin supplementation, sports and exercise, and even spirituality or conscious parenting. I am blessed to be surrounded by and to chat with enlightened and enlightening clients every day. One of my challenges is how quick and shallow many of these conversations have to be. When I set about writing my first book, Befriend Gravity (click here to find out more), I learnt that committing my thoughts to paper serves many purposes. The overwhelming feedback from my readers that I have made spinal health and chiropractic far more understandable, and that they have felt inspired to live a more positive, pain-free life.
Here is how I hope to answer Burt:
- I want him to understand the topic, from the ground up. This means reviewing the basics so that we are all speaking the same language. Without following a 8 year medical degree, I hope for you to get to grips with some more serious topics.
- It’s got to be practical. Conversations and even videos are fun, but they are hard to review and re-read in the more challenging sections. And they are always time-limited. I have seen first-hand that the people who have spent the time really engaging with and reading Befriend Gravity have made huge shifts in their personal health. I will make this blog accessible, so you can dip in and out, improving your health and quality of life each time.
Why Burt? Why not?
Poor Old Bert, the boring, self-doubting friend of exciting Ernie in the famous Muppet Show, has nothing to do with why I have called the blog Burt.
I feel like this blog may have a life of its own, so I decided to give it a name. And the name Burt instantly popped into my head. Not the Muppets character, but if that mental image works for you, then I encourage you to go with it. As it happens, Burt is a shortened old german name, meaning “Bright”. So I will be writing so that the Bright may become enlightened. How apt.
My day to day conversation is generally around “hot” health topics. Both with individual clients, with their families, and with my own family and friends. These are emotive, all-encompassing topics. I get to deliver bad news to people who thought they were super-healthy. I get to deliver good news to people who thought that they would forever suffer pain, or worse still forever suffer insomnia, anxiety, or depression. And I get to deliver genuine medical and health research news to friends and family, who otherwise are only exposed to what the mainstream press has to say. To be quite frank, the mainstream press is only good for regurgitating highly politicised and usually polarised views of health, education, and just about everything else.
Have you spotted that phrase in the news? Polarised. Or Polarized, if you are American. Polarisation is being recognised as a form of addiction. The topic has been doing the rounds on social media, and has been dubbed “The Hidden Drug”, as highlighted in this report. Yes, we can become addicted to a black and white view of the world. I believe that polarised views are a display of ignorance. Yup. Socrates taught us that. He was distressed to find that his peers thought that he knew more than anyone else. And he protested that the only thing he was sure of, was that he was sure of nothing. Yes, the wisdom of the quote… “I know that I know nothing” can be the foundation of moderation.
We become polarised in our views when we lack depth of education, or cannot see the nuances which are the reality of life. And when our views are challenged, rather than reassess them, we defend them as if they were our religion. It makes sense that we are not black or white, ones or zeroes. Nature is not binary, but when we defend our position without depth of understanding, we make it look that way. And the more we have to defend our position, the more polarised we become. This is obviously damaging to society, but it also damages your relationship with your body (which is an expression of nature). It damages your relationship with yourself and your loved ones.
This blog should flesh out your understanding of a myriad of different health topics, in a way that fills your understanding, and will most probably depolarise you. I am not going to give binary, black and white opinions on things. I will explore and explain the concept, and only then give my opinion. You are welcome to arrive to different conclusions.
A few promises to Burt.
I promise to say it as I see it, without filters, but with full integrity. I cannot promise to never swear, because sometimes I just fucking feel like swearing. If you are under 15 years old, or cannot see the amusement of occasional bad language, click away.
I promise not to post a picture of every starbucks coffee I drink. Partly because I wouldn’t want to bore you, and partly because if you catch me drinking starbucks coffee, it means I am having a really bad day. [Yes, starbucks is consistently burnt and bad coffee, but it is also consistently caffeinated. I would walk —and have walked— halfway across a city to find a better coffee. But I am a self-confessed coffee addict. I must be, as there is no other valid excuse for ever drinking starbucks. And we have all been locked in an airport with no other choice. Oh, and yes, Coffee, its good and bad effects, when to drink it and when not to, and my sad addiction to it, will undoubtedly be a blog post or even a mini-series one day.]
I promise to give you pretty rock solid information, with references and links where possible. But at no point will I give you specific health advice or diagnosis. If you want that, you need to go on youtube, where you can get diagnosed AND cured within 10 minutes.
For those who don’t already know who I am, I am a local chiropractor and health speaker in the Costa del Sol area of Spain. I live near Marbella with my very pretty wife, two delightful kids, and dog. On this site you will find my professional biography, but on my writer’s biography you will find a little more information about the real me. For everyone else, read on!