Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

  Hello Natural Health Family. Can you feel spring in the air yet? As we head into spring we start to notice the changes all around. The grass is greener, the trees are starting to fill up and birds are singing. Change happens all around us everyday of our lives. Let’s talk about one thing that changes but that we have control of, our breath.  Have you ever considered what is regulating your breathing? We often take for granted the intelligence of our own bodies. Imagine if you had to monitor your breath all day so that you could stay alive. That would be exhausting! So you see now that this intelligence that is regulating our breath helps us out tremendously. It is what keeps us alive and well. However, when we are influenced by various events in our lives like what is on the news, unexpected circumstances, and other things in life with business, relationships, etc. then our bodies respond by changing our breathing. This is to help us adapt to that certain stress in our lives. When

  Hello Natural Health Family. I hope everyone got outside and was able to enjoy the weather. Today I wanted to talk about the power of gratitude and why it’s not just something you should do as an activity but more to make it a part of your life. Of course I am not saying you have to do what I will talk about, but wanted to give some key points of gratitude or appreciation that may help someone reading this to see it in a different lens.  When we think of gratitude we may think of a feeling we get when we receive something from another person. Yes, that is one form of gratitude. However, you can be grateful for anything in your life. It may be the house you live in, the water you drink, the food you eat, etc. The feeling of gratitude is not just something that we feel every now and then. Gratitude plays an important part in the physiological aspects of the body. Studies show that when we think and feel gratitude it stimulates parts of the brain that send signals to other parts of th

  Hello Natural Health Family. We are starting March with warmer temperatures, sun shining and a feeling that spring and summer are just around the corner. This means that we are able to get outside and enjoy more of the world. The world might appear a bit chaotic yet and many are uncertain of the future. However, this world is full of good if we are willing to look for it. Let’s talk about how fear and love can influence the way we view our lives.  When you watch the news or media and see all the conflict and turmoil then you imagine how scary the world can be. But then you take a step outside and feel the sunshine hit your face and breath in some fresh air. Instantly you feel a change of energy and a sense of calmness. It can be confusing and conflicting when we see the world one way, but then in the next moment see it completely the opposite. This confusion may cause us to feel fearful of what is happening in the world. It causes us to be overcome by what appears to be the darknes

  Hello Natural Health Family! It’s Monday again so you know what that means… we get to have another great week. Now I know that sometimes we may think the weekend went fast and we have to go back to work. However, a subtle change in mindset helps for many different areas of life. Let's talk about mindset and more specifically our focus.  Can you remember a time when you were laser focused on something or activity you did. Maybe it was when you were a kid and you wanted to be able to perform some skill like riding a bike. At first you might have used training wheels to get a feel of what the end result would feel like. You would be cruising down the road with the wind in your hair and excited knowing that all that time spent training was worth it. So then, you are getting comfortable with the training wheels so you take them off and see how it goes. You notice that it is hard to maintain your balance and you feel a bit scared so you start slow and are hesitant to keep both legs o

  Hello again on a great Monday morning. I hope you are ready for a great last week of January. Today we will talk about selfishness. This might seem very common sensical but I wanted to give you a different perspective and why being selfish can be seen as bad or good as opposed to what we have been taught.  Let’s start with the negative view of selfishness. For many years we have been taught that we got here because of the idea of survival of the fittest. This means competition and every person for themselves. Selfishness is a trait that we used to survive in harsh times. When we see others who have more than we do we become selfish, but not understanding what the other person has done in order to obtain what he or she has. Many times we forget the hard work people have put in to earn what they have now. We might see that we are lacking which triggers selfish tendencies. Some people may give gifts or perform activities to help others while secretly expecting praise or something in r

  Happy New Year Natural Health Family! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and still celebrating if need be. I know we may have eaten some tasty foods, we may have indulged in different things, but most importantly we got to enjoy company with the ones we love. These times always remind us of the many things that we can appreciate. Especially in these times, changing our focus from seeing all the flaws to seeing the good in everything than we are changing our perspective on life. This allows us to see things that we previously were blind to which creates more joy in our lives. Let’s talk about why changing our perspective, even if it is something small, can create better health for ourselves and our families.  Perspective. What does it mean? The definition of perspective is “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.” Many people look or see various circumstances or events differently. Why? Because we all come from different backgrounds, upbrin

  Hello Natural Health Family! It is getting that much closer to more holidays and the end of 2020. What a year full of ups, downs, ins and outs. As we enter 2021, it would be wise to evaluate our lives and see if there are things that we would like to consider about modifying. Everyone has room to grow and a great way is to look at ourselves.  If you wanted to change one thing about your life what would it be. Some people want to have better relationships. Some people want more income. Some want to be better at a certain skill. Others want to start a healthy habit such as eating good food, starting an exercise routine, and/or starting a mindful practice. These are all great things for everyone but it can be overwhelming to think about. However, the best way to change or start something is to focus on getting 1% better everyday rather than comparing ourselves to the end goal or where other people are at in their lives. It is simple to start something new but not as easy sometimes as we

  Good day! Today I will discuss how generosity can be a key factor when it comes to our health and well being. Generosity is considered a positive emotion and I thought especially in these times that we may be encouraged to practice it more so it can be contagious (in a good way) for others.  When is the last time you did something for someone without expecting anything in return. Generosity is just that. When we help others for the sake of giving our time and commitment to better aid the other person we are giving our energy to them. However, we must understand also that it does not mean we deplete our energy but actually the opposite. When we help others for the sake of helping others we know we feel better and more of a zest for life. When we practice generosity we are allowing our cup to overflow and allow more room for new energy to come in its place. On the other hand, if we continually only perform actions based on selfish motives then energy is depleted because we are not “ove