Do children Have Too Many Activities? Chiropractors and the Inborn intelligence of the Body

Dr. J’s Health Tip of the Week:  Smelling the Roses — aka Daydreaming — May Make Kids Smarter

Arguably, kids who are given time to do what they feel like doing at least part of the time are less stressed than those whose days are scheduled into 15-minute increments. Before the wonders of television and video games, most kids spent their free time playing outside, reading, messing around with friends or just daydreaming. Although research shows daydreaming is crucial for optimal brain development, some adults mistake it for either attention deficit disorder or laziness.  A Psychology Today article tackles this mindset: “There's actually a substantial amount of research connecting daydreaming in children with creativity, healthy social adjustment, and good school performance ...There’s also research that says that children who don't get enough down time to daydream or who fill in their down time with too much television produce works that are ‘tedious and unimaginative.’” The article asserts that children left to their own imaginative forays come away with enriched social skills, such as empathy for others and an ability to play longer on their own because they’ve been given time to explore their own playful alternate realities. “It may seem odd or a paradox, but children (and adults) can actually focus on their daydreams, and some of these daydreams may be more inventive and ultimately more useful than the task at hand. So let's not be quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Daydreams are a highly creative form of mental engagement and a necessary way for children — lacking real-world experience — to process complex information and emotions.”  As an adult, as much as you may be weary of the pace, you may often end up pushing your kids to go faster, as well. Scientists agree that for kids, play time is learning time, but observing it often makes adults nervous. Not only do they figure that more education and diligence can only be good, they also have a niggling feeling that if their children aren’t signed up for art, violin or tennis lessons by age 3, they’ll not only miss out on opportunities, they may ultimately be unsuccessful.  A New York Times article quoted William Doherty, Ph.D., a family studies professor and director of the marriage and family therapy program at the University of Minnesota: “There are certainly good reasons to offer our children some of these experiences, but there are more negative ones as well, if we rely on them to make us feel like good parents, or if we think that arming them with a myriad of skills can guarantee their later success in life. Doherty said parents’ insistence that their children be motivated toward every conceivable opportunity is a “displaced fear about the collapse of the future.” “That does not mean that some stimulating activities outside school are not important, but equally critical is a warm and well-connected family life … Sometimes for the sake of child and family balance, you have to say no to intensive activity.  And we have to move away from the idea that if we do not start children early, they will not reach their full potential.”  ~ Mercola.com

Chiropractic Thought for the Week:  The most frequent response to my answer of what I do for a living is after I respond, "I am a chiropractor!" that person then grabs his or her neck or back and says, "Oh Doc, I need ya!" If I have your permission I would like to tell you about the truth of chiropractic and how as a society we have not understood what a true gift it is.  Our bodies have an inborn intelligence that is called innate intelligence. This intelligence runs, regulates, heals and grows the body to our fullest potential, allowing us to reach our God-given purpose in life. If you have a live person and a dead person side by side, what is the difference? They both have all the same stuff, the same potential for life, however in chiropractic understanding it is the live one that possesses an innate intelligence or life force. For well over a hundred years chiropractors have been saying that there is an inborn intelligence that is perfect inside of us that continually gives 100 percent of the information we need to run, regulate, grow, heal and flourish. Chiropractic is the detection and correction of interference with the expression of this intelligence in relation to the spine called the subluxation process. The primary system for the expression of this innate intelligence is over our nervous system, and being that our spinal cord is surrounded and protected by spinal bones called vertebrae, this important relationship is how chiropractors became synonymous with backs. However, in truth chiropractic deals with the innate intelligence and the nerve system, and a chiropractor is not (only) a doctor of the spine, (but a doctor of the nervous system). As a chiropractor the only conclusion that I can with any degree of certainty make is that your body is better off with a clear nerve system than one with interference. Chiropractors are trained and are the only practitioners who have the philosophy and the technique to find that interference and to assist in correcting it. ~ Dr. Lloyd Fielder

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My name is Dr. J. Zimmerman and I am a chiropractor.  I have been in practice for 27 years.  My chiropractic practice uses many different chiropractic techniques to improve bodily function and restore health. My chiropractic office is located in Galloway Township (the Smithville section) of Atlantic County, NJ.  You can contact me for more chiropractic information at Health First Chiropractic Clinics,  609-652-6363

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Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.