Charley Cropley N.D.

Body Talk

Charley Cropley, N.D. — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:34:33 +0000

Sarah sits before me with tears in her eyes. “I feel like something is wrong with me. I’m degenerating, and I don’t know what to do.”

At 50 she is experiencing an array of physical problems, including bad digestion, osteoporosis, 30 pounds of extra weight and 40 percent less energy.

“Sarah, I ask, What it is like for you to live in your body?” “It’s miserable. I really hate it. I’m taking these stupid medicines because I don’t know what else to do. I don’t understand what’s happening to me, and I’m scared. I feel out of control.”

I then ask her, “Sarah, what do you think it is like for your body to live with you?” Her expression changes markedly, and she is clearly taken aback. “I’ve never thought of that.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. “That my body might have feelings about living with me.”

“Say more.” “It makes me sad. I feel a little ashamed that I’ve not even thought of my body as having feelings.”

“What do you think she feels?” “She is afraid for one, afraid of more pain. I don’t think she likes the medications.”

“How does she feel about you?” “She feels like I ignore her and just do whatever I want.”

What do you mean? “I push her a lot and don’t give her enough rest. She needs to stretch and have more fresh air. I really don’t feed her as well as I could.”

“How is that for her?” “She can’t keep up, and so she gets sick, then I give her medicines instead of listening to her and taking care of her.”

“Would you like to make friends with your body?” “Yes.”

“OK, lets do a little process. Begin by noticing your breathing. Simply become aware that your body is breathing or being breathed. She knows how to do this. She does it when you are asleep.

“Next, become aware of the beating of your heart. You may be able to feel your blood pulsing in parts of your body. Feel that and again realize that you do not need to make any effort for your blood to circulate.

“Think about your blood. It is filled with red and white blood cells, antibodies, proteins, clotting factors, hormones, minerals, nutrients and healing factors beyond imagination. It is a living miracle within you, able to magically transform itself into any tissue. It can heal anything. See if you can actually feel the rich, healing qualities of your own blood.

“Now slowly scan through your body, pausing to become aware of some other living miracles. Your brain, eyes, thyroid, kidneys, bones, nerves.

“In this moment your body simultaneously hears, balances, digests, reproduces, warms and cools, defends, eliminates, repairs herself and more. Infinitely more. Experience the unfathomable intelligence and skillfulness going on right now here inside you.

“Your body has grown and maintains all of this… for you. For you, Sarah. She is infinitely wise. She loves you and is devoted to you. She knows no regret, no resentment or anger. She is only capable of love for you. She is yours alone. She exists only to serve you. That is her only mission.

“She has been patiently awaiting this moment that you would recognize her. She has been longing to communicate with you for a long, long time now. Can you sense that?”

Sarah nods slowly, deeply immersed in herself.

“Good. Take whatever time you would like and be with her. Ask and listen… with your heart. Not your mind, your heart. I’ll be here when you are through.”

Soon Sarah opens her eyes and smiles softly.

“What are you feeling Sarah?”

Tears begin to overflow onto cheeks. “Sad… happy.”

“What did you learn?” I ask.

Speaking quietly, she says, “Many things. I found a sense of hope that I desperately wanted and yet didn’t know where to look for it. I feel like I’ve found a friend who loves me more than I’ve ever been loved. She is wise and kind, and I’ve treated her like shit, yet she’s not mad. I wonder how I could have been so ignorant of something so obvious.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am living inside a living miracle. It’s so obvious. Yet it runs counter to everything I’ve ever thought–that my body is intelligent and kind and can actually talk to me. I mean clearly she knows how to make a brain, and yet I treat her like she was totally incapable of intelligent communication. I see now how she has been trying to get my attention for all these years. She has been trying to guide me, but I didn’t know how to listen.”

“And now?”

“She’s definitely got my attention. This is very deep. It’s like I have the possibility of developing a relationship with the person I most wanted to have a relationship with. Someone who really cares about me and knows what I should do.”

“Who is that, Sarah?”

“I think it’s me.”

Speaking Your Truth

Charley Cropley, N.D. — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:26:09 +0000

Whether you want to connect with the most important person in your life or an interesting stranger, you cannot assume that they’ll know what’s going on inside your head. Connecting comes from understanding, which, in turn, results from the exchange of clear and accurate messages. You build existing relationships and initiate new ones by translating your inner experience into words so that people do not have to guess or assume. Guesswork, in any form, is a major roadblock to connecting. Even when you know someone well enough to interpret certain private signs – a frown, a shrug of the shoulders, a particular facial expression – judging nonverbal clues is a risky business.

This article is excerpted from the book Straight Talk by Shanxi Miller, Daniel Wackman, Elam Nunnally and Carol Saline. You may interpret the term “straight talk” to be synonymous with our term, “truth telling.”

There are many ways, both verbal and nonverbal, to express your inner consciousness accurately and fully, but the simplest is to connect with your own experience. Expressing your truth is the bridge that leads you to others through the disclosure of personal information. How much you choose to share is up to you. The following are six basic techniques you can employ in truth telling.

1. SPEAK FOR SELF

There should be no question that you’re describing any experience other than your own. These examples demonstrate speaking for yourself.

It’s important to me.

I want more time to think about it.

My impression is different.

I’ll call you before Thursday.

I’m delighted with your progress.

I saw the most beautiful sunset yesterday.

I wanted to stop time and capture it forever. I wonder if I’d have the nerve to refuse.

Control talk is usually directed away from self and earmarked by the manipulative speaking-for-other. The goal of speaking-for-self is to identify you as the source and originator of your messages. Self

.ements tell others that you are responsible for your thoughts, feelings, and deeds, that you speak from personal awzieness and allow others to do the same. Too often we :e not as direct as we could be. Held back by fear, timidity, or lack of confidence, we couch our feelings or intentions generalities to avoid revealing our true selves. We use cover words, such as “people,” “some folks,” “one,” and we make under-responsible statements that belong to nobody:

Most people would be mad if this happened to them, don’t you think?

It might help if Jane didn’t yell at her class so much. There are those who believe in mandatory retirement. One needs eight hours of sleep to stay healthy.

Under-responsible statements force your listeners to guess at the source of “your” opinions. And over-responsible statements that smack of Control Talk convey an authoritative tone that’s equally destructive to meaningful conversation. Like edicts issueed from the director’s chair, over-responsible statements rely on words that imply universal power -”we,” “everybody,’ “all” – and frequently link these omnipotent pronouns with “should” and “ought” directives.

You couldn’t understand how I’m suffering.

You’d like this movie. It’s got lots of shooting and you always enjoy the good guys against the baddies.

Everybody says the fashion color this season is red. All men know women want to be romanced. We shouldn’t spend so much money on food.

By submerging your opinions in general but powerful “yous,” “alls,” and “everybodies,” you establish yourself as the authority on someone else’s experience. Nobody likes to be told what they are thinking or feeling, or what they ought to do, and their tendency is to fight back. If you find yourself arguing frequently, you may be relying on too many over-responsible Control Talk statements in your conversation.

Your ideas are valuable simply because they are yours and you are important. If you don’t express them, you deny your self-worth. You can present your view of the world with interpretative statements. By using first-person pronouns, you demonstrate very clearly that you are not out to make authoritative pronouncements but rather to offer your personal view of things.

I think you’d enjoy this ballet.

It seems possible to me.

I think that’s the wrong approach for this problem.

I don’t think you’ve caught my drift; I think you’ve missed my point. I think Sharon was a fool to let Joe out of her life.

I think the only way to stop inflation is mandatory price controls.

Although interpretative statements do, in fact, stereotype, categorize, and evaluate people and events, that doesn’t negate them as an expression of your experience. Moreover, values and opinions are not etched in stone. The very concept of thinking implies an on-going process, and your current interpretation of any event is always subject to change.

3. SAY WHAT YOU FEEL

When you want to differentiate your thoughts from your feelings, try this simple trick. If you can follow the words, “I feel” with the word “that,” you are probably expressing an idea, not an emotion.

I feel that you don’t pay any attention to me. (an opinion) I feel rejected

I feel that I’ll never be a decent bridge player. (a judgment) I feel discouraged about the way I play bridge.

Initially, verbal expressions of emotions may be difficult. Many of us were raised to lock up our emotions behind a closed door marked “Private.” And we’re further hampered by cultural beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate displays of emotion. For example, until recently men weren’t supposed to feel silly and women believed that the verbalization of anger wasn’t ladylike. Moreover, it is difficult to acknowledge negative feelings of envy, greed, or jealousy even to, ourselves – let alone to voice such feelings aloud.

Many of us have developed the habit of substituting opinions, evaluations, or closed questions for feeling statements.

You have no right to tell me what to do. (Control Talk)

I’m resentful when you give me an order like you just did. (Straight Talk)

You’re married to your job. (Control talk)

I felt hurt when I didn’t get a birthday card from you.

Sometimes I think you are so involved in work that your friends don’t matter. (Straight Talk)

You’re always tired. You never want to go anywhere. (Control Talk)

I feel sad that we don’t do as much together as we used to. (Straight Talk)

Notice in all the above examples, the harsh, jarring phrases open with the pronoun “you.” These speak for someone else and put the responsibility for your feelings on someone else’s shoulders. One sure way to avoid this kind of Control Talk is to consistently express your feelings in I-statements. As soon as you say “I feel,” the picture changes. The accusatory quality disappears and a potential attack becomes a Straight Talk shareed awareness.

4. SAY WHAT YOU WANT

Why is it so difficult for us to make clear intention statements? When we were young, we were too innocent to be other than direct about what we wanted. But as we grew older, we were tau nit to keep our

intentions to ourselves. We bought another set of assumptions: saying what we want is selfish, brash, presumptuous, it’s nobody’s business, it’s easier to get what we want by operating underground than by being up front. In short, we learned that it was self-centered or impolite to be direct, so we discovered other ways to reach our goals.

The child says openly, “I hate cheese.” The pre-teen slides the cheese in a sandwich to the dog.

The child says freely, “I don’t want to go to bed now.” The teenager dallies over homework until bedtime passes.

The child says directly, “Sally is a pig. She takes my toys. I don’t want to play with her anymore.” The adult doesn’t return Sally’s phone calls and snubs her at parties.

In competitive situations, it may not always be a good idea to reveal all your intentions. But most of your relations are not competitive ones (we hope), and buried intentions should not be a feature of your communication. Whether or not you acknowledge your intentions, you have them and they are bound to surface. Unspoken intentions are the backbone of our hidden agendas. we are least likely to reveal what we want when we fear that our partner doesn’t share that wish. And, when our intentions are exposed, as they are bound to be sooner or later, there’s trouble. Health coaches: Please note the relevance of hidden intentions to your speaking with clients. What challenges do you face to the full disclosure of your intentions to your clients?

Many people shy away from intention statements because, if they aren’t stated judiciously, they can sound like Control Talk demands. Instead of coming out as “I want,” the intention gets translated into “you should” and becomes a Control Talk command. Note the difference between the following Control Talk statements and intention statements, and learn to phrase your intentions accordingly.

You should have gone to the party with me. (Control Talk)

I wanted you to go to the party with me. (Intention statement) Don’t make so much noise. (Control Talk)

I’d like you to be quiet. (Intention statement)

You’ve got to help me fix this broken screen. (Control Talk)

I’d like you to help me fix this screen. (Intention statement) You’d better not answer me like th^y.,.. (Control Talk)

I don’t want you to speak to me in that tone. (Intention statement)

5. AVOID BLAME

Several kinds of “you” statements place the responsibility for your feelings on others:

You make me nervous. You make me crazy. You get me furious.

Remember that self-responsibility is a basic tenet of Truth Telling.

·Keep the focus on

•

yourself, back your feelings up with precise explanations, and you’ll avoid Control Talk.

Instead of saying, You make me so mad.

Say: I get mad when I think you are accusing me of something I don’t think I did.

Instead of saying, You make me happy.

Say: I feel good when you notice my effort to be less critical.

Instead of saying, You know you secretly like it when I stand up to you.

Say: I got the impression that you were pleased when I stood up for what I believed yesterday and I didn’t back down to you.

Tacking the prefix like “I think” or “I feel” on a sentence, or simply avoiding the word “you” won’t remove the blaming quality from your message unless the shift from you to I is accompanied by a shift in tone and emphasis. It must be clear that the phrase “I think” or “I feel” are a true report on your personal reaction, no, a way to couch an attack on your

partner. Identify what your reaction is – a thought, a feeling, an intention – as well as the remark or action that triggered it.’

Bart was in the kitchen doing the dishes when Louise came in and began to dry them. After a moment of silence, Bart said, “When I’m working and you walk over to help me, I feel like you’re checking up on me and I don’t like that.” Louise might have tossed the towel in his face and offered a Control Talk retort: “Then do it yourself. If you don’t need me, that’s your loss.” Instead, she focused on her reaction to his remark and answered, “It’s not my intention to make you feel ill-at-ease, or as though I’m looking over your shoulder. It’s more my intention to let you know I want to help and I enjoy doing things together. I’m saying that I want to be with you, not that I want to check on how well you’ve scrubbed the pots.”

6. CUT OUT THE LABELS.

Always and never are two. commonly used and extremely unfair labels. We all have faults, but we don’t repeat them with the regularity of the morning alarm. When grand generalizations – always, sometimes, never – are sprinkled in a conversation, the speaker comes across as the unquestionable authority on other people’s behavior – and it’s very unlikely that he or she will be well received by others.

You have such a pessimistic outlook about everything.

- That’s ridiculous. I’m an upbeat person.

You don’t ever give me the benefit of the doubt.

- That’s not so. Yesterday you said the movie was playing at the Eric and I knew you were wrong, but I kept quiet.

You never listen to me.

- Okay, say something. I’ll listen.

Every time were out somewhere you lose something. – I do not.

Understandably, we seek to defend ourselves against global evaluations and unreasonable judgments, and an argument ensues over who is right. Replace this kind of Control Talk with responses that focus on what is happening in the present – at that moment. Limit your remarks to a particular action rather than someone’s overall behavior, and don’t imply

that the action occurs continuously. When you confine yourself to specifics, your comments are easier to hear and accept. And people will be less likely to dismiss a remark as an unwarranted exaggeration.

Don’t say: You’re always crying about something.

Say: Today, when you started to cry after I called you an air-head, I felt guilty, but I also thought your crying was a way to manipulate me.

Don’t say: You have a negative attitude about all my suggestions.

Say: When I tell you that I’m going to do something and you tell me that it’s wrong or that I won’t do it right, I get very upset and I begin to think you don’t see me as having much sense.

Betrayal, Forgiveness, Authenticity

Charley Cropley, N.D. — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:48:53 +0000

A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat;

Self-control is the rule.

Emerson

I’ve been betrayed… by a good friend… flagrantly, undoubtedly. And he does not want to admit it nor discuss it. I hate him. I want him to rot in hell. By talking to my partner, Holly and deep self-reflection I am able to soothe my passion for revenge. They heal my initial shock and pain and allow me to focus on something other than anger, hatred and hurt.

I find myself conflicted between my desire to forgive and my inability to find a way to trust Karl again. I keep up a dialogue between these two conflicting desires within me. My noble intent wants to not push his wrongdoing in his face and add to his difficulty in admitting his error. Rather I want to emphasize my friendship for him and champion our honestly embracing this crisis as an opportunity to grow both individually and in our friendship. I know I cannot accept clinging to my anger and hurt and not expressing “love” and forgiveness.

I think of my teachers; Jesus’ admonition that we forgive our enemies 70 times 7 times. Buddha: One who harms you does you a great service for he teaches you to develop a peace that cannot be shaken by the actions of others; he teaches you how to master your anger and fear… for your own sake, not for his. Byron Katie asks “If your own freedom (from anger, fear, resentment) depended upon it, could you accept, even be grateful for this situation?” I see the opportunity for me to grow here and I am committed to it.

On the other hand my anger, hatred and resentment refuse to back down. Initially I judge these emotions as “wrong”… weak, lowly and unworthy of me. “Any fool could give into these base, unintelligent, undignified impulses.” I tell myself. “I could not live with myself if I allowed myself to be dominated by these base impulses. I feel this is the essence of the problem with the world. We lack the power to forgive.” However… my emotions refuse to collapse before such self-righteous attempts at invalidation. I am torn. I cannot see a response that is authentic, that honors all parts of me.

I decide to examine more closely my “undignified” emotions. I discover that they are a protective response alerting me to avoid a person who has just dealt me a significant financial injury. And who is making zero promises to not do it again. I marvel at how the mind, like the body innately knows how to care for itself.

I still remain torn between my “good” desire to forgive and my practical concern that I could get hammered again. Not to be denied is my recurrent hatred and desire for revenge over having been betrayed. I cannot bear the hypocrisy of denying my hatred and feigning friendship and yet I equally cannot bear denying my genuine caring for Karl regardless of what he has done.

I turn again to a friend who tells me, “I view many adults as still being children mentally and emotionally. Their growth or education has been blocked. Karl has not been properly trained to understand the value of his word and the value of being trustworthy. To that degree he injures himself exactly as he would if he drank or spent money excessively. It is important that you be able to see him for what he is. The fact that you recognize that he has not yet learned to be more trustworthy does not mean that you do not love him. Just as you would be foolish to “trust” him to drive a car if you knew he could not drive, so you would be foolish to trust him at certain levels of challenge to his integrity. Your love and forgiveness can coexist side by side with a clear recognition of Karl’s faults, but not until you understand and obey the laws governing human relationships.”

Just as there are laws governing human nutrition, sleep etc. there are laws governing our relationships. Integrity, honest and trust are as essential to friendship as air, water and food to our bodies. If we attempt to use relationships or food for our selfish pleasure and purposes they become seriously injurious to us. Karl has never learned this. He is behaving like a child and needs correction and instruction. If you are elder to him you must assume that role. Your playing small serves no one.

If Karl refuses your offer to engage in an honest dialogue he refuses the means by which he could see and correct his harmful behaviors. He thereby sentences himself to repeat the same mistakes which will continue to bring him more suffering, until at last he becomes willing to look to himself as the source of his problems.

This is but one of many lessons this crisis has and is teaching me; invaluable lessons I did not even consciously know I wanted or needed. “Before you ask it is given.” This crisis reconfirms my faith in the most fundamental premise of Naturopathic Medicine. Illness (crisis) is purposeful, wise and benevolent in its nature. It is a miraculous expression of kindness and wisdom if we are willing to look for it.

This insight is precious. It shows me the path out of my suffering. It carries the promise that I can one day face “betrayals” and consciously respond to them without having to suffer. Somehow I have been blessed with this opportunity to free myself from future episodes of such misery. Karl is not able to see the gift hidden in this crisis.

To seize this precious gift will require that I practice again and again finding my way back to authentic forgiveness rather than indulging my habitual reactions of hatred, resentment and being a victim. This now becomes my work. The question of whether I will actually engage in the study and practice of the skill of forgiveness depends on whether I have had enough of this suffering. We shall see.

How I Learned Nutrition *

Charley Cropley, N.D. — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:03:22 +0000

Here is an overview of the main influences in my nutritional education. This is but a first draft so please forgive me if it is not well written in spots.

In 1969 at the age of 23 I read my first book on nutrition, The Mucusless Diet Healing System and Rational Fasting by Professor Arnold Ehret. This was the first time in my life I had heard that illness is not something outside of us that invades us for no reason. Rather illness is caused primarily by the ways we eat and live. I immediately recognized and was deeply moved by these ideas. They were so compelling to me that I had to embrace them.

Some of my personal experiences since then are the following:

I was a vegan/vegetarian for seven years. During that time my weight dropped to 128; the lowest of my life, for a sustained period. My normal weight is 145. Otherwise I felt well. Compared to now, I had many more colds and upper respiratory inflammations. However my discipline was not near then what it is now and I ate many more carbs and wholesome sweets which I’ve since discovered injure my metabolism.

I have eaten primarily raw foods for most of my adult life. This is due to the influences of Natural Hygiene, The Essenes and Instinctive Nutrition. The latter includes animal products and is not vegan like the Essenes and Hygienists.

My Fasting experiences:

I have fasted and done modified fasts many, many times for 1 to 7 days. I have fasted on air only for 7 days, water for 21 days once and on water only for 7 to 10 days probably 15 times. I fasted on vegetable juices for 17 days once and many times for shorter periods.

I have closely studied the effects of fasting on a wide variety of both acute and chronic illnesses. I have led almost every one of my clients through at least one purification regimen (a fast or a modified fast). For most clients purification is essential for them to regain their Health. My wife and I used to open our home to our clients who needed long term fasts. We guided several clients through 21 day water fasts and several through 50 day water fasts. These fasts brought about improvements that were hardly believable. I still occasionally lead certain select clients through long fasts but I have found that if one has not yet learned sustainable ways of eating on a day to day basis that they will eventually undo the benefits of the long term fasts.

Some of my other Nutritional “experiments”:

MEAT DIET, i.e. eating only raw or minimally cooked meat for 7 t0 14 days around 5 times.

MILK DIET same.

Mono diets of carrots, cherries, apples, peaches, brown rice, for 3 to 7 days. Many times.

My Experiences In Clinical Nutrition:

For the first 20 years of my career I worked as a family practitioner of Naturopathic Medicine. Since 1977 I have spent my career working with patients very intimately. I have spent one full hour at almost every visit with each client. I have carefully studied their eating journals and searched for connections between their eating, and their symptoms. I have designed an eating regimen specifically adapted to their needs and abilities.

Often I would call my students daily to know what is taking place with them. I have questioned thousands of clients on specific details of how they were effected by making very refined, detailed adaptations to their eating. I have learned how to feed infants, athletes, elders and animals with all forms of illnesses from acute infections to cancer. For over 10 years I worked with many clients using Max Gerson, M.D.’s nutritional regimen for cancer.

I used to have a full pharmacy of herbal and homeopathic medicines, supplements, hormones and other natural medicines.

I used to perform physical examinations, gyn exams, blood, urine, stool and hair analysis, live blood cell analysis, ph testing, allergy testing and many other forms of laboratory testing.

For some years my interest has waned in understanding the biochemical pathways by which supplements act. I admire and sometimes envy those who have trained themselves in this understanding, however my attraction to this path has been outshone by my attraction for teaching and empowering people to heal themselves using real food. I appreciate the value in supplementation and other natural, non-harmful therapies and I regularly refer people for such therapies when I see they would be beneficial to them.

I doubt it would be possible to have studied nutrition too much more avidly than I have. That said, there are many, many scientists and researchers and doctors whose academic understanding is far beyond mine. I admire them greatly, however my education has taken me on a different path. Much of the education and information that enables one to prescribe supplements I find to be of practical use only in prescribing supplements. I do not find such information to help me much in designing therapies that use real food

Human Nutrition and Animal Nutrition:

Human nutrition is a completely different study than is animal nutrition. In working with a dog or cat, all I have to do is prescribe a corrective eating regimen and it is followed unquestioningly. With human beings it is a very small part of my work to determine what nutritional regimen would be of greatest benefit. That is easy. The skill comes in helping my clients to be able to actually integrate into their lives the nutritional and lifestyle changes that, if embodied, will Heal them.

My clients often say to me, “I didn’t know that you were a counselor. I thought you just told me what to eat.”

Other details about my studies in nutrition.

I began immediately to work diligently at improving my own eating. For the next 6 years I studied everything I could obtain on nutrition. I became a patient of Henry Bieler, M.D. and received personal instruction in his methods by both him and his assistant, Marian Menke. I was strongly influenced by Natural Hygiene, which I still love and admire. I became a vegetarian, ate no salt, carefully watched my food combinations and began fasting periodically.

In these years I was young, had little self knowledge and lots of enthusiasm and strong beliefs. I had only recently given up drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana way in excess. My eating was erratic and uncontrollable with huge swings from pure to degenerate. I was ashamed that I could not control my eating in the manner it seemed all the authors did or at least recommended.

I would fast and then gorge myself. For a period of time I was bulemic although the word “bulimic” did not exist at the time. I knew in my heart that eating enormous amounts and then vomiting was harmful to me and I was able to quit without much difficulty. Fortunately I had no trusted medical authority to tell me that I was a victim of a “disease” which was very dangerous and which I could do very little about. Otherwise I may have never healed my “bulemic” behavior.

The mental, emotional anguish that resulted from my seemingly uncontrollable behavior led me to undertake morning and evening practices of self-study and deep prayer. For a period I kept an eating journal of everything I ate and each morning I would write out my prayers and intentions for what I would eat that day. I had little understanding in how to control my behavior by strengthening my self love and my understanding of myself. I had been trained in shame, guilt, self-criticism and downright self-hatred.

My wife, Betsy was the only person who understood me and she shared my ideas and embraced many of the same changes as I did.

The rest of my family and friends tolerated me. I had no other source of affirmation or support for my principles and practices until I entered Naturopathic College in 1975. That was a tremendous affirmation and validation of who I was and what I loved. I learned firsthand the value of a supportive environment. ***

National College of Naturopathic Medicine was a fabulous education for me. I am deeply grateful for the broad exposure it gave me to Natural therapies and to excellent training in the science of medicine. My two main influences on nutrition were Raymond Peat, PhD., and Jeffrey Bland, PhD. Both brilliant.

I no longer embrace any one school of nutrition. I find each school to offer valuable benefits. I now have developed my own system/approach to nutrition which draws on all the approaches I have studied. While there is much that is common that I do with each person, the art and power lies in adapting timeless principles to the needs and abilities of each individual.

*** I have seen many, many of my clients work hard to restore their Health, then literally have it destroyed by the skeptical, and self-righteous hostility of ignorant family members. Most backslide into illness and remain diseased the rest of their lives due to the corrosive influences of their family members.

The Negative Cycle of Obesity

Charley Cropley, N.D. — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:37:57 +0000

If you have a chronic illness such as arthritis, obesity, diabetes etc. This article will help you to understand a few things about your chronic Health problem.

First, it’s important to realize that continuing your present style of ordinary behaviors will cause your illness to grow steadily worse. For example, imagine that your problem were chronic back pain. Because of the pain you can no longer sit, stand, bend and twist the way you are accustomed to. The ways you are accustomed to moving aggravate your condition. If you continue to attempt engaging in your accustomed patterns of movement, your back will grow worse. You cannot do what other people do who do not have chronic back pain.

In order to correct it, you will probably need to rest from any movement during some periods of time. You might even have to stay in bed for several days and/or take breaks during the day to lay down and rest your back.

The same is true of metabolic and nutritional injuries. Metabolic injuries are central to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and, in fact, most chronic degenerative diseases. If you persist in your accustomed ways of eating, you will grow worse. Further, even if you improve your flagrant offences so that you are eating in a manner that would sustain good Health in a normal person, this way of eating will injure you. You are not a normal person. You are sick, and you must care for yourself accordingly.

If you do not understand this you set yourself up for disappointment and failure. You will feel that you are making good efforts and yet you make no progress. You may think that there is just something wrong with you, that you are uniquely flawed. It is not so. Just as a person with an injured back will never heal their back if they continue to lift amounts that a normal person lifts. So you will need to eat in ways that do not continue to re injure your metabolic injury.

Your body will require that you live in a much more careful manner than healthy people, because even if you change your ways so that you eat, exert and rest much better than you did before, you will still continue to grow worse.

You are in metabolic/energetic debt. This is very similar to being in financial debt. It will not be sufficient for you to merely balance your income and expenditures. You must pay off both your debts as well as the interest payments. To do this you must live in a more caring fashion than you will need to once you become well.

You are Self-Healing. And your illness is a an intelligent, benevolent process. Your body knows exactly how to get well and she will teach you exactly what you must do in order for her to do this. My skill is that I understand very well the language of the body and I help you to understand what she is asking of you.

Living in alignment with our body’s needs brings about not only physical and metabolic corrections in the body, but also corrections in our appetites and cravings, in our relationships and in our very character. We become stronger. Life teaches us a lesson that we will not easily forget. We are Healed of living in non-sustainable, debt-accumulating ways.

This is difficult work. We would not ever have the strength or willingness to do it, except life gives us no other choice. As we persist in taking better care of ourselves, we grow accustomed to a way of living and eating that at first probably seemed too difficult to us. It makes the process enormously easier when you have a teacher who has walked this path himself. Who can offer you guidance, inspiration and encouragement.

We want to be able to return to our old accustomed habitual ways of eating. Often my clients ask “Will I ever be able to eat ‘blank’ again?

I respond that it is like little kids who want to play with matches. At the stage where matches are highly fascinating and alluring to them the answer is “No.” When they mature a little so that the allure has declined, then we can leave matches out in the house and know that the children will not abuse them. We know that they know the right use of matches and can be trusted with them.

The same principle applies in your relationship with your body. She knows when you are trustworthy. When your body is healed of her chronic illness, her metabolic debt, you will know because you will have gotten over your compulsive need to eat whatever those things are that you thought you could not live without. Your desires for what harms you will be healed, and, simultaneously, your body will be healed. You will be able to eat as you please, however you will be free of the compulsion to eat what is harmful to you. You may at times choose to do so, but you will not be tormented by the desires to do so. You will eat by choice not compulsion.

This has some special implications for overweight persons because initially you will find that you improve your eating significantly and yet you continue to gain weight. I encourage you to understand that your body is in a negative cycle. Your levels of insulin and other hormones, as well as the receptor sites on your cell membranes and many other metabolic functions, are out of balance. They function incorrectly. Being fat causes more fatness. Your body has become well trained at storing fat. If you are seriously overweight or if you are seriously ill in any manner, you must free yourself of unrealistic expectations. Your body will continue to grow more sick even though you make some significant changes. This does not mean that these changes are not useful or necessary; in fact, they are both useful and necessary. They are simply insufficient.

Do not set your expectations too low. Get yourself geared up for a program that will require your absolute best. What you are attempting to do may appear impossible to who you know yourself to be. You may have never in your history been able to make such changes. This is how almost everyone feels. However I assure you that what you desire to do is supremely possible,… even inevitable.

To accomplish the healing that you desire will require that you draw on power greater than you think you possess. In very practical, non-airy-fairy terms, you are going to have to find that power. You must want your Health passionately. Health is precious above all else and She does not adapt herself conveniently into your life. She will revolutionize your life. You must adapt to the requirements of Health. There is no other way. None!

To make such changes, you are perfectly supported. These changes — the work of mastering yourself — is without doubt the most difficult work in the world. There is only one thing more difficult, and that is to not do this work, to remain sick and continue suffering. If you think deeply on this, you will see that you have no choice. You will also see that your illness is, in fact, a gift, perfectly and personally designed for you. The processes of illness are under the control of Health. Health uses illness to restore you to Health. The process is not easy, but you have no choice. The more you give yourself to pondering this truth, the more you will find the courage to do the work that will unfailingly bring you the body you desire.

You are innately endowed with the ability to govern your actions wisely. The challenges you face in your quest to regain your Health are most ordinary. What Health requires of you is not mysterious, nor does Healing require any unusual powers. What is asked of you is simply that you perform your most ordinary activities of living, i.e. eating, moving, thinking and relating, and you imbue these activities with your own kindness and intelligence. You are completely capable of this.

Take heart, believe in yourself, believe in the goodness that is at your core. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.