You may be wondering; Dr. B has fallen off the deep end. Now he’s talking about clams? They don’t even have spines! Or do they? So bear with me for a moment. There is a good reason for talking about clams.

Recently I was on a retreat in upstate New York spending tons of time outdoors in creation. The camp was situated on this beautiful lake at the foot of the Adirondacks and was one of the most tranquil places I’ve been. As I was walking beside the water, I noticed the amazing ripple design in the sand that the rhythm of the waves had created. While admiring its beauty, I noticed a trail going in the opposite direction (I took a picture of it here).

I followed this trail and at the end of it was a clam, moseying its way deeper into the water. Now at this point you may be wondering; what in the world does this have to do with health. Well, the clam itself doesn’t but it serves as a metaphor for so many different aspects of life; health, faith, work, etc. 

The truth is, the average North American lifestyle will lead you to more disease.

The ripples on the bottom of the lake are formed by the momentum and rhythm of the waves; bringing things into shore. It’s easy to fall into this rhythm and requires very little, if any, work to gently float into shore. When it comes to health, the same thing is true. If we were to do “health” the way the average North American does things, it requires very little effort or responsibility and ultimately you go in the same direction as everyone else. Sounds great right? Well the truth is, the average North American lifestyle will lead you to more disease, more dysfunction and ultimately rob you of enjoying the life you were called to enjoy prematurely. In fact, a recent study predicted if we stay on the same health trajectory that we are on right now, 1 in 4 people over the age of 30 will be living with at least one significant chronic disease. That’s 3.1 million people!

Now enter the clam. The clam’s pathway signifies a harder way but a better way. Would it have been easier to just chill out and go in the same direction of the water’s momentum? 100%. But instead, the clam went deeper against the current. Harder; yes, but deeper water means safety from predatory birds and ultimately a longer life. Health is no different. In order to truly be healthy today, it requires you to swim upstream, blaze a different trail and to be far from average because we’ve seen what average gets you in this country. Will you have to live a more principled and dedicated life? Yes. Will you have to say no to certain things to do so? For sure. Will it be worth it? 100%, unequivocally YES! We each have an amazing call and purpose on our lives and health is the cornerstone. Without our health, we will never fulfill or enjoy the fulfillment of our purpose and ultimately that doesn’t just affect us but it also robs everyone around us of experiencing who we were truly meant to be. 

Will it be worth it? 100%, unequivocally YES!

We’ve been blessed with this one, amazing life to live and based on the statistics, the average person won’t even come close to enjoying it to its fullest. We weren’t designed to be average, we were designed to be extraordinary. The good news is that it’s never too late to take responsibility for your health and start living the abundant life you were created for. Doing things differently is always going to be hard just like our little determined clam, however the reward on the other side of that hard work makes it all worthwhile. 

Sincerely,

Dr. B, Dr. Matt and the New Life Team