Self-Regulation
June 26th, 2007 by Tom Cobb
Why is Self-Regulation Important?
I am not sure how well the term ‘Self-Regulation’ is known outside of professional
biofeedback circles or how important a term it is felt to be by the general
populace. Within the community of biofeedback therapists the term is quite well
know and important. Indeed, there is an entire professional journal devoted
to the techniques and methods of self-regulation. While self-regulation can
apply specifically to the processes and methods used in biofeedback (helping
a patient/client become aware of previously unconscious physiological processes
and through this increased awareness helping the patient/client to normalize
these processes and re-establish healthy physiology in order to recover from
pain and dysfunction.) It can be applied in a broader sense as well.
It seems fairly intuitive to think that obesity (for example) is a failure
of self-regulation and recovery of optimal weight is a product of improved self-regulation
skills (through managing diet and exercise). Is it intuitive to think of recovering
from adult onset diabetes with self-regulation skills? How about epilepsy or
hypertension or chronic headaches or chronic anxiety? While the techniques would
be different for each of these, we can find examples for all these diseases
that have been cured using self-regulation techniques.
Recovering from or curing any specific health problem is a fairly demanding
activity that requires commitment, support, guidance (coaching), time and often
money. When illness becomes manifest it usually means that the processes that
govern the body have been out of balance for a long time so it stands to reason
that correcting these disease producing processes will take time and effort.
Luckily, there is a growing body of knowledge in the Alternative or Complementary
Medical Community that can help with training, support and treatment.
But, what if we could actually prevent or avoid disease by adopting self-regulation
techniques before disease manifests itself? Or, what would happen if we applied
self-regulation techniques at the first sign of illness? Perhaps illness could
be avoided or the recover period would be easier and shorter.
There is a growing consensus that by paying attention to our bodies and regulating
our lifestyles we can take charge of our health and we can stay healthy longer
than if we ignore our bodies and don’t pay attention to how we treat them. Rather
than being a message of blame or guilt this is a message of hope. If we can
contribute to our ongoing health by managing our lifestyles intelligently, if
we can help stay healthy or change our behavior in ways that help us become
healthy when we had been ill, it is much more hopeful and positive than thinking
we can’t do anything ourselves.
Despite the ever growing movement to use alternative medical techniques, here
are massive influences in our society that would have us stay unconscious and
not pay attention to the fact that we can do something to help ourselves stay
healthy. We have a choice whether or not we will be working to maintain and
improve our health or allow our health to deteriorate. This is why self-regulation
is important, without it we can too easily fall victim to dis-regulation.