Fenton – We Only Get One Chance

EXPANSION

As we were navigating a busy day at the office, a patient began to ask questions that led me to share a bit about what is currently happening in and around the Cafe of LIFE and the Center for Well-Being.
As I answered the questions, he said, “WAIT! You are expanding your office during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC?!?”
“Yes, I guess I am.”
As we have navigated this crazy year, there have been many opportunities thrown my way. And although I had so much on my plate already, I began to step, SLOWLY step, in the direction that has gotten us to the point we are at today.
Which is truly just the beginning.
I wanted to take a moment just to clarify all the things happening in and around the Center for Well-Being and also the Cafe of LIFE.
In the spring, Dr Navpreet Saini-Conn reached out to me to share that, after working 2 years in Brighton, she wanted to move up to Fenton and open a practice.
We sat down to a few conversations and it turns out she is a great fit for our office and she has joined us. She will be building her own practice alongside what we already have here and the great thing is that THERE IS SPACE for her to do just that. She joined us at the beginning of October and she will be sharing more and more as the time goes on. We won’t be seeing each other’s patients but there is possibility for us to fill in for each other, if ever the need arises.
We moved Dr. Nav into the rooms that you are all used to our massage therapists being in and so we have moved them on to BIG AND BEAUTIFUL rooms in another section of the building. Many of you have already had a chance to experience this new massage therapy area and have given us lots of positive feedback of how peaceful and cozy it is.

We have added 2 more massage therapists to our team to accommodate the demand on our schedule and you will be seeing Rachael and Anna in and around the office. They are incredible and are both talented in their work and enjoy being part of our already established team of great therapists, Stephanie and Laura.
We have had Lauren Lay, MSW, a family therapist, renting space on our second floor for the past year and she has MANY RAVING FANS! If you are looking for a good therapist in the area, she is a really great place to start!
Many of you have seen Michigan Community Holistic Health, Sabrina Bastian, who has been offering acupuncture and other services in the other part of the building. Throughout the last 18 months, her patient base has expanded and she has added 3 more treatment rooms to what she was already doing!

We have a commercial kitchen in the back part of our building and if you are looking for a great meal prep service, Feed Me Michigan is prepping meals through the weekend and we are a pick-up spot for those who have ordered ahead of time! We have additional days available inside our kitchen space in case you are someone you know are in need of certified commercial kitchen space.
A couple other businesses we have teamed up with are Optimize Hypnosis and an incredible functional medicine practitioner in the local area.
I remember when I purchased the building 2.5 years ago…the constant mantra of all those around me was (just like the Field of Dreams) “if you build it, they will come.” It is incredible when I really look around at what has happened in the past 2.5 years and just how much the Center for Well-Being has come to life, THEY REALLY DID COME!!!
This building is an ongoing project, 10,000 sq ft of space and half of that being 130 years old, it is naturally always going to be a project. I have an incredible team and am bringing more staff on board to help as it grows and evolves. I have a continuous checklist of stuff that needs to be done, but to be honest with all of you, I am happy to be the one that the Universe sent to take care of this place.
As I was busy designing our new massage suite and expanding our adjusting space and spending a lot of after hours time doing the work, it reminds me back to the beginnings (the initial help has moved on in life, thank goodness) and how it feels like a big playground for creation. All in all, it has actually been a lot of fun to repurpose.
As I stated before, this is only the beginning and the natural attraction to the building, location and charm has let us become the “go-to” spot for all things health and wellness for the entire family.

NOURISHING

I have not been one that has much time to spend on gardening or flowers or tending to things in the yard. I am learning a lot about nourishing this summer.

I have walked through many greenhouses in my life. I have always been inspired by the beauty of them but I also remember having to plant marigolds growing up and then weeding that garden and it wasn’t something that was enjoyable as a kid. At all. So I brought that concept into adulthood. I love indoor plants and always have, but this season has been about nourishing outdoor plants as well.

One thing I would always notice while walking through greenhouses are those drip hoses that go continuously. I ALWAYS thought a constant drip to every single one of those plants seemed excessive. My thoughts would go to “gosh that is a lot of water and why can’t they just water them a couple times a week and call it good?”

Um…yeah. I am learning this year.

I have beautiful planters at my home and they are filled with petunias and greens. I have a couple hanging baskets and at one point, I bought enough at one of the greenhouses that they offered me a free tomato plant.

So here I am with these BEAUTIFUL planters and now is the time to begin nourishing them. I bought the proper fertilizer and a nice watering can and I am good.

I began to give them a good dousing of water and then put my watering can away for a couple days. I would leave in the morning for work and continue on with my life. By the end of the second day the petunias would shrivel up and threaten to “off” themselves. So I would douse them again and then try to put my watering can away for a couple days and they would do it again…and again and again.

So I started to learn that these things need to be nourished every single day. It took me about 3 weeks to realize this and I would hear people say “I just didn’t want to be a tied to my yard and garden this year and so I didn’t plant anything.”

The indoor house plants are on a weekly watering schedule. The outdoor plants are on a daily watering schedule. When I took a few days away from my home, I was more concerned that my plants get watered every single day than anything else since I had invested so much time into them. Fortunately for me, my Mom lives close and she was able to stop by every single day to do that, but they are THRIVING!!!

I am learning a lot from my moody petunias this summer. The main lesson: If you want something to grow and flourish, it is important to nourish it every single day!

I have had this awareness in a lot of areas in my life through lessons over the years however this beautiful representation in my life right now is so timely…and I am bringing it back to focus on myself.

It is my greatest joy to work with my patients every week, they bring such good energy to my life, my heart and my soul. Doing the work that I do, I have found great purpose in helping people regain their health, uplevel their health and continue to thrive inside of their bodies. And I have learned that ready or not, you will all show up at or office as soon as our doors open.

I spend a good portion of my downtime prepping my body and mind to be ready to serve at my office. I am doing all the things I tell you to do: Eat good food, exercise, keep a sound mind, stress management, connection and rest. But those are the bare minimum. This alone time, quarantine time, has been devoted to finding more nourishing things I can do within the guidelines set by this crazy time. Watering my plants is one of them.

My days begin with letting the dog out to do his business while I fill the watering can for the first time. It takes 3 fills to nourish the plants I have right now and a little time pulling off dead portions and discarding so the plant can send more good juju to the thriving areas.

It brings a lot of joy to my heart and soul to nourish these and experience what the daily nourishing leads to. As I look ahead, I have often wondered if I have to water every single day, will I plant as much next year? The benefit and enjoyment of them WAY outweighs the time it takes to nourish them. It is a 10x payback from this act of nourishing.

Look around in your life. What are you spending your time nourishing? Is it an even exchange or are you being depleted by it? Are you nourishing yourself? Nourishing your body? Nourishing your mind? Nourishing your soul? Nourishing your connections? Nourishing your family? Nourishing your relationships? Nourishing your community? What a beautiful thing!!

NEW

WOW!! Is life crazy or what? It feels all brand new. But not like the super great brand new that we have been wanting and looking forward to, more like a new that hit us smack in the face, shoved our noses into it and said “Here!!! FIGURE IT OUT!!!”

I know we are all in this same kind of boat although we are not navigating the exact same waves, I know that for sure. Some are working from home while also learning to teach school. Some are displaced from life or work or family or whatever it is…but we are all out here doing our very best with the unknows. It literally feels like most of life is filled full of unknowns.

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan Dr Erica Peabody - New

You haven’t heard from me through this format in a long time as navigating it all has pushed blogging to the back burner. One other stumbling block is my laptop was on its last leg for a few months. I would begin writing here or inside of an office newsletter and in the middle, prior to be able to save it, it would kick me all the way back off and discard all that I had written. Life has taken a lot of extra energy lately and so trying to deal with that as well was just plain frustration.

So I ordered a new laptop and braved the curbside pick-up they had set up and honestly it was seamless and rather delightful!! So I now have a brand new machine to communicate with you better. I am excited to move forward with this blog and creating other content as we all learn to navigate this brand new life.

I take solace in writing and sharing in this manner and hopefully it remains interesting and entertaining as I share tips and trick, but probably more brutal honesty as we move through the stories of life: mine, my practice, friends, colleagues, being a dog mom, my family….on and on we will go. Check back here regularly and of course all of these posts will be shared on my social media platforms.

Years ago, I named this blog “We Only Get One Chance” and I still live and eat and breathe by that tagline in my day to day. Maybe now, more than ever before, others have really increased their awareness around that as well, that we really do get only one chance. It is time to make the very best of it!!

New computer, new life, many unknows and a new commitment to sharing and helping in any way I can. Stay tuned!!

GRATITUDE

November always has a gratitude theme to it. I wish more months did that, but I guess with the very best of all holidays (in my humble opinion) being in November, it just makes sense.

“What you think about and thank about, you bring about!”

One of the greatest quotes and OH SO TRUE!!!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Gratitude - Dr Erica Peabody

There are so many things to be grateful for, just look around you. No really, stop for a moment from reading this, look up and look around you. I bet you can instantly find 5 things to be grateful for! If not, LOOK HARDER!!!

There is always something to be grateful for and gratitude, when used as a driving force in our lives, is a really powerful tool for bringing about more of what you want and shifting energy around worry and fear.

I have been using the month of November to express my gratitude towards individual things inside of my life and my days that I am grateful for. Just a few more days to go however my list truly goes on much longer than just the number of days inside of this month.
When I take a glance around in my life, one of the greatest gifts ever given to me is the army of people that support me every single day. There is a lot happening in life and for whatever reason, I tend to not take the easy path to some of the life lessons sent my way. It is tough stuff sometime. Just when the world seems like it is crashing down on one side, I reach out and ask for a little bit of help and support and someone always steps in to help me until I can do it all myself again…well that is until another side starts to crumble.

When I head home after my day of work, I realize that within a mere 3 miles of my home are some of the greatest people I know. I feel so lucky to be living and working inside this incredible community of Fenton, but beyond that, I have so many people, family and friends, that are part of my daily life. I am so, so grateful!

As a little call to action inside of this simple blog post, go grab a piece of paper and a pen. Go ahead, I will wait right here…

Okay, now that you have paper and pen, just write 1-30 down the left side. Sit for the next 10 minutes or so and fill up each one of those slots with 30 things you are grateful for.

Want to take it one step further? Go share that with your spouse, your kids or give a friend a call and share it with them. It is one thing to think about it, it is a whole other thing to write it down and it takes it up a level to share it out loud with someone. Then report back here and let me know how you did. You can simply read through this blog post and say “Oh wow Erica, I can see how that would be beneficial.” …or you can GO DO SOMETHING!!! Get off of your phone (I know you are reading this from your phone), set that thing down, pen it to paper and SHARE THE GRATITUDE!!! I can almost bet that it will spark something inside of that next person to do the same.

You will see… Expressing gratitude is the first step in bringing more of those things you are grateful for into your life…and it is quite contagious!!

GIVE THEM FOOD

Every year at Halloween, I have an internal debate with myself about giving out a bunch of candy. I used to remedy this debate by handing out caramel apples however this year, with the apple crop damage in this state, we were unable to do that. So we decided to do an experiment this time around…and the results were OUTSTANDING!!!

When I went to the store to shop for our trick-or-treaters, I felt a little like a scrooge buying apples, clementines and almonds. I added M&Ms in the mix and so our bowl of treats had quite a variety.

I put about a quarter of the bag of snack size M&Ms in and filled the rest up with the real food; the apples, clementines and almonds. We also gave out glow-in-the-dark bracelets to help them stay safe that evening and a book mark about health.

When the children came in, Angie would ask them to pick something from each bucket (bracelets in one, bookmarks in another, and the food/candy in the last). When they got the bucket with the food/candy, a majority, and when I say the word majority I mean close to 90%, chose FOOD!!! They would say things like “THEY HAVE ALMONDS!!!!”, “APPLES ARE MY FAVORITE!!” or on their way out the door, we could hear them declare “I ABSOLUTELY LOVE CLEMENTINES!!!!”.

It was amazing to see their reaction to what we were serving because I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go. In fact, when I was in the store getting supplies, I even said to the check-out person at Trader Joe’s “I may end up being one of those ‘dreaded’ places for Halloween because I am not giving out much candy, but I am going to give it a try anyway.”

So the outcome of this experiment is GIVE THEM FOOD!!! Kids love food! Real food! Things that grow on trees and in the ground. They loved our treats and were absolutely thrilled to have the options. Why do you think that is? I attribute it to the possibility that kids innately know what is good for them. I wouldn’t say a blanket statement “kids would choose real food over candy any day”, but how about giving them some healthy options on a regular basis. How about rewarding them with a baked apple? …or dried banana chips? …or some trail mix? These choices on a regular basis will make a world of difference in their health in the long run.