find a chiropractor – Page 6 – We Only Get One Chance

MOVING MEDITATION

In the snowy months, I spend a lot of time on my snowboard. People often ask me why I like snowboarding so much and I respond to them, “It’s a moving mediation.” “Meditation?!?!?! Snowboarding seems like anything but meditative…seems so stressful!” they say.

If you have ever been on a snowboard, you will realize within just a few minutes that you need to be paying 100% of your attention to what you are doing…otherwise you will get in trouble quickly. It is a continuous process of looking about 10-15 feet ahead, choosing your line and executing. And for as long as you want to snowboard in a day, or over a number of days, it is the same thing…look ahead, choose a line and execute.

In that particular sequence of actions, there is absolutely no room for thoughts like “what’s for dinner?”, “I wonder what so-and-so thinks about me?”, “I can’t believe so-and-so said/did that at work yesterday.”, “When will those kids ever learn?”, “I wonder if the washing machine repair man is at the house yet or not.” It is one of the most “present-time” awareness activities that I experience in life, besides my work as a chiropractor when I am adjusting people, and taking a yoga class. It is truly a moving meditation.

I recently found the same thing happening on a mountain bike…and I AM THRILLED!!!! For years I have been a “Roadie‘ they call it in the cycling world…I ride a road bike, long distances on paved roads. For years, I have had friends try to convince me to get a mountain bike and check out that scene. For years, I would say things like “Trees are unforgiving.” or “Do you realize how important my body parts are to my work?” due to my (incorrect) assumption that every mountain biker hits trees on a regular basis.

Then recently I realized how many miles of dirt roads surround my home and how much biking I was missing out on because of only owning a road bike. So I succumbed to peer pressure and bought a mountain bike from Cyclefit (by the way, those guys are super helpful when you are ready to purchase your next set of wheels) to ride on dirt roads.

Then I succumbed to peer pressure again and hit the actual mountain bike trails, or “single track” in biking world lingo, for the first time last week.

Just a few minutes into the ride, I found myself doing that look 10-15 feet ahead, choose a line and execute thing that I do on my snowboard and living in 100% present-time consciousness. Little did I know, an hour and a half blew by like 10 minutes. I was climbing hills, dodging trees, flying through mud puddles, over bridges, over roots, cruising through sand pits. IT WAS A BLAST!!! …and when the ride was over, I couldn’t wait to go out and do it again.

With the madness of life and the crazy speed that the days/weeks/months/years fly by, my brain craves 100% present consciousness time more and more everyday…so naturally at this point that craving goes to mountain biking, which if one needs to have a “craving”, mountain biking is a good thing to choose. It is also adding one more thing to my list of activities to enjoy doing during this lifetime.

I may end up staying on that same trail for the rest of the summer. I do not plan on branching out much and risking anything and both times I have been there, although I know some of the elements and the technical areas of the trail, it seems like a whole new experience to me every time. Being in present-time moving meditation mode, allows life to always seem new and that is super exciting in and of itself. Happy pedaling!!!

PIANO

I am just finishing up my first handful of piano lessons and I have this aching feeling in my brain. Literally my brain hurts.

You know when you start a new workout program and the next day you get that “I just started a new workout” soreness…well that is exactly what it feels like.

I started an online course with a super phenomenal guy that is absolutely rocking a “CHARGED” life and one of the things he mentioned is to set some time aside to learn something new. When he said the phrase “learn something new” he meant REALLY learn something new and start firing some brain cells that have been sleeping for a while

I grew up with a piano in my home. It was a used piano from somewhere in the family and it ended up in our living room. I have always had a knack for playing music off sound and would spend some time on it trying to figure things out. To my mother’s dismay, I learned what the notes were called and proceeded to sharpie them in black lettering on the beautiful ivory keys…well how else was I supposed to get better at this????

I would never sit down and spend hours, but I did enjoy sitting from time to time and seeing what I could come up with. There is something so intriguing about those black and while keys and how such beautiful sounds come out of them.

In middle school, we were required to participate in choir or band…it was one or the other and I chose band. I played the saxophone, I was rather good (if I don’t say so myself) sat “first chair” for most of my time, and besides really enjoying making music, I also learned to read music.

Once horses and high school came around, musical instruments went to the wayside…well besides picking up a random recorder and belting out “Doe a Deer” from time to time.

My music hiatus came to an end during my time at University of Alaska, where I took one semester of piano class in conjunction with getting my bachelor’s degree. This class started with the basics and worked into playing with 2 hands, chords, melodies and all the rest of the stuff that came with it. My mind was bogged down with chemistry, physics and biology and that was a really nice right-brained thing to do to spice things up. I enjoyed it however I didn’t continue to play regularly and so I lost most of my skills to play and read.

Since I am over 8 years into my chiropractic practice now and, though I spend a lot of time reading books, attending seminars and continuing my education, I just had this feeling that my brain wanted another challenge to take me out of my usual and customary day. Then Mr. Burchard made a suggestion to “learn something new” and I called the local music studio the next week.

My teacher, Lisa Bayer, is amazing and wonderful and patient and very talented. I always feel like I need to have an excuse for why I am not grasping things as well as maybe I feel like I should, but she just looks at me and says “from one perfectionist to another, give yourself a break.”

So I try to “give myself a break”. That is not easy for me to do and then she sits down in the seat and plays the most beautiful rendition of “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beetles and all I can think is “If I am progressing this slowly, I wonder how many years it is going to take me to play something like that.” Then I turn around and look myself in the face and say “ERICA, GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!!!!”

I am excited. I am excited to be able to sit down and read and play beautiful music, but I am also excited to just walk in the front door of the music studio and give it my best shot for the day. It is humbling, it truly is and so good on so many levels.

When I leave there after an hour and I feel like I am leaving the gym because my brain has had such a good workout…I innately know it is a good thing. I can feel areas and groups of neurons that are being dusted off, waking up, and getting re-oxygenated.

It is challenging to make those beautiful black and white keys sound like anything that resembles music however I love learning and the piano is fitting that bill right now. And before too long, I will post a video on here of me preforming my most beautiful rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”, you can mark my words. Have you learned anything new lately? Tell me a bit about what you are currently working on.

A TINY HOME

I have a very tiny home that I go to about 4 days a week. It is about 2 feet by 6 feet and is easy to transport and move from place to place. This tiny home is my yoga mat.

As I enter the yoga room, I always find myself gravitating to the same location on the floor. In one yoga studio is is one particular location, in another studio it is another spot and the third is still quite a different spot. There is a feel to the location in the room and is all very much part of my process.

I usually arrive early, sometimes 30 minutes early, because I want to be in that same spot. It may be a location where just a class or 2 before, I found myself staring at a ceiling tile and bursting out laughing. It may be a spot that just the day before, I left a huge puddle of tears on the floor. It may be a place that a week prior I had such an awesome flow and was really linked in to whomever was practicing next to me…either way there is a reason, and I cannot always put my finger on the why of my choice in locations.

When I arrive at the perfect place for my tiny home, I line my mat up perfectly parallel to the planks of the wood floor, fold my hand towel in half and put it near the top of my mat and find the ideal un-kick-able spot for my water bottle.

As I am laying on my mat waiting for class to start, I spend a little time observing others as they walk in to find their “spot” to set up their tiny home for the next 60-75 minutes of their lives. It is interesting the process they go through.

Some walk in confidently, drop their mat, roll it out, set up their water, climb on and lay down to meditate.

Others set up their tiny home, lay down, get back up and move to the opposite side of the room with a “something about the mojo of that spot isn’t quite right” tone to their walk.

Still others will stand by the door and survey the scene to decide their plot before making a move and others will stand and have a discussion with their friends about perfect location for their tiny homes.

There is such a magic to all the happenings. People arrive at different times for different reasons but one by one we all stake our claim to a 2 feet by 6 feet plot of wood floor to set up our tiny home and by the time class is about to start…it is all in perfect order.

The floor of the yoga room is covered in brightly colored mats of all shades, big towels, little towels, water bottles of all shapes, sizes and colors, and beautiful bodies of all shapes, sizes and colors that have found a “tiny home”.

The dance begins. The music fills the room. The sweat pours onto the mats. There is reckless abandonment during the flow…a vulnerability that you would only find if you were inside your own home and no one was watching. The bodies turn and twist into all kinds of shapes and forms and the energy is indescribable.

The classes I attend are taught with such incredible intensity that it sometimes takes everything I have to keep breathing just to make it through the next movement. When I am physically working that hard, there is no time to play with other thoughts in my mind and it is a 60-75 minute moving meditation. The only goal ever set out by the instructor is to “keep breathing and stay on your mat”, in other words…”stay in your tiny home”.

At the end, everyone lays down on their backs and melts into the floor. All the hard work, the physical, mental and emotional garbage has a chance to settle out and be absorbed by the floor of the tiny homes we have set up for ourselves.

When all is said and done, we all roll up our tiny homes and head out into the world. It is the feeling that has filled the body at that very moment that gets us all to come back time and time again for years.

Our tiny homes find their usual spot in the back seat or trunk of our vehicles waiting for the next 2 feet by 6 feet plot of wood floor in another yoga room to stake claim of next time the chance arises.

The tiny home that I go to on a regular basis, though exposed to the elements of the room and surrounded by people within inches, is a profound place of peace for me. I hope you have a place like that for yourself somewhere in your life as well. Namaste.

A ROSE

The rose is known for it’s beauty and energy. It is a symbol for “love and beauty” and different colors mean different things. I remember growing up, when I got a rose that was white, it meant something similar to the “like” button on Facebook, yellow meant “friendship” and red meant “love”. When roses were delivered in high school from someone, the color truly was significant…but the bottom line was everyone loves roses.

This evening I was having wine and a bite to eat with a friend, and since it was Mother’s Day, the restaurant was giving red roses out to all the females…basically making the assumption that they were mothers.

One of the servers at the restaurant taps me on the shoulder and says “Ma’am, would you like a rose?” Instantly, and based on my assumption that “roses are for mothers only” I said “No thank you. I don’t deserve one. I am not a mom.”

WOAH!!! HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!! …now all of a sudden I have made an assumption that in order to “deserve” a rose, to be “worthy” of receiving a rose from a random restaurant server, I must have birthed a child into this world or somehow married into a step-mother role.

When absolutely ridiculous statements like that fall out of my mouth, a HUGE red flag goes up indicating it is a good time for me to take a step back and evaluate where on Earth it came from.

The friend I was sitting with was just the perfect person to have this conversation with as he reminded me that I am worthy of a rose…and so much more. “You are like a palm tree in the North Pole…you give hope and you give life and put a smile on people’s faces”. “Leaders and movers in the world were never placed on a yacht in the Bahamas, they were always where hungry and thirsty souls are.” and “Bloom where you are planted.”

Thank you my dear friend.

So I took the rose and I placed it on my purse and it became the center of conversation and a focal point for the rest of the evening.

Have you looked at a rose lately? If you sit and are really present with a rose and you take the time to check out the intricacies of it’s structure…it is truly magnificent, a beautiful natural work of art. As I brought the rose up to my nose for a smell, I was taken back by the beauty of the layers and layers of pedals that created this amazing thing…and to think all of that came from a very small rosebud is absolutely astounding.

In its infant stages, all of that gorgeous structure was already planned and mapped out. A rosebud holds so much potential that is only expressed if it is nurtured and given what is necessary for growth. …and the same holds true for each one of us. There is such a magnificent, grand plan that will unfold in perfect timing and perfect beautiful structure if it is nurtured and given what is necessary for growth. And if you look around, you will find this is also true for everything around you.

So let the beauty of a rose remind you of your inborn, INNATE potential to be magnificent and grand and beautiful and loved. When you walk by the floral department in your local grocery, take a second glance at the beauty that is the rose in all of its gorgeous shades. But do more than that…pick one out of the group, buy it, take it home, put it in water and place it by your kitchen sink. Let it be your early morning reminder, your lunchtime reminder and your after dinner reminder of the beautiful potential that is you. Nurture that potential and give yourself what is necessary to grow…and then get busy blooming where you are planted.

MOMS

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there reading this. There are a few moms that I hang out with on a regular basis and of course one that is extra special to me…my own Mom.

I do not have children of my own at this point, and when I really think about it, I do not see how children fit into a life like mine…but my understanding is you just make it happen. I can’t imagine one child, much less four like my Mom had. Bless her for doing an amazing job with all of us and in retrospect, the simple fact that my brothers didn’t kill themselves or one another is absolutely a miracle in and of itself.

I could write on and on about the incredible human being that my Mom is however this picture sums it all up the very best and touched my soul at such a deep level I instantly burst into tears…

MY REASON

There are so many reasons why I love being a chiropractor. This is one of my reasons and a testimonial that I gather my strength from to press on…no matter what! It ran across my desk the other day and I wanted to share it with you.

“Our son Benjamin was born on July of 2004. His traumatic birth resulted in lack of oxygen to his brain and he suffered microcephaly and severe cerebral palsy. This condition would cause him severe muscle tightness and spasms which were uncontrollable.

Many medications were available to us to give Benjamin relief from the tightness in his muscles. But we didn’t want him to be constantly lethargic and sleepy. We were told his time would be limited so we looked for the best alternatives to medication so he could enjoy his life to the fullest.

In our search for alternative methods to keep our Benjamin comfortable, Dr. Erica Peabody was recommended for chiropractic care. Her warm personality and gentle approach impressed us immensely. From the first adjustment Benjamin was able to sleep better and some of the muscle tightness lessened. His constant arching (a result of his cerebral palsy) also lessened. When he was being adjusted he almost always had a smile on his face. He couldn’t speak but we knew when he was smiling that life was pretty good for him.

So we began our weekly visits to Dr. Peabody. We traveled an hour and a half each way to see her. We always looked forward to our visits each Wednesday because we knew they would provide Benjamin much needed relief and he would almost always sleep the remainder of the day because he was finally able to relax. Our only obstacle was that we were so far away that we could only make one visit a week.

Benjamin passed away on October 7, 2008, at the age of 4, as a result of his medical condition. We were so thankful that we were able to have Dr. Peabody in his life, if only for a short time. She gave him the care and relief from his condition that the medical community could only provide with medication.

Handicapped children cannot always tell us how they feel. For Benjamin, his inability to speak or tell us how he was feeling was definitely a concern to us. When we chose chiropractic, his change in his overall condition and personality (to a much happier child) let us know we definitely made the right choice.

Dr. Erica Peabody’s care for Benjamin has made a very positive influence in Benjamin’s life as well as in the life of our family. Because of Erica’s care for Benjamin, our 20 year old son has decided to follow in her footsteps, and is now attending Life University to become a chiropractor so he can help children such as Benjamin to live a happier, more comfortable life.

When we were leaving the hospital on the day of Benjamin’s passing, our doctor comforted us by saying that we did “everything” to help our son in his short life. By adding chiropractic to his care, we know that we did indeed do everything to make his life the best that it could possibly have been.

Thank you Dr. Erica, for making a difference in Benjamin’s life.”

I keep this and other testimonials close to me and close to my heart. It reminds me of my reason for what I do and gives me strength to keep spreading the message about chiropractic care and the body’s ability to heal and grow. This is not a “miracle” story in the way you would think of miraculous healing and stories of healing from certain medical conditions. It is however a miracle to that little boy and his family…a very small miracle that changed his and their world. I am in awe daily and grateful always to have chosen this profession.

EARTH DAY CLEANUP 2013

Come join us for EARTH DAY CLEANUP 2013!!! We need all the help we can get!!! May 4th…details on the flyer!

TRIPS AROUND THE SUN

I am in the process of finishing another trip around the sun. I have done quite a few of them; a lot less than some people and a lot more than others.

Every year brings new adventures and every year around this time I sit down and check in with myself and evaluate where I have been, where it is that I still want to go and how I am going to get there.

Sometimes during this evaluation process, I run right into an enormous mountain of “shoulds”…I SHOULD have done this by now, I SHOULD have done that by now, I SHOULD be more like this or that, I should…I should…I should.

But if ever the comment of “I SHOULD” comes up, it is usually followed by a non-truth. If it is true that I SHOULD be married by now, for example, then no doubt that would have happened. If something really and truly SHOULD be happening right now, then it WOULD be. Whatever is happening is exactly what is supposed to be happening because that IS what’s happening. There is no reason to struggle with any other idea, any other false belief about what is going on in life.

So instead, I choose to set a different intention and look in the direction I want to go, look ahead and step into that. This year, I am choosing to find a little more peace and quiet in my mind and my being. I will continue to move in the direction of being as healthy as I possibly can be. I look forward to some travel, a lot of learning and spending time dreaming. I look forward to meeting new friends, stepping into the unknown just to see what happens and continue to connect with others by getting involved in more rich, rewarding experiences.

I have to say that this birthday is officially just a little less fun than last year. I have turned a corner with the number of trips I have taken around the sun…and the number is making me have a teeny, tiny panic attack, a little tiny freak out session on the inside. I expected that feeling to begin to happen at some point…

Time will pass no matter what…and all too quickly. As I am writing this, I am reminded of this sweet little clip about how we are “spending our dash”. Take a moment…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsY6UrFIsNs[/youtube]

So I am doing my best to get the most out of my “dash”. I am living the best way I know how and learning as much as I can. Birthdays are just birthdays and the day comes and goes quickly. I believe it is even more beneficial to set a little time aside each day or week during our trips to have a small little celebration because there is an awful lot of juice to be squeezed out of each trip around the sun!

AM I REALLY LIVING?

I physically connect with a few hundred different people per week through service at my chiropractic office Cafe of LIFE, my book club, the gym, the yoga studio and other things that I am involved in. A large portion of those people are connected with me through Facebook as well and I make a conscious effort to share my life experiences along the way through that medium. I get a lot of feedback and people say things like “Wow! You are all over the map!”, or “You are so free and do so many things!” or “You are always doing something fun.” or…well you get the picture. I absolutely live a blessed life and am always trying to be involved in rich, rewarding experiences. But am I REALLY living?

You may ask yourself, “what exactly does she mean ‘REALLY living’?”

I was reading a book about 3 weeks ago which presented this new-to-me concept of what it means to REALLY LIFE life. To REALLY LIVE life, I need to find myself stepping outside my comfort zone so that I can expand my ideas, concepts and limitations so that I may continue to grow and evolve.

I spend a lot of time by myself and I love going on adventures and make it a point to look at most experiences as great adventures…but lately I am asking myself, how adventurous am I really?

I have a lot of free time and sometimes I will see an event posted somewhere that I think will be really fun to attend, I have the time free and I really want to go…but I hold back because I don’t want to be the one to show up alone. “What will people think if I am there by myself?” “What if all the seats are in pairs and I am sitting there with an empty seat next to me?” “What if everyone is talking in groups and no one wants to strike up a conversation with me and so I awkwardly stand off to the side alone?” “If only I could find a friend to go with me and I will be comfortable.”

I also come across events happening in places I have never been and I am held back from going by thoughts like “How am I going to be able to navigate traffic and parking?” “What if I have the wrong shoes and end up having to walk a long distance?” “What if I don’t want to participate once I arrive?” “What if it is a really bad experience?”

If I only participate in events that I know exactly what is happening when I get there and who will be in attendance…am I REALLY living? If all the details are already known, and everything plays out as anticipated, how am I going to grow, expand and evolve from that experience?

When I heard this idea, just 3 weeks ago, that maybe I was not REALLY living, I vowed to myself that if something came up that I really wanted to do, and I couldn’t find anyone else who could or would want to go, then I will still go anyway. I will show up alone, to unknown places, and unknown people and get involved in activities that I do not know all the details ahead of time just to see what will happen and how it will pan out. Why not? I have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain!

So I have started…I began with a new yoga studio that I had heard about and have wanted to try for some time now…and ended up having the most intense and amazing yoga experience of my life thus far. While I was at that class, I was inspired to attend a class at the same location just a couple days later that turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of live music and yoga I have been involved in thus far. So now that I have had such great reward from stepping outside my usual and customary routine in life, I am inspired to do so much more…and I can tell this is going to snowball since I have only lived in this new thinking pattern for 3 weeks…which is a really great thing and gets me even more jazzed up about life than I already was so WATCH OUT WORLD!!!!

I am looking forward to more great adventures and trust me, when they present themselves…I am jumping because I AM REALLY LIVING THIS LIFE!!!! Do you have a recent story that helps you relate to the idea of REALLY living life? I would love if you would share and be an inspiration for me and others to keep stepping outside our comfort zone, since that is where life happens. We only get one chance…

RE-DIPPED

I have been traveling a lot in the past 2 months…some for family, some for fun with friends and a trip to get, what a lot of us in the chiropractic profession call,”re-dipped”.

There is a phenomenal chiropractic seminar in California called Cal Jam that I am able to attend for continuing education and license renewal. There are seminars all over the country, even some really close to home, however I choose to go and spend my time with the best of the best and have sought out a couple venues to keep on my regular schedule every year.

Cal Jam always exceeds expectations and this year was no exception.

Some of my nearest and dearest friends and I all decided we would meet there this year, get hotel rooms together and be able to spend some time catching up in between listening to the speakers.

Chiropractors are kind of a strange breed to begin with. We have some really “wacky” ideas about the body’s incredible ability to heal, a philosophy that guides our profession and gives us framework for life, living and all things natural, we help people through the use of our hands, we practice what we preach and most of us absolutely love what we do. Put a few thousand of us in one huge theater, add in a little music, and the positive energy is palpable. For me, add to that some of my nearest and dearest friends, that also love what I love, and I feel revitalized, rejuvenated, re-energized…”re-dipped”.

The line-up of speakers was top notch; Joe Dispenza, Brenden Burchard, Garrett Gunderson, Jeanne Ohm, Barbara Loe Fisher just to name a few…some of the greatest in the profession and others that present on topics that compliment our profession.

When the days come to an end, we gather as groups and invade the local restaurant scene to “talk it down”. Our conversations range from the topics the speakers have presented, how our practices are going, business and money matters, family, travel plans, matters of the heart and so on. There is often roaring laughter coming from these conversations and in a small way, that positive energy that was palpable during the day flows out the doors of the theater, down the streets and into the local establishments.

Have you ever been around positive energy and felt your energy lift? I assume we have a small effect on the wait staff that is serving us, the bar tenders that are pouring the wine and maybe even the people that are sitting around the tables next to ours…or maybe it is bigger than we think…Really tune into this YouTube clip around the 2:20 minute mark…she happens to be one of the people sitting at one of the restaurants while I was there last week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at6NsWoYGBI[/youtube]

“They look very happy, that’s all I know…” she says. I just love this glimpse into what kind of effects are happening due to positive energy. Happiness is contagious…being positive is contagious. Give it a try sometime.

I love to travel. Actually the process of getting to a place is not very glamorous with packing bags, driving to the airport, making it on time, lugging heavy suitcases around, dealing with security, sitting on the plane next to strangers for long hours, finding the rental car place, dealing with getting all the way to the destination, checking in…none of that is what I would call “fun”.

However having a change of scenery, seeing new places, learning new things, meeting new people, exploring new areas both physically and mentally…I FREAKIN’ LIVE FOR THAT!!! Something about all of that gives me a fresh start almost like pressing a “reset” button. Then when it has anything to do with the profession that I love so much, with people that love what I love, and the philosophy that I live in, there is nothing better than getting “re-dipped” and returning home to serve at a higher level. And yes, yes we are all really, really happy.