KEEP IT SIMPLE

Last weekend, I spent Sunday morning at my niece’s first volleyball tournament.  Through the years, she has grown fond of the game.  This is the very first year she has had the opportunity to play on an organized team.  Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Keep it Simple

I had a sleepover with her the night before and she was very disciplined to be in bed and sleeping early enough to get good rest for this first tournament of the season.  We had to leave at 7am to make it to the tournament on time and she knew she wanted to feel her best.

A few of the teams backed out of the tournament and so there were 5 team total in the 12 and under age group.  I rode with her Mom and her to the courts and chatted about the team, practices and preparation for the tournament.  I realized they hadn’t had an opportunity to do more than just a couple practices since the team was just established that week.

I think there were even conversations from the coach ahead of time that sounded something like “Let’s go and do our best and this will probably be a good learning experience.”  “Some of the other teams had been practicing for a couple months together and had played the previous season together.”

I wasn’t expecting much but I wanted to be able to go and watch since these opportunities are few and far between these days with all the limits and restrictions inside of pandemic team sports seasons. 

So they began to play, and even though they didn’t have any super fancy moves to showcase, they knew how to serve, bump and set the ball and get it over the net. 

It was interesting to watch some of the other teams.  It was easy to see that they had been playing together for an extended period of time because they had all the cheers and team comraderies that you will generally see from an advanced team. 

One team in particular had all their cheers synchronized, from warm-up all the way through each game for the whole tournament.

At the 10-12 year age, if you had interest in volleyball, some have been studying parts of the game and had some “plays” to run inside of their sets.  I could see it from the stands that they had very ambitious coaches teaching them just how to put and bump, set and spike together, “3 hit plays”. 

But let’s be realistic, not a lot of these “3 hit plays” panned out.  They had good understanding of the plays but inability to continually execute.  They would keep trying and ultimately they would lose point after point after point. 

Our team, with very limited practice time together and minimal understanding of how to execute the advanced plays, would continue to bump and set the ball back over the net to a team that was busy trying to gather their thoughts and “plays” again.  They ball would drop as players were scrambling around and another point was scored by our team. 

Serving was the same way.  Yes, every volleyball player strives to have a powerful overhand serve but age 10-12, it was rare to have consistent strength and power to get it over the net.  Consistent UNDERhand serves by our team were getting unreturned and more points added to the scoreboard. 

Set after set they won.  If you know volleyball, you know that it is best 2 of 3 sets wins the match and if you win the first 2 sets, you don’t even have to play a third set and is a win for the match.   Our team won the first 2 sets of each match for the first 3 games of the tournament.  The final match they won the first set and lost the second set.  This time they were playing against the team with all the coordinated cheers and team comraderies.  There isn’t a super high competitive level at this age but you could feel the tension in our team after finally losing a set. 

They played that final set, beat the other team to win the match, AND ultimately that put them in first place for the entire tournament.   Great job team!!!

I have been thinking about the tournament and the successful experience these young ladies got to have that weekend and it reminded me about the big picture of life in general. 

This brand new volleyball team winning an entire tournament after just 2 practices together can give us great perspective about moving forward in life.  Simply focusing on the basics and keeping the passes simple led my niece and her inexperienced team to win an entire tournament.  “Get the ball over the net” turned out to be a winning focus.  Starting with the basics is the very best way to build a great foundation for moving forward. 

Those young ladies left the gym that day with their heads held high.  This is the very beginning of their season and to start out by keeping things simple and winning, gets their group off to an awesome start. Rest assured, when they are ready to add some more strategy into their play, they have the best place to start from.   

Looking around your life, where are you trying to set up the “3 hit plays” and fumbling where just bumping and setting the tasks could lead to more consistency, ease and success?  Where can you simplify your progress and keep things simple?  Where can you go back to the foundation that you started from and review/practice some of the steps that got you to the place you are?  Can you look back to the simple first steps and find more consistency to build on?  

Life has gotten pretty complicated these days.  The world has gotten complex and confusing.  Let get back to the basics and keep it simple wherever possible.  

 

SPRINGTIME HAPPINESS

Dr Erica Peabody - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Springtime Happiness

When people think of happiness in this time of season shift, it is often with images of thawing snow, warmer temperatures, sunshine and everything coming back to life.  That is usual springtime happiness.

For me, springtime happiness includes a trip to the slopes in Colorado!  I think it is the very best time of year on the slopes for many reasons:  the locals are snow snobs and think the snow conditions are not worthy of the drive up and over the pass so the runs are less crowded, the temperatures are mild to warm which allows for a much more enjoyable experience for someone who doesn’t make a lot of my own heat and SUNSHINE!!!!

I have to admit that the snow is not the greatest and changes consistency as the days warm up.  I try to be out for when the chairlifts start first thing at open time but it is all dependent on the crew I am traveling with….and if I am honest, I am more lenient as my trips around the sun add up (as I am getting older if that was too cryptic).

The thought of gathering all the gear, packing all the clothes, getting all the way to the slopes, putting all those clothes and gear on, buying the lift ticket and all the other things that need to happen in order to get out on the slopes seems daunting at times. 

Between taking care of patients, running businesses, a household, managing a team, managing real estate and being a dog mom, the weekends are mostly spent resting and resetting to prep for the next week.  But inside of life, there really needs to be moments of epic levels of joy to continue to fuel the “other stuff”.  Life is not always joyful but we do need to seek out ways to find and follow our joy and pleasure…and I have to admit that sometimes I forget that.  

So a few weeks ago, I contacted a couple friends and said “LET’S RIDE!!!!”   …and so we did.

In all the daunting tasks and things to do to make it all the way to the moment when I am strapping my boots into my snowboard to get on the first lift, I actually stopped to ask myself “is this worth it?  Is this still where I find my joy?”

As busy humans, we all really do need to stop ourselves every so often to be sure that we are assessing what brings us joy, what fills up our cup and what recharges our batteries.  If we don’t have moments where we take pause and really look inside for honest answers to these questions, we can find ourselves having gone YEARS in autopilot not even knowing what makes us happy.  Our own assumptions and outsider’s projections onto us can keep us walking the same path without much question.  

The first chairlift comes up behind me and scoops me up to carry me off towards the top of the mountain.  In that moment, with the sun shining down on my face, I remembered IT IS SO WORTH IT!!!  The chairlift ride to the top is to the tune of great conversations with an incredible friend about life and love and hope and dreams.  Its reviewing the past  and projecting greatness into the future.  It is talking down tough things and great excitement about what’s ahead.  It is all of it and in the middle of it all, I realize I have too many layers on to manage the temperature.  And instead of worrying about that, I am just super grateful not to be freezing my 4$$ off, which is often the case on other times during the winter season.

This year, due to all that is happening globally, I didn’t know if I would even make it out on the slopes or not, though I remained hopeful.  Last year, due to my heart surgery late 2019, I really laid low to allow the patch time to heal without the risk of falling and potentially jarring it with pressure.  (Now, if you are currently asking yourself “Did she really just say HEART SURGERY?!?!?!”   —>>>CLICK HERE<<<—  to read all about it….and ––>>>CLICK HERE<<<— for the recap).

So my friend and I get to the top, strapped the other foot into our boards, and off we went!  

Do you snowboard?  Do you surf?  Do you ski?  There is a beautiful rhythm to snowboarding that is a match for some natural rhythm of life and it is almost as though the first turn linking together with the next turn and the next creates a harmony for the body and mind that is integral to help regulate my nervous system.  That was the wordiest and headiest language to say THIS IS MY HAPPIEST PLACE!!!  

And if you know much about snowboarding, if you are not paying attention, you are bound to get yourself in trouble or injured rather quickly, you are not on an edge and shifting weight as you choose your line down the mountain, you are going to catch an edge and faceplant or land hard on your backside.  The presence to put it all together is so meditative for me.  It is the present-time consciousness, the moments of mindfulness, that creates peace and grace and springtime happiness!  

Springtime happiness comes in lots of different ways for lots of different people.  Another springtime happiness moment is when the local lakes thaw and we can feel the impending glorious Michigan summer season in the near future.  The budding of the trees, just the little leaf buds that begin to emerge as the world hints at coming back to life.  It is warmer days and wearing less layers to be able to get outside and enjoy some fresh air.   It is Opening Day, baseball and other spring sports coming back to life.  

Moments of springtime happiness have an extra bit of sweetness after this past year of quarantine and limited connections with family and friends.  I hope you are able to find some of these moments for yourself…we only get one chance! 

 

Dr Erica Peabody - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Springtime Happiness

IN THE GENES

The real question these days is “Is it in the genes?”

Let me share a little story with you.

I should have gotten a picture of my new cousin and I together but I guess me “being a chiropractor” is the best I could do for this post. 🙂

In March I get a lengthy text message from my mom. It read something like this: “I wanted to share with you that the family found another cousin. Your cousin, Rayce, called the other day and it appears that after he did ancestry.com, that there is a first cousin that he didn’t know about, and none of us knew about.”

So let me start this story. I come from 2 HUGE Catholic families that were both raised on Foley Rd, maybe 4 miles south of downtown Fenton. It was a wonderful spot to grow up.

My Mom is one of 10 kids and she has 7 step-siblings as well. My Dad is one of 9 kids. One grandma was the matriarch of 93 people when she passed and the other was matriarch of 67 people. These numbers included children, their spouses and ex-spouses, grandchildren, great grands and great greats.

HUGE families.

I have close to 60 first cousins and with both of the families living so close to each other, I actually know them all pretty well. The years have made some separation, naturally, but for the most part, I know them because we were raised together.

So when this conversation started back in March, all of us were a little dumb-founded that it was even happening. It is funny to me because as I share this story, there are more families than we really realize that have a similar story, the world is a pretty cool place.

So this cousin’s name is Scott and he is just over 50 years old. But get this, HE IS A CHIROPRACTOR!!!! We have 4 chiropractors in my family already and to have this guy be out in the world, unbeknownst to us, and be another chiropractor is so freakin’ cool! He has been engaged to a woman for a few years and her son just finished CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE TOO!!! This makes number 5 and number 6 chiropractors in my family! Actually Dr. Scott would have been number 4 chiropractor and then I would have been 5 and then his son, Austin, makes number 6!!!

Dr Erica Peabody - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - In the Genes

I’m still floored by the entire thing and I also think it is one of the coolest things ever!

Unfortunately, my uncle Jeff, Dr. Scott’s biological father, passed back in December of last year. Fortunately, the entire family was going to be present for Jeff’s memorial service that had been planned for months and now Dr Scott and his family were going to join us for that celebration of life and a family reunion.

So imagine if you were adopted and had no connection or knowing of your biological family, and then you found out about them and then it just so happens the number of people you just found extended over 100 people (there have been a few more additions to the family since my grandmother passed), it would take a certain personality to be able to handle that kind of transition.

The reunion and memorial service were just 3 weeks ago and what a blast! We all have our family “things” and hang-ups around certain scenarios but it was SO MUCH FUN to welcome in yet another family member, his 4 kids and his fiance and her 2 kids and grandchildren.

What a crazy and fun world!!

So it does boil down to the final question which I started with, “Is it in the genes?” This chiropractic thing, it just has to be in the genes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BLUE

June 14, 2019 marks one year. Happy Birthday Big Blue!!!
The first look at the insides of this beautiful building, I had no real idea that it would come this far.Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Happy Birthday Big Blue - Dr Erica Peabody
I saw the listing come up on www.Zillow.com and sent it on to my realtor to see if I could get a look at it. My Mom and I met the realtor here for the initial walk-through and truly we were “just going to look, we had always wanted to see the inside anyway.” We were pretty convinced that the place would smell strange and/or be unrecoverable and not even an option before going in.
Halfway through the initial visit, my mom and I looked at each other in almost the exact same moment and said “WOW!!! This place is amazing and the main floor is set up already for us. This just might work!”
Fast forward 4 months of day in and day out due diligence; all the things the bank wanted, the inspections, the tests, the surveys, the walk-throughs, the research, all the things and it was finally closing time.
I was nervous because of what was ahead of me but I was also pretty confident because there was so much working in my favor and so, so, so many things that easily fell into place along the way. It was just meant to be.Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Happy Birthday Big Blue
From June 14, we needed to wait about 30 days to get keys. This building was an assisted living location since the 1960s and they needed some time to relocate the residents. To be honest with you, I am pretty confident that any place they were relocated to would have been a better fit than this and along the past year, as I hear stories, I am confident they are all better off where they ended up.
As we progressed into the summertime last year we got keys in the middle of July and I actually moved myself in while I was waiting for my new home to be completed.
That was supposed to be until October.
9 months later I got certificate of occupancy at the new house and moved out of Big Blue.
But in all actuality it was a blessing for sure. A blessing that I had a super cool place to stay. A blessing that I got a chance to really get to know Big Blue and all of her quirks. A blessing as through the last winter, with those incredibly frigid temperatures, I was able to just walk downstairs to go to work rather than have to be outside and face the elements. I never dreamed I would get a chance to “work from home” but it was a treat.
Our master plan was to get some of the 17 bedrooms open by this spring and rented as office space.
We are past spring.
But inside of this past year you probably also know we planned an executed a wedding and I became bonus mom to triplet teenagers.
What you probably don’t know is that we also had to fire the builder back in October for unbelievable negligence and take over finishing the very complicated new house build ourselves.
To say it has been a year, is an absolute understatement. I am not even sure how we survived it. Some of my phone conversations to my Mom would have her stop me mid sentence and say “How are you even doing all of this?”Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Happy Birthday Big Blue
I don’t know Mom.  I don’t know.  I just get up everyday and, because I am excited and passionate about what I am doing and where I am heading, I just do what needs to be done and keep working on all the “to-do” list stuff I can and then rinse and repeat the next day.  When we got to move the Cafe pf LIFE Chiropractic office over in September last year, my incredible office manager, Nikki and I would wander around the place on the very first day like it was our home forever.  It feels like home here, it really does and has since day 1.

So today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BLUE!!!

HITTING SINGLES

Sometimes my future husband is absolutely brilliant. The conversation ended with “…we have to just keep hitting singles. You cannot put the bat down now.”

LIFE!!!!!! Seriously Universe! I am ready for a little less spice and a little more bored please!!!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Hitting Singles

As most of you know, I have been working on building a house for the past almost 3 years. I was told “start to finish, this project of building a house is about 9 months.” “AWESOME!!! Sign me up!!!” was my response.

It has been 34 months, turning the corner on 35 months here in a couple days. It has been one thing after the next after the next after the next. It has been one delay after the next after the next after the next.

Frustration doesn’t even begin to explain any of it, that is just a tip of the iceberg of emotions. The great thing is I have Mike and he is an exceptional project manager. Between he and I, we have it handled. But timing of one contractor depends on timing of another and the facts we get at one point do not match facts we get a couple weeks later.

We are very close, within just a few days in fact. I am so very grateful for that.

So when I am overwhelmed with the wedding approaching and still not being in the house, tears stream down my face on a regular basis. It is all okay and really great stuff that is happening, but happening all at one time is the real challenge. Mike tries to settle the tears and that is when he says “We just have to keep hitting singles, you cannot put the bat down now.”

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Hitting Singles

No truer words have ever been spoken and then I looked out into life and just how applicable that is to ALL of life. I was just talking to a patient today that mentioned she started working out every morning for the past month and she is getting up earlier than usual to get 45 minutes in every single morning. I said “45 minutes is a big commitment, and although amazing if you can keep up the stamina, just know that if there is a morning that you can’t do 45 full minutes, do at least 20 minutes.” 45 minutes of daily exercise would be a home run every single day and the 20 minutes would be like hitting a single. We need to hit singles but we need to hit them every single day.

Hitting single after single after single is how you get something done and move forward in life. Think about getting a college degree…that is literally taking a few classes at a time. Want a college degree? Plan on continually hitting singles for 4+ years. Want to build a business? Same thing. Build a family? Same thing. Hit singles.

For whatever reason, life in this country and our culture/mindset is all about instant gratification and desire to HIT IT BIG the first time. There is a constant feeling, driven a lot by social media, that everyone has hit home runs…but the challenge is that many people that appear to be at “home run” status, those that seem to be wildly successful, have been working behind the scenes hitting singles – FOR YEARS!!!!  YEARS AND YEARS!!!You just see the end product!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Hitting Singles - Dr Erica Peabody

Patience is a lost virtue these days. As I just looked that concept up, it also says that patience can be synonymous with “courage”. I think that is an interesting synonym: courage to pursue whatever it is in the first place, courage to commit to the process, courage to get up and start again after falling down time after time after time, courage to keep going when it seems impossible and navigate the bumps in the road, courage to find a different path if it is just not working for you. Patience = Courage …I really love that.

I am giving the BIGGEST SHOUT OUT to my future husband that is one of the only people that gets to see the true stumbling that I do through life, boosts me back up, helps me change my perspective on a minute to minute basis and reminds me that all we have to do is keep “HITTING SINGLES”. You are my dream man for so many reasons, you know that right? <3

THE SCENIC ROUTE

I am one who always loves to take the scenic route.

I realize this more and more as the years go by.  Even if it takes me the same time, 15 minutes more or an hour more, I would prefer to be on the scenic route than anywhere else.Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - The Scenic Route - Dr Erica Peabody

This has become super evident over the past year being with a guy that also loves taking the scenic route.  What’s the saying?  “Life is about the process, not the destination.”  I don’t know who said that but it is brilliant.

Last weekend I drove over to Cleveland, Ohio to attend Birthfit Professional seminar (I will share a lot more about Birthfit Professional as time goes by as it will become an incredible tool and offering here at the Cafe of LIFE).  The seminar was Saturday and Sunday 8am-6pm both days.  That is a long weekend and with everything else going on in life right now, it was difficult to commit to that schedule.  I registered over 2 months ago and I am a woman of my word and so 7pm on Friday evening I made the drive.

Friday was a day filled with “life” and I wanted to be on the road by 5pm but that just didn’t happen.  Because I also need to preserve my sleep, I took the fastest and most efficient way to the area and got to a hotel just after 10pm to prepare for a 6:30am wake-up.

Saturday was an incredibly informative and inspiring day with a group of colleagues passionate about helping prenatal and postpartum moms prepare and recover from the most intense athletic event of their lives.  Saturday evening we were released at 6 and I set out to find some dinner.

Some of you know this about me but most of you probably don’t, I love just going for a drive.  In fact, sometime I will say to Mike “Hey babe, let’s go for a drive.” …which he is usually game for and we go and explore.  Another fun fact about me (at least I think it is fun although maybe I shouldn’t be so assuming 🙂 ) is I am passionate about real estate.  I have invested around the local area and I absolutely love transforming spaces.  Mike does too.  As we go for these random drives around, I usually am opening my Zillow app on my phone as we see “for sale” signs posted along our route.  Anywhere.  Anytime.  We drive around just to see what there is to see but also scope real estate wherever we are.  I am a Zillow addict and I love that fact that I have access to see what the homes look like inside.Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - The Scenic Route - Dr Erica Peabody

Saturday night I set out on a drive to find food and before long I realized just how close to Lake Erie I was staying.  I got caught up in a long drive scoping the Cleveland coastline real estate…and then moved inland a street…and then another.  Have you been to Cleveland?  WOW!!!  There were block after block of beautiful homes for miles.  I ran out of daylight but I was astounded.  I had Coffeehouse on my Sirius XM and it was the most relaxed I had been all week.  I would wander around, taking in all the scenery and I could feel my heart filling up.  That may seem like a strange thing to feel while on a drive looking at real estate, but I am okay with being strange.

Sunday came fast and furious and I was back in the seminar.  Sometime during that day I decided I was going to take the coastline home.  Yes I got out of the seminar at 6pm.  Yes I had a 3 hour drive in front of me.  Something inside urged me to take the scenic route and that something was making such a strong declaration about it that if I would have gotten on the toll road and taken the quickest route home, it would have been a battle inside myself the entire way.Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - The Scenic Route - Dr Erica Peabody

So I did.  At 6pm I got into my car and found the most beautiful stretch of homes along the coastline for a large portion of my drive back home.  Looking back, I am so glad I took the scenic route even though it added some time to my late drive home.  When everything was said and done, I had added just a mere 30 extra minutes driving the coastline between Cleveland and Toledo instead of the major highway.  But on top of that, my heart was full.

YOLO “You Only Live Once” and FOMO “Fear Of Missing Out” drive my life and especially these types of decisions.  I am the first to jump off the highway and see if I can find a fun way home just to see what is there.

So many people are in such a rush to get places.  Yes there is a time to be rushed and there is a time to find the quickest route to the destination and get there.  But what about when you are not rushed?  What would the path look like if you got off the heavily beaten most traveled route?  What would you see?  What would you be exposed to?  What would you learn?

Sometimes I take the scenic route and find that there wasn’t a whole lot to see.  Most of the time when I am on the scenic route I find something new and always finished more inspired.  In one of the books I read recently the author suggested “what would happen if you took a different way home?”  Your usual route to work could actually look different…which would feel different…which would help to stir up the monotony of life and maybe help you see things from a different angle.

Life goes by so quickly, I have a hard time even wrapping my head around the fact that we are in May of 2018.  Take the scenic route next time you get a chance.

50 YEARS

When Mike and I first started to spend time together, we talked about what life would maybe look like in the future.  He mentioned maybe like 40 years from now?  Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - 50 Years - Dr Erica PeabodyI told him that is ABSOLUTE BS to bow out of here 40 years from now and that I was requiring 50 years!!

We would stay up really late at night and recall the day that just passed and the time spent together.  We would ask each other 50 year questions that sounded like this…

“Do you think you could handle me rubbing your back like this for 50 years?”

“Do you think you can keep rubbing my back for 50 years?”

“If we laughed like we did today, do you think we could make that kind of laughter last for 50 years?”

“Will you always help me with my leg, even if I have to wear this stupid boot for 50 years?”

“Will you be this kind to me for 50 years?”

“Do you think it is possible to maintain this sweet, sincere and innocent connection we have for 50 years?”

“Will you want to talk to me and share stories for 50 years?”

“Will you be able to manage me and the way I am inside of the world for 50 years?”

“Can you handle being in tight and close connection with my family for 50 years?”

“Will you want to go on adventures and make that last for 50 years?”

“Will you always kiss and hug me like you do right now?  Do you think that can last for 50 years?”

“Will you be able to laugh at my jokes for 50 years?”

“Will you stay this supportive in and around my life for 50 years?”Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - 50 Years - Dr Erica Peabody

“Do you think you can manage me helping in your life for 50 years?”

The 50 years questions go on and on and on, even to this day.  It is silly things and serious things and everything in between.

But to each and every one of those questions and so many more we both answer “YES!!!!!”

Last night, at my family’s old orchard setting turned Peabody Ice Climbing central, in front of 150 people, many family members and apparently they were all in on it unbeknownst to me, he stole the microphone he asked me to marry him.

“YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  was my answer.

…and so the story begins.

I am in tears and at a complete loss of words on how to really share this story at this point and all that has gone on since Mike and I met.  I have rarely mentioned a man during any of my writings over the years because it just wasn’t quite right.

This is different.

This is right.

Here’s to 50 years!!!

 

 

ONE MORE SLEEP

As I wake this morning, I realize that I have one more sleep at home until I leave for my climb!  That is a crazy feeling after planning this trip for almost a year!  It seemed like it was never going to come!

When I woke and thought “just one more sleep” I instantly got so nervous, a good kind of nervous.

A short little clip to share with you what’s happening in my mind this day prior to leaving.

 

 

So many have asked the question “Are you ready?”

I think I am.  I know physically I am ready however “ready” will be figured out retrospectively I think.  When I am in those moments when I am wondering if I made all the right choices in clothing and whether I have enough of the right things with me to make due and make the trip happen.  That will be determined in the exact moments that things are happening.

The question “am I ready?” will have to be truthfully answered on the other side of the trip because I think I am ready but I have never been involved in doing anything like this.

One more sleep…

TWO TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Hello everyone!!!  I certainly hope you are loving the snow as much as I am.  I am such a kid at heart and love getting bundled up and playing outside.  I have seen a few things in my chiropractic office, Cafe of LIFE, I want to cover and wanted to specifically give you two tips for the holidays to help get through the season as well as winter.

I have made a quick 6 minute video to cover these things and I encourage you to watch “Two Tips for the Holidays” by clicking the YouTube Clip right here!

I missed connecting with you prior to the first major snow of the season as well as the first major holiday.  However it is still early in December and I know these “Two Tips for the Holidays” will help you no matter what.

FIRST TIP:  The first tip is for shoveling snow.  Most of my patients have been shoveling snow over the past couple days.  We ended up with 10 FRESH INCHES OF SNOW!!!!  on Sunday and into Monday.  I JUST LOVE THE FIRST SNOW!!!  And I really love that we got SO MUCH!!!

When we have to shovel snow, most of us are in a hurry and I would like to bring a little bit of mindfulness and awareness to the process.  SHOVEL LESS SNOW PER PUSH AND DO MORE REPS!!  This means instead of waiting for the full 10 inches to fall at one time, go out every 2 inches or so and work with that much.  Or if you have no other choice than to do the full 10 inches at one time, do it is smaller increments.  In other words, less weight in your shovel.

Shoveling snow can be a major workout and so let’s be mindful.

TIP NUMBER 2:  Often times when we are prepping for holiday parties, cooking can begin very early in the day and go on for hours.  I would say 99% of kitchens have hard floors: tile, wood or linoleum or something like that.  When we stand hours on hard surfaces, it can really take a toll and add a lot of stress on our bodies.  My suggestion is when you get up and you know that you will be cooking and prepping a big meal, put sneakers on your feet before you get started, and this goes for more than just during the holidays. Also the same goes for holiday shopping.  If you have a lot of shopping to do, go out there in good supportive sneakers since that is often long hours on hard surfaces.

So just a quick two tips for the holidays message from your local chiropractor.  I realize that these are super small things and just by having awareness of them, we can move through our holiday season with a little more ease.  Also feel free to share this post and information with your friends and family and make the “most wonderful time of the year” even better!!!

10 YEARS – A VIDEO

Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic is celebrating 10 years in practice on Thursday, March 12.  Here is “10 years-a video” to share about it.

We are so grateful for this first decade.  We are grateful to be part of your life, your families and your healthcare team!  We are looking forward to many more years to come and we hope you can join us for our 10 year celebration this Thursday all day and after-hours 6-8 for a little extra cheer!