dynamic – Page 5 – We Only Get One Chance

GET BUSY ENJOYING LIFE

As the seasons tick by and we head into this beautiful Michigan fall, I want to remind you that we all need to get busy enjoying life. It is going so fast!!

I recently came across this powerful writing and I wanted to share it with you as it seems to fit the mood perfectly.

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

by IRMA BOMBECK (on her death bed from a terminal illness)

” I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for a day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten popcorn in the “good” living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light the fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment and realized the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.” There would have been more “I love you’s.” More “I’m sorry’s.”

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute…look at it and really see it…live it and never give it back. Stop sweating the small stuff.

Don’t worry about who doesn’t like you, who has more, or who’s doing what.

Instead, let’s cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.

Let’s think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally. I hope you all have a blessed day.”

There are some fun things, some simple things and some things to really think about in that list above. What an awesome time to bring to our awareness to how sweet and simple life really is.

With such a beautiful week, it is easy to want to get outside and enjoy the days. Even when it is cold, gray and yucky out, we can still find a little bit of sweetness inside of each day. Let’s all get busy enjoying life!

WELL ADJUSTED SCHOOL

I was on my way up to the top of a mountain with 2 other doctors when I was pulled from the car

to go serve in a school with 720 children. I am here to serve and will go where I am needed and

WOW!!! what awesome opportunities!!! Can you imagine a well adjusted school, much less a well

adjusted elementary school? What a concept, huh?

When the children see us with our tables, they do not know exactly what is going to happen,

but they can tell they are in for a treat. We were given the room above and the children

piled in and filled up the seats and each took their turn.

Chiropractor Fenton Michigan 10
I adjust a lot of children at the Cafe of LIFE and one of the things it really helps

with is when children are stuck on the “gas pedal” in their bodies. They run and

run and run and run, and are just being children. Some can become sometimes

difficult to manage and often times that is when they are stuck in “gas pedal” mode. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan 13

Chiropractic care helps get off the “gas pedal” and apply some brakes. Getting adjustments helps them to find a better balance in their entire body thus improving their quality of life, as well as those around them. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan 15

This morning at the school, Dr. Austin and I were going to go it together. We adjusted non-stop for a couple hours and then as Dr. Haley was finishing with her community in the upper elevations, the driver dropped her off with us. I have to say we were relieved to have another set of hands willing to serve.

I would be interested to know how the afternoon at the school went after everyone got checked this morning…including the teachers!!! The concept of a well adjusted school seems like it would be a dream come true for the education system. Anywhere.

PERU

I am not sure I have been more excited about a trip in years and years. You all know me, I travel a lot, so that is a pretty bold statement. Yes, I have been to some really incredible places in my life, some of those very recently, but when I tap into this place inside I have for this trip coming up, it bubbles over. I cannot wait to get to Peru.

A friend of mine called a few months back. She has been to Peru for the past few years and goes back every year to deliver chiropractic care, love and serve the people in the Sacred Valley. She says, “You know, you should come with my team this year.” I am beyond honored to even get an invite.

If you have followed this blog or know me at all, you know my core is absolutely driven by the desire to have “rich, rewarding experiences” in my lifetime. My answer was “Yes!”…and I began to work on making that happen.

Thursday this week marks the beginning of what I anticipate being an adventure of a lifetime!

I fly Detroit to Atlanta to Lima to Cuzco in a 19 hour travel day. I am chalking that up as part of the actual adventure, and truthfully that is probably the only way to get through it.

Fenton Chiropractor Peru — My Friend Adjusting a Child in a Past Year

We will be staying at high altitudes and serving at even higher, so the first few days will be time to acclimate and get situated as a team. We will be serving Monday-Friday next week. I will take a couple extra days to see Machu Picchu since it is quite close to there and then head back with another 20+ hour travel adventure to return to my home on the 12th.

As I stated before, I have done a tremendous amount of traveling, however, going some place to just be a tourist and visitor is completely different than integrating yourself into service mode in a community. Don’t get me wrong, on every trip I have been on since getting my license almost 10 years ago, I have done some adjusting. I even got paid in habanero hot sauce while helping some in Belize!!!

But this is different, very different. My friend refers to this trip as “dropping love bombs” (www.lovebombthemovie.com). I so look forward to being part of that.

I couldn’t do this without all the great people back here taking care of my practice and my home and making sure the gears keep turning while I am away. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I am grateful for my life. I am grateful for the opportunities that come my way and I am grateful for the support that gives me the confidence to seize such opportunities.

Stay tuned for posts from Peru!

2.5 YEARS

Some friendships bridge all concepts of time and space. I am sure you have someone like that in your life. It has been close to 2.5 years since I have seen one of my greatest friends, Lana. Time never seems to matter with us.

In June, we spent a beautiful long weekend in the Dominican Republic at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (if you happen to be heading that way, I highly recommend this spot).

The resort was amazing, the food was wonderful and, of course, the company I was with was the best part.

Life has twists and turns and many ups and downs. Sometimes managing our own lives at home can be enough, much less trying to stay closely connected with friends that are 3 time zones away. Lana and I do not get to actually talk much, but we hang with each other in spirit all the time.

We had 4 solid days of uninterrupted “girl time”; no homes to take care of, no kids to tend to, no practices to worry about…just time together. Absolutely priceless.

We talked about life and practice and family and challenges and books and nutrition and growth and men and helping others and health and workouts and friends and clothes and love and adventures and…and…and…

We had some great meals together. We had a 2 hour walk on the beach. We had some serious laughs. We had a blast. When Lana and I met, we knew we were kindred souls. As time has gone by, it is apparent we have always been connected in some form. We think alike, ride the same wavelength and our lives have run parallel learning a lot of the same lessons at the same times.

Its friends like Lana (and there are a few others I connect with at this level, you know who you are) that make this life so much sweeter.

Did I mention that she earned this trip and had an extra spot for me to just go along for the ride? What a gift. Truly a gift and when I look at the generosity of a friend like that, I am grateful to tears.

I am hoping that our next time together isn’t 2.5 years from now, I am pretty confident it will be sooner than that. Though she lives in wine country in Northern California, I feel her support by my side on a daily basis. Thank you my dear friend. Thank you.

ITS A FEELING

People often ask me about my chiropractic office the Cafe of LIFE. For years, I have tried to really explain what it is like in here…but honestly, it is more about a feeling.

Its a feeling that you can maybe understand if you had pictures and words and could see the inside of the office and hear a story.

That is exactly what we have done in creating the clip below. I have had great feedback so far and just wanted to share with you a little about what I mean when I say “Its a feeling…”.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ht7tC9CLe8[/youtube]

Please feel free to share with your friends and family or connect with us on Facebook. It truly is a feeling. See you soon!!

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.

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…

JOURNAL ENTRY 4/5/11

I have looked back at this journal entry a few times and I want to put it up here because I think that it may speak to a few of you and I want to share it. In yoga, we talk so much about coming to our “edge” on a physical level and how that physical “edge” can be a metaphor for other layers of our being. This was part of that particular lesson.

“4/5/11
I found myself at three interesting “edges” today. The first has to do with the cleanse and I’m still trying to figure out where these messages of “let’s be done now” are coming from because I know my body is being physically nourished well. The second has to do with the commitment to this process of Yoga Teacher Training with my favorite party of the year this Friday…Tiger’s Opening Day ( I am not a die-hard baseball fan, but I am a HUGE Opening Day fan). I was even offered 2 sets of tickets to the game and everything.

The last edge is really personal, but being at that edge I have 2 options…#1 I can back up and go the other way, or #2 I could jump and grow wings after my feet leave the ground. This particular edge is familiar and I have been here before. Last time I went the other way. I’m deciding which to choose this time and wondering even why this is presenting itself again…but it is, and when I flip a coin and make the agreement with myself that I will do what the coin says and it turns up the side of “jump”…I run through the scenario in my head and there is a incredible heart-opening joy and peace involved.

The “edge” takes on many shapes and forms and keeps showing up in many different areas in life. It is dynamic and personal and teaches us about what it is like to be us in that particular moment, at that particular time. The best thing we can do is brush up against it so we know where it is, and see if we can connect with something inside that gives us the strength and courage to push through those limits. This is how we grow and evolve.”

Namaste