enjoy life – We Only Get One Chance

FIVE YEARS

What started as a dream way before I even went to chiropractic college, is now five years old!

Five years ago today, June 14, 2018, I purchased this beautiful big blue building and converted it into a sacred healing space. I did have the image that it would get to the point that it is today, however being in the “real-lifing” of a dream is…well I am not sure there are really words for it all.

I remember when I first saw the listing on Zillow. I took a quick screen shot of the listing and sent it to my realtor with the message “What is up with this?”

His quick response, “I don’t know but LET’S GO TAKE A LOOK!“

…and so the due diligence began.

It was quite a process that went day by day collecting information, paperwork, getting inspections done, discussing with my personal “board of directors”, getting contractors eyes on it, and on and on.

A process that began the end of February 2018 came to a close on June 14th and I got keys in hand.

The cool thing was that I had a sidekick at the time. The cooler thing is that said sidekick left and it was all me and has been that way ever since. What makes that the “cooler thing” is that it drove me to spend many days and night figuring things out on my own. The “cooler thing” is also that I drove me to make lots and lots of incredible connections with great contractors – too numerous to list – that still help me to this day. I have become someone that people turn to when they are needing a trusted and reputable contractor for their projects and I am always happy to share those connections.

After just a few months, I was able to move my chiropractic office here and open our doors. Within just a few months I was able to begin to host other tenants doing health and wellness work and the Peabody Center for Well-Being took off!

People often ask, “What do you do with all that space?”

What space?!?!? I don’t have any extra space as it is filled with incredible people doing incredible things! When you walk into the building, you can feel the good mojo in here! I purchased the building for the community. Of course, it is a great investment personally, that is without a shadow of a doubt, however, this place is a community center and BIG BLUE holds the community well!

So my questions to you are:

HAVE YOU BEEN IN YET?????

DO YOU SEE SOMEONE IN THE BUILDING YET?

DO YOU OR SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY NEED HELP WITH INPROVING YOUR HEALTH?

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

When you pull into our parking lot, you will walk down the sidewalk just off the parking lot and into our Center. Upon entering the building, if you turn your gaze to the right, you will see an info wall. There is a DIRECTORY there in the info center you can grab and see everyone in the building. You can also grab yourself some business cards and get in touch with individual businesses that you are interested in.

You can also find everyone on Facebook at Peabody Center for Well-Being (<— click here).

You can find the Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic Center on Facebook or me personally at Dr Erica Peabody Facebook or Dr Erica Peabody Instagram. I am very active and also respond to direct messages all the time. If I can help, I want to!

Okay, now that all of that is said, I just wanted to say THANK YOU! All of you! If you are reading this, know that I am grateful for your support big and small inside of this beautiful BIG BLUE building! It seems absolutely impossible that it has already been five years but here we are…and SO MANY MORE TO GO!!!

I love you so much. Thank you.

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.

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.

COVID CHAOS

I am writing this from inside some massive COVID chaos! I don’t even know exactly what to call it anymore except for that. (And when I refer to it this way, I am not talking lightly about it. This has been and is very serious as many have been very sick and even lost their lives. This is written from a safe place at home in good health with deep respect for the severity of it all.)

COVID chaos is one of the reasons that this blog has been on delayed because I didn’t know the best way to go about getting a new laptop anyway. I know I could have just ordered one and had it shipped to me but I am such a “hands on” (pun intended from this chiropractor) person and I like to touch and feel things prior to purchasing.

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - COVID chaos

So as I mentioned in the previous blog post, I got a great recommendation from a very knowledgeable person and just pulled the trigger. The experience with Best Buy was seamless and here we are.

So one week later I was noticing that my phone battery would hold a charge for a few hours and then I would have to plug it back in, I would be charging it 2-3 times per day. THEN, last Sunday morning I went on a kayak tour with my niece and nephew and put my cell phone in the “dry” compartment of my kayak…quotes intended. Well turns out it wasn’t dry and it sat in there while I did a few more errands in a bit of water unknown to me.

I put it in a bag of rice and later that day I accidentally dropped it and smashed the screen. On the computer with Verizon for 2 hours on Monday morning through their live chat section…they would say “Well just call us and we can handle it over the phone.” “Call you? With WHAT?!?!?!” Two hours later I have a new phone to be picked up at the local store, or so I thought, until I got an email with shipping information and tracking…now they decide they will ship to me.

Of course they try to deliver to my office during my lunch hour yesterday and missed us so they were going to try again today…Friday, when nobody is there. SO, now they will hold it where it is this morning and I will attempt to go and pick it up at the UPS location…except for I have done this before and they ask for an ID. Which is fine but they usually need the ID address to match the shipping address, except for it doesn’t match because the address on my driver’s license is my home, and this was headed to the office. This should be interesting.

I have seen many patients this past week and it seems this kind of chaos is happening all over. We are all ready to be released to a life of a bit more freedom and some familiar places and processes. The frustrations are high and the quarantine has gotten the best of many.

We are almost there. When things do open up, many will return to some old patterns and routines, and some have taken on an entirely new existence where the radius for desire for daily travel is reduced a lot and each of those is perfectly fine and well.

I have been in solitude for a good portion of the quarantine when I am not at my work. I enjoy the quiet of life, I always have, but I will also enjoy the more “hands on” experience of some of the things we took for granted prior to all of this.

We have all become a little more innovative with our personal and professional lives through this incredible time. The important things have bubbled up to the surface of our awareness and the people that are the most important inside of our lives are front and center. When it all boils down, a laptop and a cell phone are truly “first-world” problems and I realize these are insignificant problems compared to what others around the globe are dealing with and these are not real problems in the grand scheme of things, just using them for examples.

The COVID chaos has been eye-opening, everyone taking a “time out” from their normal lives has been challenging but good. It is going to be nice to get back to SOME of the things we enjoyed about the conveniences of life prior to all of this and NEVER taking any of it for granted again. Our freedoms are broad and wide in this time and place. I hope you and yours are safe and well and I will continue to pray for those who are sick and suffering.

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!!

PART 2

To continue from the previous blog, I wanted to give you an update on where I am now, following my Patent Foramen Ovale closure surgery, but also answer some of the questions you have had since the first post. Welcome to part 2.

In August of 2019, I was at my regular yearly check-up with my primary care physician. Now when I say “regularly yearly check-up” I haven’t been to anything “regular” and “yearly” except to see my chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner in years. Being a spouse of a GM employee required that I do certain things on that insurance and so I am following the rules.

When I was in that appointment, I said to her, “I know I have a hole in my heart. I may be planning to have my own family in the next couple years and I would like to pursue getting is closed ahead of time.” I had a different cardiologist recommended to me but she told me to absolutely go back to the same one I saw before and that he is the greatest in this region.

One test was redone and a few more tests were added to the mix to determine exactly the size and location. Funny and not funny part of this is that I happen to be a healthcare provider and also in good health inside of a cardiologist’s office and so they sort of took it for granted that I would already know how this whole thing would go.

I asked questions along the way, and although I didn’t get “blown off” it was more like “of course yes that happens…” and “of course no way it would go that way…” was always the attitude. Which ended up probably being a test to me and my ability to trust.

I am a generally trustworthy kind of person and so I just turned it all over to them to do what they needed to do and know that I was in the best care in the region. On that I settled in, navigated through it all and am now here to tell the story on the other side.

Many have asked “How are you feeling now?”

I feel GREAT!!! I truly do. Instantaneously following surgery my hands and feet were warm for the first time in my entire life. I remember back in chiropractic college, my fellow classmates would always mention just how cold my hands all the time. I didn’t know any better so I had no idea it was even an issue.

Best Chiropractor - Part 2 - Dr Erica Peabody - Kilimanjaro

By this point in the game, 12 weeks out from surgery, I have skipped what I would count to be 9 migraine headaches (I’m tallying this due to my history of roughly 3 per month). I haven’t had even one. I don’t even get any headaches that I know of anymore, or nothing that I would even count as a tension or cluster headache.

I am able to workout and do what I want to do at this point and feel pretty amazing. Three weeks ago I started back at step aerobic class and looking back on teaching step for over a decade of my life, I feel incredible. The step I take now I can keep up with the HIIT moves and can actually do a burpee without blacking out!!!

I will begin to run again soon. If you have been to my office, you can see my collection of participation medals although not many from anytime recently. I will know more once I begin to train for the CRIM this year, it is a race I have done numerous times and I am curious to see if my finishing times improve and just how well I recover. I will begin back to the triathlon sport as well and look forward to seeing how my swimming progresses.

If you have followed this blog at all, you know that I had a severe foot injury following my summit of Mt Kilimanjaro back in 2017. (I have added the video log link below in case you missed it thus far…it was EPIC!!)

I wore a walking boot for 6 solid months and have been working with that foot at about 80% healed. Now I am beginning to not even have to think about it at all…warm hands and feet mean that blood supply is actually going to my feet at a better rate and I AM HEALING!!!

I truly feel great and I am so, so, so, so grateful to have been a candidate for the closure as I just know for the next decades of my life, I will be far better off.

One of the questions I have gotten a few times along the way is “how do I find out if I have this or not?” as a few of you may be suspecting something similar for yourself now listening to this story. I have to send you right back to your own general practitioner to get that resolved.

The recovery has been amazing and pretty simple for the most part. The cardiologist had me on a blood thinner since the anatomy of the heart changed and has since taken me off to proceed into my life exactly as I want to.

Dr Erica Peabody - Part 2 - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan

Your words of encouragement as well and your good wishes are appreciated more than I can really say in words here on this blog. It has been quite an experience and I hope that my sharing this information, that you feel a little more informed and educated about the possibilities.

Of course, all along I have continued chiropractic care, massage therapy and stayed in touch with my functional medicine practitioner. I have continued yoga and meditation and am now back at full capacity in the gym. In essence, I have done the things that we talk about in the practice all the time: eat well, move well and think well. These are truly the keys to optimizing the body and it’s inborn ability to heal, and even more critical to healing from something like that.

Thanks for checking back for part 2 and stay in touch as time progresses…there is a lot more to share!

WHOLEHEARTED

I am living wholehearted.

I am nine weeks post heart surgery. It feels crazy to even be able to say something like that and it has been an incredible shift in my life!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Wholehearted - Dr Erica Peabody

14 years ago I was diagnosed with what is called a Patent Foramen Ovale, a congenital heart defect that is present in twenty percent of the population. Many go un-diagnosed and often the first sign is stroke. I feel very fortunate to know this info and I also feel really fortunate that I didn’t have to have a serious incident in order to get this information.

Playing sports growing up, there was clearly something wrong but they just lumped it into the group called “exercise induced asthma” and “when you start gasping and wheezing (which was happening all the time on the soccer field especially) take this inhaler.”

The inhaler never worked, never made a difference except just to make me shake…and be more frustrated because I still couldn’t catch my breath. I continued to play sports and excelled regardless.

When I was 12 years old, I started getting migraine headaches. I can remember my very first one as I woke up around 2am one morning and told my parents “It feels like a bowling ball hit me in the side of my head.” At 12, those were the best words that I could come up with to describe that pain. The migraines have happened anywhere between 2-10 per month since then.

I am sure there are some migraine sufferers out there reading this that know the kind of pain I am talking about, debilitating to say the least. I learned through the years just to deal with them and after the first few years, I still had the same level of pain but I never let it stop me. Life, school, tests, finals, patient care…nothing stops just because I have a headache and pushing through all of it has always been the way I handled them…and most other things in my life.

Best Chiropractor - Wholehearted - Dr Erica Peabody — they made me lay on my back for 8 solid hours following my surgery which was the hardest part

Shortness of breath upon exertion and migraine headaches, combined with numbness into my hands (which would come and go since my late teenage years) are the classic symptom group for Patent Foramen Ovale and I tested positive. To top all of these symptoms off, chronic hypoxia (lack of oxygen) was the over-riding theme since the blood would just skip the trip to the lungs altogether. On a scale of 1-5 for the size of the hole, I tested as a 4.

I scheduled to see the cardiologist 14 years ago and was looking forward to having all of these things improve for me through a surgical procedure where they inserted a patch in the heart. His exact words “I make a lot of money doing these patches but we do not have the research of what happens to the current devices 30-40 years down the road and so if you are not suffering every single day, don’t do it.”

I was bummed because I was truly looking forward to a shift for me, but I was going to listen to the expert.

I revisited the idea and the tests and all of the procedures this past fall. When I went back to the same cardiologist he said “We have the BEST devices now and so YES!!! …considering how you test and just how compromised you are, lets do it!”

I know what you are thinking out there, “How compromised is she? She has done all these things with a hole in her heart, long distance running and biking, hot yoga, taught aerobics classes for 10 years, even climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro! How is that possible?”

I am (well was) VERY compromised but was going to do all the things anyway because that is the fabric I am built from. I do my best not to let anything slow me down.

November 21, 2019 I went under the knife. This is the procedure they did.

The cardiologist wanted me to take on Thursday off work to have the procedure done, stay the night, go home Friday and head back into work on Monday the 25th. Unbelievable to me in the moment he had said that but that is exactly what I did, and I probably saw many of you that day!

I didn’t share much about this ahead of time for the simple fact that the words “heart surgery” freak most people out. I wanted to get through it, survive it and then tell the story when I can really share the details.

This post is getting lengthy and so I will leave this info here for now and then I will share more in the next post.

When you take a moment to do the math of chronic hypoxia my entire life and never slowing down, to getting full amount of oxygen moving forward, you can see how great of a thing this is and the how freakin’ incredible the medical profession is to be able to develop a fix like that video I shared. Literally I am now finally living wholehearted.

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!!

PUPPY LOVE

I am sure you know, as most of you follow me already on social media, this puppy love is a real thing!

As written in a prior post, getting a puppy wasn’t exactly my idea. In fact, inside of the logistics challenge that is already our life, there isn’t much time or space to give a puppy the proper home.

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan Dr Erica Peabody Puppy Love — **Puppy Hugs**

Would I call myself a “dog person”? Not necessarily although a few years back I had a chocolate lab that brought me so much joy. Life was very different back when I had Choco though, I was traveling a ton and it was quite a juggle to make it all happen as a single mom to a dog.

But life has changed…A LOT!!! I a lot more than anyone can really fathom (I have wanted to write more on this blog lately but when my computer has taken a crap and life has been so crazy, it is hard to keep you all filled in).

How has life changed? Things are beginning to settle a bit and slow down a lot more. Many of you know that I transitioned the office to my Center for Well-Being, affectionately known as “Big Blue” a year ago. Our wedding was in March and we were simultaneously working to blend our lives and fire a builder and finish building my super-delayed home. SERIOUSLY UNIVERSE!!! That much challenge for one gal all at the same time, that is not even funny anymore. In fact, something finally cracked… (more to come on that, stay tuned).

This time in life is about slowing down and looking around at all the amazing things that surround me on a daily basis. This time is about looking back on all the hard work and then looking forward with eyes both on the the laboring that the life ahead requires, but also enjoying the fruits of all the labor up until this point.

This beautiful floofball joined the roster back in August and since then the schedule constraints made it so that he has been with me and by my side most of the days. I thought I wanted life to be a different way, but honestly, when the Universe throws you some life lessons, at least begin by embracing them.

I became a dog mom overnight inside of a time that I had no idea I wanted a dog. And I am not sure that I would want just any dog, this guy has special magic powers.

Inside of the responsibilities of taking good care of a dog, life needs a little more space and time; get up a little earlier, head home between events, check in on him and get super creative with ways that he can fit into it all. He is a charmer, cute as can be, loves snuggles and actually hugs back. He is smart as a whip and so so generous with his energy. He is a Bernedoodle; Bernese Mountain dog with their grace, peacefulness and loyalty and Poodle which is one of the smartest breeds and non shed hair.

When I describe him I always say that he is literally like if one of your favorite stuffed animals came to life and follows you around to brighten your day. It is the GREATEST connection ever and the most perfect companion.

Remember that list from above? The list of the past 2 years and all the chaos? Well one chick isn’t able to always completely hold it together and the level of daily anxiety was (and still ebbs and flows) off the charts! I have done a lot of hard things in my life however I never experienced chronic anxiety like that.

Since Lou, my days are calmer, quieter, more peaceful and more filled with appreciating the little things. Life went from the big grand scale and doing all the things just to keep up with that moving train, to most of my focus on this little 4 legged floofball and what his needs are at any time. It went from big and outside the home, back hunkered down inside this beautiful sanctuary-like sacred space that I intentionally created.

And my level of anxiety went from red-lining most of the time and has reduced by probably, if I had to put a number on it, 70%. It has been an incredible shift. Being a dog mom at this point in my life, in this space and time, having the contrast of experiencing the tornado of the past 2 years, is a shift I did not know was coming…but I am forever grateful.

I have been attacked by 2 dogs in my life, breeds that are not suspect of turning quickly like they did, but I see the world differently now. I see through the eyes of this grand puppy love and, although I have had my own dogs in the past and grew up with them, I really get it now. No, like I REALLY get it now. The love for the little fur balls is something so super special.

DOWN DOG

You may think I am about to write of just how wonderful my new puppy is? Not this time but I am sure he will make many appearances on the blog as the time goes. This is about another kind of dog, yoga down dog.

Just a couple weeks ago I had the incredible opportunity to attend Barefoot and Free Yoga Festival at Proud Lake Recreation Area south of Milford. I have been in attendance for all 4 years it has been running and this year I got to attend but also had a chance to present!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Down Dog

I am still trying to unravel all the learning and feelings surrounding that weekend and put them into words. It has taken some time to really digest it all but I will do my best.

When one of your passions in life meet and hit a crossroads with another, it is the best feeling! I had been brewing a class in the back of my mind for years and I call it “Yoga as a Prescription: How Asana Heals”. In the back of my mind it worked perfectly, but what happens when the rubber meets the road? Will anyone be interested in this topic? Will anyone join in to listen and participate?

I committed to the festival months ago, and par for the course right now with life, it all got out of control with timing and I ended up putting the final nuts and bolts of the course together all the way up to the moment that I presented.

Barefoot and Free Yoga Festival is a 3 day event starting on Friday and finishing in the evening on Sunday. Each 90 minutes, there are 5-10 classes being offered in everything from yoga (of course) to essential oil classes, herb walks, nature walks, stand-up paddle board yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, human connection classes, dance…and so much more. It is a fabulous venue that offers many locations for these classes to be happening concurrently.

When I found out my time and then the location, I took a LOOOOONG walk out to the yurt I would be teaching inside of. From the center of the festival grounds, it was a 20 minute walk through the woods to get to the location.

Like anything else in life that we do for the first time, I was super doubtful that anyone would want to learn that and then to have the long walk as another obstacle to deter students, I just thought I would be teaching to the inside of an empty yurt.

Sunday morning, following the first class of the morning, I made my way to the location. As I was walking that way, many people were just finishing up with other sessions and were heading back. “Great! Exactly as I suspected. Nobody will be here.” was my thought pattern. HELLO NEGATIVE SELF-TALK!!!

But as I descended on the yurt, 2 people were quick to follow me. I set up my mat and my props in the front of the yurt with space for what I thought would MAYBE be 10 people or so.

Others started to show up. Then more people and I kept shifting around and moving to squeeze more people in. By the time I was to begin my presentation, there were close to 40 people packed mat to mat inside of that little yurt. I won’t share all the details of the class, maybe another blog post, but it went off without a hitch and was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was exactly the class that I had planned for a few years in the back of my mind and it hit just the right ears.

Prior to class starting, I thought to myself “how in the world am I going to be able to fill up 90 minutes?” (again, enter negative self-talk). By the end of 90 minutes, I had only covered about 1/3 of the total content I had prepared and didn’t even get to tap some of the potential for what I have to share. The feedback from the participants was “Next year, can you ask to have 5 hours instead of just 90 minutes?” LOL!!

Being a yogi for going on 23 years, in combination with my private chiropractic practice for 15 years which I use “Yoga as a Prescription” inside of on a daily basis, OF COURSE I have a lot to share and I am beyond happy to give that gift and love and serve the people in any way that I can. ESPECIALLY when I am able to give, love and serve my yoga community that has given so much back to me.

Those of you who attended my class, thank you for showing up!!!

Those of you, students and especially my teachers, who inspire me daily and weekly inside of my round robin of yoga studios that I attend on a weekly basis, THANK YOU!!!

To my patients that are always open to learning a new pose to help with their healing journey and who trust the care of their entire family’s health to me and my team, we have only scratched the surface, thank you, you are all so precious to me. 🙂

To my personal yoga practice and the sweat and tears that get absorbed by my mat over and over and over and over again, I am forever grateful. I am one who really truly looks forward to every class. Another day, another down dog.

SIDE EYE

Mike says to me, in a side eye expression, “I have something to tell you. I got a dog.”

“YOU WHAT?!?!?!”

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Side Eye — Lou

Let’s go back a bit.

As a married couple, some things you talk about and some things you don’t need to talk about. Getting a dog is one that falls inside of the “things you talk about” category…except for this time apparently.

At first I flipped out and if you know anything about the logistics of our life together, you would easily understand why living between two houses is a challenge for a family without a dog, much less a dog family.

BUT this little guy is like having a real live teddy bear around. He is a Bernidoodle and his name is Lou. He is almost 3 months old and is an absolute lover. They say he will end up around 35 lbs but, hmmmm I am not quite convinced and will wait and see how that goes.

I am not a dog person because I have been lunged at by 3 dogs. I do not have breed preference at all, I am just one that doesn’t necessarily trust that any breed will always stay calm, cool and collected…until I met this guy.

Gentle, peaceful, cuddly, and lazy – are good qualities in a dog in my opinion and Lou is all of them. At 10 weeks he has had a couple days in the office but he does have a lot to learn. Many people love dogs but some people do not and I can respect that. For now, he will remain sleeping at my feet under my desk back in my office when I have him. One day, when he grows up a bit, he will hopefully be wandering around during my office adjusting times that he is with me.

Which I am not exactly sure how much that would be because he has an awesome group of triplets that he is very fond of as well. They will take priority in having him and taking care of him.

I reject the idea of a dog for about 2 hours and 45 minutes until I had an actual change to meet Lou in person. When you have a chance to meet him as well, you will see what I mean and just how special it is to have a real, live teddy bear walking around with a heart of gold and wanting to spread pure puppy-love.

That side eye expression, when Mike gives it to me next time, I will know to just trust and hear him out and that most likely, even if it is a “should be talked about” item inside of our marriage, it may end up being a really good thing anyway.

PS Mike, do not do something like that again. 😉 And Lou, WELCOME TO THIS CRAZY FAMILY!!!!