Fenton Michigan – Page 5 – We Only Get One Chance

THANKS I ALWAYS DO

Running errands around town almost always lands me in Target and honestly there is no telling who I am going to run into in there considering this small town. The phrase “THANKS I ALWAYS DO!” really impacted my trip around that store today and I want to share a little bit about it.

My Aunt Kathleen lived about a mile from my family growing up. She was always a loud and boisterous energy during any family gathering. She used to invite my cousins and I for regular sleepovers and we always looked forward to that time at Aunt Kathleen’s house. She was a riot!

So today when I was walking into Target I ran into Aunt Kathleen immediately right at the front door. I have never seen her out and about in the community and she is only around town for half the year. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Thanks I Always Do

She greeted me in her usual way that always makes me feel cared for and loved. Of course she is not ever shy about sharing how she feels and a simple walking away from Aunt Kathy in the store today warranted “Love you sweetheart”.

You all know how Target shopping goes, well mostly turns into browsing, and Aunt Kathy’s path and mine crossed on a few occasions. While I was within earshot of her, someone would say to her “Have a nice day!” and without one
second hesitation, she would reply “THANKS I ALWAYS DO!” (I am using caps here because earshot of Aunt Kathy is quite a large radius, I am just saying’).

Then in another area of the store I hear “Have a good day!” and Aunt Kathy’s immediate “THANKS I ALWAYS DO!”. And our timing for getting out of the store coincided and we ended up at the registers just a few feet apart from each other. The cashier said “Thanks Ma’am, I hope you have a good day!”. “THANKS I ALWAYS DO!”

It is quite obvious that this is Aunt Kathleen’s genuine energy for each day because there is absolutely no hesitation in that response. It is immediate as it is obviously her tone she has taken over and over and over for years and years. And now as I share this, I am hearing that this has truly been her mantra forever.

And in saying all of that, Aunt Kathy has been dealt some difficult cards in life. In fact, about a year ago she arrived at a party and did not have this level of energy and we were all a bit concerned.

When I was getting in my car with my bag of my items I accumulated while browsing around the store (I am not sure how they do it but go in for one thing and walk out with 3 bags of stuff that you “may” need sometime soon), I realized the profound impact her energy had on that store today. In addition to that, it effected the people in her path and, I’m even more amazed to know she wakes up and walks around with that tone on a regular basis.

Not everyday of our lives are going to be “good” days or “nice” days however that is ultimately a choice we get to make. I have some patients at my office, Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic, that have been coming for years and years. I ask them “How is your day?” Their answer “Not bad.”

Realizing this “Not bad” answer is very different that “Good.” ,,,and very, very different than “Always good.” Even when “bad” things are happening in life, we still wake up on the top side of the grass and that is a GOOD DAY all by itself!!!

Let’s consider what would happen if you expected to have a good day and chose to have a good day. What kind of effect would that have on your family? How would that rub off on the people around you? Now what would happen if that was multiplied by even just five of the seven days this week and multiplied out over the next year? And what if only one friend or family member caught on, liked the idea and started to expect good days too? Multiply that by our community in this little town of Fenton, MI or out to our state, our country, or even out to the world. Think of how many good days we could get out of that and think about the ripple effects out into all of life! That is a big deal.

So the next time someone says “Have a nice day!” to you, maybe you will think back to that morning when you made the decision to have a good day before getting up and out of bed, and you can reply something like “THANKS I ALWAYS DO!” Thank you Aunt Kathleen.

CRAWL FIRST

We all need to crawl first!

I get messages from my patients at Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic all the time. Lots of wonderful messages about healing and growth and clearing their lives and feeling better.

I saw a 9 month old girl yesterday and mom reported that she has been starting to stand up to furniture but hasn’t crawled yet. Some parents would be so ecstatic that they were standing but without crawling, its presents a

Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Crawl First

challenge. There are reasons why babies go from crawling to walking, it is a primitive developmental stage (the cross crawl movement is vital to so many other movements as well as neurological development) that leads to the next thing and to the next thing. Its stages, and normal development happens through those stages. When a child appears to be skipping a stage, it is concerning to me as a chiropractor.

So I checked her spine and nerve system and got her adjusted. I have been adjusting this little one since birth however more sporadic than anything and they had a busy summer and hadn’t made it in in the past 2 months.

This is mom’s text message to me this morning (yes some patients text me directly) “Just wanted to let you know that “L” is crawling around everywhere today!! …and getting on her brother’s nerves!!! Glad I finally brought her in, she obviously needed it.”

I did not push a “start crawling” button on little L, there is no such thing. I simply asked some questions, adjusted her spine as I normally I would for any child, and her body righted itself, got the nerves connected correctly and started crawling…apparently REALLY CRAWLING!!! For a child to go from stationary to crawling after her adjustment is an incredible shift in life. She is now ready to progress and will probably take off on foot very quickly.

This is not the first time I have seen this happen…many reports over the years but just finally had a moment to sit down and write this out for you.

Some people have a perception of chiropractic care is a “cure” for pain. Was that 9 month old in my office for pain? Not even close. Using chiropractic for pain only is like using your iPhone to text message only. It is SOOOOOOOO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!!! It is about life and living and how the body is working and healing and growing and developing and handling the days.

It is about LIFE!!!

I am honored to be little L’s chiropractor. I wouldn’t have my life be any other way.

I’M CONFUSED

A few weeks ago I was at a seminar in Toronto and there was a sign on the bathroom door of the convention center and I thought to myself “I’m confused.”

This is what the sign looked like.

Most of you know that I do not have a TV at home and mostly listen to music and read on my downtime. Because of that, I generally get most of my news from Facebook and all the hype about Target and their bathroom policy had many up in arms.

For a day and a half during the weekend, I walked by this bathroom in search of a “women’s” bathroom and all the while was wondering what it would be like to go into a bathroom that was marked as above.

Would there be urinals in there?

Would guys be required to go to the bathroom inside of a stall?

Will I be walking in on someone or something that I do not want to see?

So I passed by this bathroom option all weekend and pondered it over and over…what is going on behind that door? This is Canada after all and maybe they just do things differently here.

As I watched that particular bathroom door all weekend, I did notice that perfectly normal, and un-traumatized women were walking into and out from that door. Men too!

And then on Sunday afternoon I decided I would take a chance and head through that door.

Once I got to the other side of the door I started laughing. There was a set of stairs that went up with a sign for men’s bathroom and another set of stairs that we down for the women’s bathroom. The women’s bathrooms down that set of stairs had zero lines. The other set of women’s (marked as women only) bathrooms had long lines every single time, as many women’s bathrooms do in this life.

Once I crossed through that door and started laughing, I thought what a great metaphor for life: things are not always what they appear and are usually less scary than we think if we have the courage to cross the threshold.

As a culture, we really need to start paying a little closer attention to the sensationalism that is the news, and even the news on Facebook. We need to be conscious of all the things that slip by our filters and get lodged into our minds and beings. I am not exposed to news a whole lot, however even that whole Target thing, and I am sure that is not the only thing, got planted in my own mind without me even aware of what was happening.

Our subconscious runs most of our days for us without us even paying that close of attention. We need to guard ourselves from a lot of what the media is promoting and learn to originate our own ideas, decision, perceptions and actions.

“I’m confused” may be a theme when moving through the next door that is marked in an unfamiliar way. But I know and trust to drop my guard sooner and venture in just to see what is on the other side. Maybe you will want to try that too!!!

I AM HONORED

I am honored.

Getting “written up” as a child was not such a good thing. Getting “written up” as an adult is quite a compliment. I am honored to be part of a Today’s Chiropractic Leadership online in a section called “Innovators and Entrepreneurs”

To read the article, click >>>THIS LINK<<<

I am honored to be acknowledged in the same section and on the same page as some of my greatest mentors.

I am honored to be considered worthy enough to grace the pages with some of the greatest and most influential world changers.

I am honored to be on the same page with some of my good friends and colleagues.

I am honored to be respected and acknowledged by LIFE University, the world’s largest and most influential college in the chiropractic profession.

I am honored to be able to serve Fenton, the community I grew up in.

If you are reading this, I am honored to be part of your life in some way big or small.

I am honored that you have allowed me to serve your family and check and adjust your babies.

I am honored I have been the one called to your bedside as your are delivering your babies or are within minutes of bringing them into this world because you understand how important that first adjustment is.

I am honored to be part of such an incredible profession, one that assists with core healing from deep within.

I am honored with every single referral you send and have sent my way.

I am honored to be chosen as an instrument to facilitate healing and be able to use my head, hands and heart as my tools.

I am honored to own and run my beautiful office Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic.

I am honored to have such an incredible team working with me on a daily basis.

I am honored that my own family visits me to get their spines checked on a regular basis.

I am honored to be your chiropractor.

HUMILIATED

I am absolutely humiliated!

A patient walked into the Cafe of LIFE last Wednesday afternoon and asked me where I was earlier that day and why I wasn’t here when my office hours said I would be here.

“What do you mean? I am always here for our office hours Wednesday morning is 7:30a-10a.”

“That is not what your business card says.”

When we looked closer, our business cards have our office hours as “7:30am-1pm”. For months.

Sometimes when reviewing a proof for those kinds of things, the brain will look at something, skim right over an error and make up something completely different. That is exactly what happened.

So in essence it has looked like we just high-tail it out of here whenever we feel like it on Wednesday during that time slot. And if you know me like most of you do by now, I would NEVER do that.

She continued, “Yeah I was talking to my mom and she said ‘well she must just come and go as she pleases.’ You really don’t seem like that kind of a person to me.”

Um…I am NOT that kind of a person and I am not that kind of professional! I feel a lot of responsibility to all of you and there are a lot of people that rely on us. I was born with punctuality and responsibility woven into my fabric, that is just how I am.

So needless to say we looked over all our thousands of card that I ordered just a couple months ago and realized they were all wrong. In the meantime, every person that has come into this office, we always tell them, “Make sure to grab a card at the front desk, our hours are on the back.”

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I am seriously humiliated.

Yes I am only human and there are humans involved in the making and printing process of these things and mistakes can happen.

And by now I am sure you can imagine just how very GRATEFUL I am to this lady who brought this mistake to my attention!!!

The last thing I want to do is look like a slacker, and especially when I am not.

To all of you out there reading this that we may have confused and misled, I apologize and am so humiliated. Live and learn, right? You can bet I will have many different sets of eyes on all future materials like that.

SAILING THE SCENE 2016

My good friends that I often travel with and I spend a bit of time during our holiday travel together to set intentions for the New Year and come up with a rhyming theme. We finalized this year with intentions of “Sailing the Scene 2016″.
I am not sure why we feel it so important to rhyme the theme as that limits options for words used, however we always seem to be up for the challenge and come out on top year after year!!!
We had been just a couple days on the boat, and watched the sail boat take a Universal Force, the wind, and set sails appropriate to make it to the desired destination, and we absolutely knew right then and there that the word “sailing” had to be part of our theme. Life throws us all kinds of twists, turns and unexpected weather and gusts that throw a curve ball into our original plan regularly, or at least it does for me. It also can appear that every move and turn we make we are heading into the wind. Such is life!
What sailing taught all of us is that we need to use whatever external forces that seem to be working against us, and if we just change the configuration of our sails, change the angles or the heights, we can figure out a way to use that external force in our favor.

Whether we realize it our not, we have all set up “the scene” that surrounds us. Consciously or unconsciously, we have chosen the people we surround ourselves with, the work we do, the home we live in, the car we drive, the thoughts that run through our heads, as well as all other circumstances that make up our scene. Look around you…at some point that person, place or thing seemed like a good idea (or maybe was just the lesser of two evil choices). So here we are in the environment we created. That is the “the scene” we are talking about.

Now, take another look around you and ask yourself this question, “What am I resisting in my scene and how am I resisting it?” Is it a job you don’t like? Is it a relationship that doesn’t flow? Is it a body that you are not particularly fond of? Is it a home environment that is filled with chaos? What is it? What is around you that you have resistance to? And maybe you don’t have any of those things, although most of us could name one or two…or twenty.

“Sailing the Scene” means to take a different and more graceful perspective or make a slight change in your course. Instead of feeling “stuck” in a situation, a relationship, a job, a body where it always feels like you are working with a 30 naught
headwind, what if you took a different angle. To turn 180 and head downwind would be one solution but life doesn’t often allow us to take a 180 degree turn and head the other direction. Usually we could more easily “tack” or head in a slightly different angle into the wind. This allows the sails to catch the wind a little bit differently and use it to the advantage in getting to the desired destination. And when we make just a slight angle change to our normal day to day, 2-3 days leads to 2-3 weeks and then on to 2-3 months or years and we have real potential of making a desirable change in our lives and creating a more likable scene.

“Tacking” also is a way of taking the Universal Force of the wind and let it help you get to the desired destination. It is a way to work with it instead of fighting against it and allowing it to really work for you.

“Sailing the Scene 2016” is all about taking all of life and all of every day and starting to adjust our view, our perspective and/or our course in order to get life to be a little more cooperative, or really maybe we are the ones being more flexible and cooperative with life. Either way, sailing is one of the most peaceful experiences and I am looking for more of that this year. Cheers to 2016!!!

NOBODY IS EXEMPT

Daily, for over 10 years, I have been helping people to increase their health and internal resilience through my job as a Doctor of Chiropractic. Aside from keeping the nerve system free of interference, the chiropractic adjustment, there are NATURAL LAWS OF THE BODY that need to be followed in order to be healthy and remain that way…and nobody is exempt. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, in order to be healthy, you have to do the following:

EAT WELL.

MOVE WELL.

THINK WELL.

REST WELL.

Some of you are doing an exceptional job at committing to health and I don’t want to make a blanket statement but I do want to review what is necessary.

Let’s start with the first…EAT WELL. The body heals by replacing cells. The body and all the cells in it are replaced on a regular basis. The body grows new cells by the building blocks you ingest. Ingest a bunch of junk and you will have weak structure and usually a lot of inflammation. Ingest good healthy food and you will have strong building blocks to construct your cells. AND DRINK YOUR WATER!!! Every single day, yes ALL OF THE DAYS, EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE, you need to DRINK WATER. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, in order to be healthy you have to EAT WELL AND DRINK WATER and nobody is exempt.

Second thing you need to do daily…MOVE WELL. The body is built to move. Every joint in the body is nourished through movement. If we were supposed to be sedentary we would not have nearly as many joints in our bodies. Circulation increases when you move your body and with that oxygen increases as well. Circulation is how nutrients and oxygen are transported though the body and delivered to all organs, tissues, muscles and glands. Muscles also need to be moved and stretched every single day. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, in order to be healthy you have to MOVE WELL EVERY SINGLE DAY and nobody is exempt.

Our quality of life is determined largely by our attitude towards it. Wake up with a smile or wake up with a frown, it is going to set the tone for your entire day. The days add up to weeks, weeks add up to months and then years and life goes by rather quickly. Life is only a fraction of what happens to us, and mostly our reaction to it. Be grateful. Even when things don’t seem to be going your way, be grateful for something. Take some time to express gratitude silently to yourself and maybe even out loud to those around you. It doesn’t matter how old our young you are, in order to be healthy you have to THINK GOOD THOUGHTS IN YOUR LIFE and nobody is exempt. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan Smiling Flower

Have you ever really taken time to think about sleep? At night, we literally leave this conscious state and step off to some place while our physical body rests. Sometimes this is to dreamland and sometimes it is quiet and
uneventful. Either way, we sleep. Our body shuts down and goes into restoration mode. It is a time for rebuilding, regrouping, integrating and healing and our bodies require it. Every. Single. Day. It doesn’t matter how old our young you are, in order to be healthy you have to REST WELL, take some down time and rest and nobody is exempt.

Patients come to the Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic Center every week for over 10 years and I help them through the chiropractic adjustment. The greatest thing about chiropractic care is that the adjustment helps keep the body connected to it’s power source, the brain and nerve system, and allows it to do everything it is supposed to do, better and more efficiently. I also do my best to help my patients understand the NATURAL LAWS OF THE BODY. I ask things like “How much sleep have you had lately?” and “How much exercise have you gotten today? This week?” and “How much water have you drank today? This week?” and “What are you doing to handle stress in your life?”

Some reply a resounding “YES! LOTS!!” and I realize that so many are committed to their own health. However, some reply with answers that DO NOT follow the NATURAL LAWS OF THE BODY as described above. These are not laws I just made up…this is really serious business and involves your body and your life.

WE HAVE TO DO WHAT WE KNOW WE NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO BE HEALTHY AND THAT’S IT!!!

There are no shortcuts.

There is no easy way.

There is no magic pill.

I talk about water on most of your visits because the importance of being properly hydrated is underestimated. But now you have to go out there into your life and DRINK YOUR WATER!!! You have to, that is all there is to it.

I love you and this is why I am expressing to you the fact that it doesn’t matter how old or young you are, in order to be healthy you have to FOLLOW THE NATURAL LAWS OF THE BODY and NOBODY IS EXEMPT!!!! Got it? Now get out there and get to work!!! 🙂

LACE CURTAINS

I moved into my home over 4 years ago. If you have even been to my home or driven by, you may have noticed the lace curtains in the window at the front of the house (although more than likely you have not, they are unremarkable). I am not a fan of lace curtains.

I have a very different style to my home and my practice that doesn’t really fit with lace curtains.

So let me explain…this particular lace-covered window is above my 2-car garage. There is an unfinished bonus room above my garage currently being used for storage. It has 2 nice sized windows, one at the front by the driveway and one towards the back that faces house. The one on the driveway side is the one with the lace curtains, nothing on the other.

For the first few years I lived there, I hadn’t give those lace curtains a lot of attention. I would see them when I pulled in and out of my garage, however aside from that, they are not on my mind at all. They are just sort-of there.

Over the past couple years, I have noticed them as the last thing I see when I leave and the first thing when I pull back into my driveway. They are pretty, harmless and unremarkable.

But they are not me. Not at all.

For the past 2 years, I have tried to figure out what window coverings I should replace those with. What color should I put there? Should it have some sort of texture? Should it give you a hint to textures and colors used in the house? Should they just be plain white like the siding on that part of the house? Should they be loud and obnoxious? Should they be long or short? I am not a designer, but I have a feel that I always go for with my home and work spaces and these silly curtains had raised a lot of questions.

It is also one of those things that I need to be able to feel out, one of those things that I needed to try out a couple different colors and textures to know for sure. But who really wants to go to the store and buy a few different options and drive in and out of the driveway until I got it right??? Not me!

In the past 6 weeks I have started to do some research. There are a lot of homes with that same bonus room/window set-up above the garage (and maybe now that I mention it, you will notice it yourself). My research consisted of driving around and seeing what other people have done with said window.

My private research has shown that most leave that window uncovered. It isn’t a room that you would need to block the world out of. It also is a place that there is not enough light on a regular basis to make out anything but silhouettes of what is being stored, which is no big deal.

So I didn’t want to completely commit to uncovered windows after being covered for so many years, so I went up there and pulled the curtains all the way to the side so that they appeared uncovered from the outside. And I have now been driving in and out of my garage and have a huge smile on my face because of how many years I have pondered this silly decision.

It is funny to me because this entire time I had always wanted to just replace the covering and change the look of it all and had never once, prior to just 6 weeks ago, ever even considered that idea.

I think it is funny how the mind works like that sometimes…it wants to replace every little thing in life instead of just getting rid of it altogether. I have noticed this lately in my life as I am getting more minimalist (Mom, I never said I am a true minimalist, just better with less) with the things I have in my home all the way down to my wardrobe and shoes. I do not have to replace stuff with more stuff, and so many times it just feels better to dump it than to add more.

I am super grateful for this new perspective. I am also really grateful to have made a final decision and allowing full sunlight in that bonus room. It is the silliest place to learn a life lesson, I had no idea I could learn so much from those lace curtains.

SUGAR

It starts with Halloween and ends with New Years Day….SUGAR, SUGAR EVERYWHERE!!! Notably this is also considered “COLD AND FLU SEASON”. Guess what? Sugar is a major factor in decreased immune system function and when that happens, the “invaders” (viruses and bacteria) have a chance to take over.

Let’s learn some physiology…
White blood cells are a HUGE PART of your functional immune system. They travel through the body and convene around areas of “invaders” and do some clean-up work. White blood cells need Vitamin C in order to activate and do their job of phagocytosis (in essence “eating up”) of the viruses and bacteria. Sugar and Vitamin C have a very similar structure and compete for the same activation/binding site on the white blood cells. If sugar is around, Vitamin C doesn’t get to do its normal work and your immune system becomes compromised. When you decide to eat sugar, you can think of your immune system becoming a slug and slowing down to a crawl…every year…around this same time and going all the way through the New Year.

Certain minerals are required in order to process the sugar you eat. Because refined sugar doesn’t contain those minerals, chronic ingestion of sugar can lead to depleted levels of essential minerals in the body which creates further problems and compromises health.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO KEEP A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM?
Great question!!! Let’s take this little bit of awareness in to this holiday season and see how making a few better choices in what you put on your plate and in your mouth can have a drastic effect on your energy levels and immune system function.

WAYS TO BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM:

Drink lots of water
Eat your vegetables
Get plenty of rest
Exercise/move your body daily
Take your vitamins
Steer clear of sugar
Steer clear of alcohol
Keep up with your regular chiropractic care
Get outside for some fresh air
Laugh often and take some time to play
Keep a positive mental attitude

The nerve system and immune system are interconnected (some will say they are the same – neuroimmuno system). When the nerve system is compromised, so is the immune system. REGULAR CHIROPRACTIC CARE will help maximize your potential for health by keeping your nerve system clear and your immune system strong. Swing in to the Café of LIFE Chiropractic Center! We would love to help you and your family have a wonderful, HEALTHFUL holiday season!!!

SWEET SWEET SEPTEMBER

As I was on a 3 mile walk near my home this evening, I was thinking I don’t know if I ever remember a sweeter September in Michigan than what we are experiencing this year. I love the fall and am totally in love with this sweet, sweet September.

Do you remember ever having more sunshine than what we have had lately? I think it has rained maybe a few hours total for this entire month. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan September

The nights are cool now, the mornings are crisp and it is so refreshing.

But there is so much more to this sweet sweet September than just the weather and I do not know many people who actually enjoy talking about the weather.

September marks a time of year when things begin to “normalize”. Most of that is our schedules with school starting and getting the family back to some sort of “normal” routine. Serving this community in my office, Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic, on a weekly basis magnifies so much of the community energy. August, and the preparation for school to start, brings a frenzied energy. There is always such anticipation about the year ahead and what it will bring. So many questions run around in everyone’s head and it shows up in their physiology…Who will be my teacher this year? Will I have the right clothes? I wonder if my friends will be in my class? I wonder if I will get “that” student the other teachers are warning everyone about? I wonder how my sports team will do? .…all of these unknowns and so much more adds into the already heightened energy of August.

In the past, September has hit like a ton of bricks and it has often taken a long time for people to settle into their routines. But this sweet sweet September feels very different. It feels like we were all ready for that shift back to routine and school and work. Of course our busy schedules have brought October on us so quickly it is difficult to believe that will be next week.

And when speaking about sweet sweet September, we cannot forget about college football of course! College football games are usually attended wearing lots of layers and drinking warm drinks…but not in September and especially not this September. Beautiful, sunshine filled Saturdays at the football stadiums with the smells of fall in the air, does it get any sweeter than that?!?!

So as I am walking this evening and admiring absolutely everything about this beautiful place I call home, I am thinking to myself “I don’t remember a sweeter September than this one, and I am sure grateful to be awake and alive today to experience it!”

I certainly hope you have been able to get out and play in the sunshine with your families. Within just a few weeks, winter will be moving in and I am definitely not banking on seeing another sweet sweet September quite like this one. We get to live this one time…put some of those “have to’s” aside for a few more days and get out there and make the most of it!!!