I AM AMAZED EVERYTIME!

I have done my fair share of traveling in my life and have spent a lot of time on planes since I moved home in 2004. I always try to get a window seat because I love seeing what there is to see while we sit and wait for the plane to take off. I am also the one with my nose glued to the glass during portions of the flight and of course the landing. More often than not, prior to take-off I find myself in a daze watching as these huge planes arChiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - I am amazed everytimee filled with people and luggage. I am amazed the logistical phenomenon that is our airline systems…I mean really, how on Earth do they get all those bags to the right spots?!?! I marvel in the simple fact that something that big could fly through the air and carry people comfortably from one location to some place completely different. I know our civilization has been flying for years and years, and I myself have taken numerous flights…but I am so fascinated by the concept of flight. Loading up in Detroit in the middle of winter and arriving in Costa Rica, in a totally different country, climate and culture…that is totally awesome!

With how intense (in a good way) my life is at home, coupled with my ability to completely relax on vacation, flying somewhere sometimes feels like getting on a time machine. The last 2 weeks of March was a very intensely stressful time for me. In the middle of the 2 weeks, it just so happened that I had a trip to Colorado planned. I got to a boiling point and since my trip to Colorado was mostly for fun, I almost backed out of going. After asking a bunch of questions and weighing a few things, I decided to go…and what perfect timing! I left the crazy chaos going on here and as soon as I sat down on the plane, it all melted away. In a short 2.5 hour plane ride, I was half way across the country, with great friends, beautiful sunshine and peace of mind to enjoy the weekend. It truly is amazing to “sit in a chair in the air” and end up thousands of miles away. The following link is one of my favorites…half way through is when he starts his discussion about flight and he hits the nail on the head…I laugh so hard every time I watch this.

His whole concept of “Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy” is so right on. Take a look around and find a little something to be amazed by and grateful for. So many of the thigns around you are absolutely amazing…even the simple fact that I can write this blog sitting at my desk and my Grandmother can read it from her home in Florida…and you can read it from wherever you are!! This LIFE truly is AMAZING!!! …and we only get one chance.

EVERY YEAR…

Dr Erica Peabody - Every Year - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan

…around the birthday time for the Cafe of LIFE, I ask people for 3 words that describe their experience here. That small piece of paper is then entered into a drawing for some gift certificates, shirts, bags, etc here at the Cafe of LIFE. Last year I decided to post all the words on here so that I had a place to remember them since knowing that people describe the Cafe using these words is a HUGE compliment to the staff and I.

…positive, professional, friendly, relaxing, comforting, peaceful, welcome, kindness, easy, convenient, personable, healing, compassionate, laid-back, cool, friendliness, caring, wonderful, pleasant, fun, calming, helpful, healthy, hopeful, welcoming, complete, calming, enlightening, healthy, friendly, awesome, nice, relaxing, positive, altering, happy, healing, peaceful, wonderful, I love Erica, I love Teri, fun, great people, serenity, practical, makes me feel good, everyone makes me laugh, great experience, relaxing, hopeful, life-changing, convenient, expedient, amazing, fun, life Dr Erica Peabody - Every year - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan change, positive, exciting, P.S. everyone is friendly, relaxing, rejuvenating, therapeutic, sense of well-being, uplifting, inspiring, amazing, relief, comfort, relaxation, release, healthy, re-aligning with LIFE, enlightening, growth, encouraging, healing, welcoming, did I say healing?, peace, health, calmness, thankful, rejuvenated, health, relaxing, friendly, refreshed, energized, relaxed, relief, learning, comfortable, invigorating, healing, fun, relaxing, stress-release, calming, wonderful, helpful, hopeful, relief, refresh, fun, painless, peaceful, restoring, cheerful, healing, grateful, new, me again, straight, relaxing, new, feel better, friendly, always smells good, relaxed, clear, energized, educational, serenity, rejuvenating, delightful, awareness, awaken, alive, relaxing, inviting, efficient, calming, relaxing, comfortable atmosphere, understanding, gentle, kind, relaxing, helps, relieves pain, wonderful, pleasant, fantastic, relaxing I love Erica, friendly I love Angie, awesome I love Teri, good health, peace, calming…

There were another 20 or more of the word “relaxing” but I didn’t want to keep writing it.

Bottom line…I think we are doing our job and we are looking forward to many more years to come. Thank you to all of you for adding to our Cafe of LIFE community!!!

 

YOGA TEACHER TRAINING

As many of you know, I practice yoga…a lot. I have been committed to cultivating my inner yogi for the past 4 years and spend 2-3 nights at Ethos Yoga Studio in Holly http://www.ethosyoga.net/.
It is one of my passions and helps to make me a better person in this world. My usual classes are Monday and Wednesday night over at Ethos and Friday afternoon either there or down at Center For Yoga in Birmingham http://www.centerforyoga.com/. It is therapeutic for me; mind, body and spirit. It is absolutely one of the greatest things I have added to my life and spend a lot of time talking about it during the day at the Cafe of LIFE. In order for the body to be and stay healthy, it needs to move. I haven’t found a better way to move the body than to flow and twist and turn in a yoga class and would highly recommend it in some way to everyone.
Tomorrow starts a new phase of yoga for me. I am always on the hunt for rich, rewarding experiences and I will begin a Yoga Teacher Training course over at Ethos Yoga. The course is 3 months long and is designed to immerse trainees in the yoga philosophy. We will be practicing yoga on a daily basis on our own or in a class. We will develop a personal meditation practice on our own and in class. We will change our eating habits to vegetarian or vegan. So this is going to be in addition to what I already have going on which is running a really fun chiropractic practice, hosting an amazing Book Club, giving Half Hour to Health lectures, participating in an awesome Walking Club, being a dog mom, and a runner amongst many other activities I am involved in. It means getting up an hour earlier and time managing a little better. It means studying and spending a lot of down time reading and writing. I look forward to it. I will keep you posted during the process.
(pictures are right off Ethos website; Kel Leigh Coale photography)

POISONING

I will be posting some wonderful pictures from my past weekend in the next post but I wanted to discuss a little about a situation and a lesson I learned about the body. This past Monday, my flight went from Reno/Tahoe to Denver to Detroit. My connecting flight in Denver was delayed. Usually I am running around trying to find a protein bar or something on these types of travel days but since I had an almost 3 hour delay, I decided that I would take the time to sit down at a restaurant and have something healthy to eat. My choice was a salad with mango, strawberry and

Dr Erica Peabody - Poisoning - Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan

salmon atop a bed of beautiful greens. When it arrived at my table, it looked appetizing enough to dig in so that is exactly what I did. One fork-full at a time, I was noticing a little tinge of brown on the greens, maybe a little dried out, the strawberries hadn’t been run under water in a long time and the mango, though tasted really good, was maybe a little extra slimy and weird. At that moment I thought to myself that since I was at a nice restaurant, it should be fine and I am not one to complain much about what I am served so I finished it all…and everything was good until that evening when I finally reached my destination, I was starting to get a nagging headache. Sometimes a headache will come on if my blood sugar is low so didn’t think much about it and continued on to have dinner, Thai food. I went to bed and slept well but was woken up at 5:00AM with nausea, 7AM started the vomiting and my body was so drained and exhausted. I couldn’t pull things together to make it to the Cafe that morning and slept for about 3 more hours. When I woke up I proceeded to get ready and made it in to work to serve people for the afternoon. I always feel better when I am helping other people feel better, but that is where it ended. Tuesday evening as I was laying down to bed, my entire body hurt. It was food poisoning for sure, my entire body was poisoned and working overtime to improve the environment. Many people in that situation would have tried to find something that would stop the vomiting and take away aches and pains. If the body is poisoned and trying to get something out, don’t you think it is a good idea to let it do that? If it is food poisoning and the body recognizes that, or anything else for that matter, let it do what it is designed to do. Because I let it run its course, my body took care of it and in the long run is better off for it. When symptoms arise, instead of reacting to them, let’s watch them and as long as they are not life-threatening, let’s let the body do what it is going to do. We will all be better off.

Choco’s 1st 5K


Our great little city of Fenton has a Holiday Celebration called Jinglefest that happens the first weekend in December. For the past 3 years, my family and I get together and run it. It is great fun because it is cold and snowy and the nights always end up being perfect for a winter run. This year we had an addition to the running crew as Choco joined us. I wasn’t sure if dogs were going to be allowed but I brought him anyways. There were about 200 people or so that ran it and 3 other dogs. In the beginning of the race Choco was really interested in making friends with everyone. By the time we were about 100 yards into it he realized that it was time to work and just got right into that mode. He ran the entire 5K right by my side and we finished strong. We have been on so many adventures during our first week, from riding in the car 4 hours one way to go snowboarding, play dates with new friends, a 5K, and a day with a friend of mine. He has been amazing and I am really excited that I will be able take him on my runs. I am looking forward to the time when he is ready to come to the Cafe of LIFE on a daily basis which will hopefully be just after the first of the year. This morning I dropped him off at the vet to get fixed which will hopefully take the edge off of his attitude that he gets sometimes. He is a great dog and we have had a lot of fun together and it has only been one week!

ADD LIFE

If we eat live things, we add life to our bodies.
If we eat processed things, it doenst matter what it is, our digestive systems get clogged up. There are so many additives to make things look pretty and appear tempting. The processes that they use in order to make these products yield foods that are very taxing on our digestive system. So when the digestive system is taxed, the body has to work harder to accomplish even the small stuff in life. But when you eat things that are alive, the items that we are eating are actually adding LIFE to our bodies. I could go on and on with this principal however the bottom line is that if we eat live foods, we actually add life to our bodies, if we eat processed foods, we tax our systems.
LET’S ADD LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

BOOK CLUB

One of the most wonderful things that has come into my life in this past year is the Cafe of LIFE Book Club.
I am not the originator though it was passed to me because I host it at my office. It is such a wonderful experience each and every meeting we have. We all leave lighter and with more ease than what we came in with. We cozy up here at the Cafe of LIFE and have open discussions about real things, that really matter. If you ever get an opportunity to join something like this, take it. And if you haven’t found one yet, COME JOIN US!!!! We begin a new book “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie tomorrow, Thursday Sept 25th at 6:30pm and meet every other week to discuss about 3 chapters at a time.
One word to describe book club….INSPIRING!!!