massage therapy – 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.

WELCOME BACK

Welcome back!!! Wait!!! Is that for you or for me?

I am so confused.

Actually, what has really gone on is that I have not had a chance inside of such a full life to keep up on this blog lately and it is one of the many reasons I am making regular weekly time for creativity in this New Year!

So WELCOME BACK to ME and to YOU!!!

I hope you will follow along with US on this ride. I have used the word “US” a lot lately. It is an interesting concept to really look around in life and see how many US’s you may be involved in! I guarantee there is a lot!

I look at US in many ways…but one particular US I will be referring to on a regular basis is the US that is inside of the Peabody Center for Well-Being!

I have REAL-LIFED a dream and I have been joined by a group of awesome health and wellness professionals that I will be sharing about through our time together.

Don’t worry, it is not all business here as there are a whole lot of other areas of life I like to share about as well.

I will probably use the concept of US as I share from many angles of the many US’s I am involved with.

Be sure to stay tuned! ….and WELCOME BACK!!!

FOUR YEARS

So many things can happen over the course of four years. Four years ago today, June 14, I purchased Big Blue. Some people say that I should have started referring to it as THE CENTER or something more “on brand”. But honestly, Big Blue was mentioned at one point and stuck and so here we are.

I share this story a lot but I first saw the building on Zillow. My Mom and I are always looking around at real estate on that app just to see what is out there. When I saw the building, I sent a quick screen shot and message to my realtor. “What is up with this place? What is the story?”

His response, “I don’t know but let’s go and take a look!”

It used to be an assisted living facility so when we initially walked through we had to pretend that we were “looking for a spot for family members to live”. A sale like that that had to be that way due to the business and employees and how the sale was being concealed.

Prior to going inside, my Mom and I said to each other, “let’s take a look but more than likely this place will smell weird, be weird or be unrecoverable from what it had been through.”

Half way through this 10,000 sq ft beauty, my Mom and I both looked to each other and said “Wow this place is amazing and already set up for what I want to do.”

And so the due diligence process began. That started in February of 2018 and I finally closed June 14.

When patients visit us for the first time, they look around in awe of the beauty that is so natural to Big Blue. Even after 130 years, it has the original woodwork, original wood stain color and craftmanship that is not seen in current day construction. It is absolutely beautiful and feels like working inside of a museum. If only the walls could talk, I can only begin to imagine the stories they would share.

The purchase of Big Blue has not been without its downfalls though. As most of you know, I had a very serious “life sidekick” when I began this project. That didn’t last like we had planned which threw life through a loop…but here we are still standing and thriving inside this space.

We have many businesses join us over the past 4 years, incredible practitioners helping to increase the health and wellness in and around our beautiful community. The services offered inside Big Blue include: chiropractic care, massage therapy, supplements, acupuncture, family therapy, psychotherapy, speech therapy, esthetician, life coach, reiki master, photography as well as connection with hypnotherapy and functional medicine. As you can probably imagine, there are a few more business partnerships in the works for the future.

The practitioners that are currently in our building have taken great pride to enhance their office spaces and I will share a sneak peek into their working spaces in the near future so you can get a feel. I feel fortunate to have business owners taking such pride in beatifying their office spaces.

There is a “special something” in the air at this spot that is inherent to the building itself. Although the business prior to us did well, a revived energy to Big Blue has been a welcomed addition to the center of our growing and bustling downtown Fenton.

People often say “I have driven by this building thousands of times, I am so glad to be able to finally see inside!”

There is a long, beautiful and thriving future for this building and we are so happy to be just the ones to help make that happen!

Swing in and say hello! Or get in touch with one of the providers inside of the building and experience for yourself. I am in awe of the first four years, I can only imagine what the next four years will bring!

EXPANSION

As we were navigating a busy day at the office, a patient began to ask questions that led me to share a bit about what is currently happening in and around the Cafe of LIFE and the Center for Well-Being.
As I answered the questions, he said, “WAIT! You are expanding your office during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC?!?”
“Yes, I guess I am.”
As we have navigated this crazy year, there have been many opportunities thrown my way. And although I had so much on my plate already, I began to step, SLOWLY step, in the direction that has gotten us to the point we are at today.
Which is truly just the beginning.
I wanted to take a moment just to clarify all the things happening in and around the Center for Well-Being and also the Cafe of LIFE.
In the spring, Dr Navpreet Saini-Conn reached out to me to share that, after working 2 years in Brighton, she wanted to move up to Fenton and open a practice.
We sat down to a few conversations and it turns out she is a great fit for our office and she has joined us. She will be building her own practice alongside what we already have here and the great thing is that THERE IS SPACE for her to do just that. She joined us at the beginning of October and she will be sharing more and more as the time goes on. We won’t be seeing each other’s patients but there is possibility for us to fill in for each other, if ever the need arises.
We moved Dr. Nav into the rooms that you are all used to our massage therapists being in and so we have moved them on to BIG AND BEAUTIFUL rooms in another section of the building. Many of you have already had a chance to experience this new massage therapy area and have given us lots of positive feedback of how peaceful and cozy it is.

We have added 2 more massage therapists to our team to accommodate the demand on our schedule and you will be seeing Rachael and Anna in and around the office. They are incredible and are both talented in their work and enjoy being part of our already established team of great therapists, Stephanie and Laura.
We have had Lauren Lay, MSW, a family therapist, renting space on our second floor for the past year and she has MANY RAVING FANS! If you are looking for a good therapist in the area, she is a really great place to start!
Many of you have seen Michigan Community Holistic Health, Sabrina Bastian, who has been offering acupuncture and other services in the other part of the building. Throughout the last 18 months, her patient base has expanded and she has added 3 more treatment rooms to what she was already doing!

We have a commercial kitchen in the back part of our building and if you are looking for a great meal prep service, Feed Me Michigan is prepping meals through the weekend and we are a pick-up spot for those who have ordered ahead of time! We have additional days available inside our kitchen space in case you are someone you know are in need of certified commercial kitchen space.
A couple other businesses we have teamed up with are Optimize Hypnosis and an incredible functional medicine practitioner in the local area.
I remember when I purchased the building 2.5 years ago…the constant mantra of all those around me was (just like the Field of Dreams) “if you build it, they will come.” It is incredible when I really look around at what has happened in the past 2.5 years and just how much the Center for Well-Being has come to life, THEY REALLY DID COME!!!
This building is an ongoing project, 10,000 sq ft of space and half of that being 130 years old, it is naturally always going to be a project. I have an incredible team and am bringing more staff on board to help as it grows and evolves. I have a continuous checklist of stuff that needs to be done, but to be honest with all of you, I am happy to be the one that the Universe sent to take care of this place.
As I was busy designing our new massage suite and expanding our adjusting space and spending a lot of after hours time doing the work, it reminds me back to the beginnings (the initial help has moved on in life, thank goodness) and how it feels like a big playground for creation. All in all, it has actually been a lot of fun to repurpose.
As I stated before, this is only the beginning and the natural attraction to the building, location and charm has let us become the “go-to” spot for all things health and wellness for the entire family.

NOURISHING

I have not been one that has much time to spend on gardening or flowers or tending to things in the yard. I am learning a lot about nourishing this summer.

I have walked through many greenhouses in my life. I have always been inspired by the beauty of them but I also remember having to plant marigolds growing up and then weeding that garden and it wasn’t something that was enjoyable as a kid. At all. So I brought that concept into adulthood. I love indoor plants and always have, but this season has been about nourishing outdoor plants as well.

One thing I would always notice while walking through greenhouses are those drip hoses that go continuously. I ALWAYS thought a constant drip to every single one of those plants seemed excessive. My thoughts would go to “gosh that is a lot of water and why can’t they just water them a couple times a week and call it good?”

Um…yeah. I am learning this year.

I have beautiful planters at my home and they are filled with petunias and greens. I have a couple hanging baskets and at one point, I bought enough at one of the greenhouses that they offered me a free tomato plant.

So here I am with these BEAUTIFUL planters and now is the time to begin nourishing them. I bought the proper fertilizer and a nice watering can and I am good.

I began to give them a good dousing of water and then put my watering can away for a couple days. I would leave in the morning for work and continue on with my life. By the end of the second day the petunias would shrivel up and threaten to “off” themselves. So I would douse them again and then try to put my watering can away for a couple days and they would do it again…and again and again.

So I started to learn that these things need to be nourished every single day. It took me about 3 weeks to realize this and I would hear people say “I just didn’t want to be a tied to my yard and garden this year and so I didn’t plant anything.”

The indoor house plants are on a weekly watering schedule. The outdoor plants are on a daily watering schedule. When I took a few days away from my home, I was more concerned that my plants get watered every single day than anything else since I had invested so much time into them. Fortunately for me, my Mom lives close and she was able to stop by every single day to do that, but they are THRIVING!!!

I am learning a lot from my moody petunias this summer. The main lesson: If you want something to grow and flourish, it is important to nourish it every single day!

I have had this awareness in a lot of areas in my life through lessons over the years however this beautiful representation in my life right now is so timely…and I am bringing it back to focus on myself.

It is my greatest joy to work with my patients every week, they bring such good energy to my life, my heart and my soul. Doing the work that I do, I have found great purpose in helping people regain their health, uplevel their health and continue to thrive inside of their bodies. And I have learned that ready or not, you will all show up at or office as soon as our doors open.

I spend a good portion of my downtime prepping my body and mind to be ready to serve at my office. I am doing all the things I tell you to do: Eat good food, exercise, keep a sound mind, stress management, connection and rest. But those are the bare minimum. This alone time, quarantine time, has been devoted to finding more nourishing things I can do within the guidelines set by this crazy time. Watering my plants is one of them.

My days begin with letting the dog out to do his business while I fill the watering can for the first time. It takes 3 fills to nourish the plants I have right now and a little time pulling off dead portions and discarding so the plant can send more good juju to the thriving areas.

It brings a lot of joy to my heart and soul to nourish these and experience what the daily nourishing leads to. As I look ahead, I have often wondered if I have to water every single day, will I plant as much next year? The benefit and enjoyment of them WAY outweighs the time it takes to nourish them. It is a 10x payback from this act of nourishing.

Look around in your life. What are you spending your time nourishing? Is it an even exchange or are you being depleted by it? Are you nourishing yourself? Nourishing your body? Nourishing your mind? Nourishing your soul? Nourishing your connections? Nourishing your family? Nourishing your relationships? Nourishing your community? What a beautiful thing!!