How do we describe the industry of health? How we describe it will in turn influence what we study, how we study it, where and how we focus our energy, talents and resources. So what is it we want? More health? Greater vitality? Improved expression of our potential? What do you want for yourself and your family? Where is your focus? Let’s take “health care”. While the thought is to promote health, “health care” the way we use it is at best early detection or management of an existing problem that has strayed so far off course to be labelled a disease. Meaning that the expression of health is … [Read more...]
The Innate Potential of Life
Isn't life amazing? The force that animates, unifies and organizes substances in such a way to create you? It is awe inspiring when we pause to give thought to just what it would take to develop "you" from two cells at conception to the multi-billion walking, breathing, thinking, feeling person you are. This force innately knows. We don't teach it. It’s already present with life. So give thanks to this day. While perhaps not every day is a "joy-joy" day, we can reframe how we look at what the day brings to make each day better. I know that I can learn from each moment and that tougher days … [Read more...]
Future Thinking
Last week we looked at the salutogenesis model in medicine compared to the pathology model. If you missed it, go there now as this week is a continuation of that post. What we un-covered in that post is that we cannot study disease to create health. Let’s take a look at this model in a social context. When Mother Theresa was asked if she would participate in an anti-war demonstration, she was cited as saying that she would not join a march to denounce war. When asked why, she stated “I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a … [Read more...]
Your Hands
It's all in how you use your hands – easy for me to say since I feel the state of others via my hands. Once I lay my hands on a person, especially their spine, I can pretty much tell the state of that individual's "tone" or stress. That's what we do as chiropractors. Translate the information we feel through our palpation, which is a learned skill, and translate it into what it means. Recently, I was reading the work of Carrie Barron MD who quoted Immanuel Kant "The hand is the window to the mind." We all know your fingerprint identifies your uniqueness. Barron also said that using our … [Read more...]
Lead with Your Heart in Your Work
While we passionately care about what we do in our work, unless the receiver gets it--really feels that we care about them--they won’t care enough to make changes. I remember a patient from many years ago. She was not prioritizing her health in any way and was out-of-shape, in pain, and under a lot of stress. I was delivering great chiropractic care and giving her home routines, plus advising strategies for managing her stress: Yet she changed nothing. She'd come in complaining, but not be invested in doing her part. One day I finally had it. Tired of hearing her whine, I asked her how she … [Read more...]