Years ago, I was clothing shopping with my best friend (and if you know me, you know this was a huge chore! I find shopping exhausting and overwhelming most of the time). But she taught me something that has stuck with me not only for fashion decisions, but for all decisions in general. 

She said, "when you wear an outfit, you either think HELL YES or the answer is 'no'."

HELL YES or nope.

And she was totally right! To this day, I'll only purchase an item if I really think ABSOF**INGLUTELY YES....otherwise, the answer is no.

And it's spilled over into the rest of my life, from what to eat for dinner to whether to stay in a relationship to deciding where to live. Because I want more of that expansive, amazing, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER feeling...

Watching and reading the news can be a huge source of stress...it's full of tragedy and crime and upset...honestly, it would be strange if you DIDN'T feel depressed when watching or reading the news these days! 

Whenever I would visit my grandmother, she'd often have the news just running in the background in the kitchen (a central gathering place in her home). I know many people who are set up to get constant news alerts on their phones. But how much news is too much news? 

It's crucial that we stay informed and educated, yes absolutely. But by filling your consciousness with all the bad and depressing news out there, we can lose sight of all the good in the world too. And every time you're bombarded with news of how dangerous and horrible the world is, that triggers your brain into fight-or-flight reaction...and over time, this dramatically compromises the resilience...

All change is challenging, even in the right direction. Right down to the cellular level, we can be in either bracing + defense mode or healing + growth mode...not both at once.

The solution to working through patient bracing is to create a space that feels safe, and work with them to unwind, rather than trying to forcibly do something to them (even if it seems like the right thing).

This may seem like common sense, but it really is that simple!

Creating safe space

Because all change is challenging (even in the right direction), it's imperative that we create an environment that is conducive to shifting into "healing" mode.

Individuals with a history of trauma may be in a state of chronic fight-or-flight mode, which means that all sensory sensitivity is heightened. This means...

What does it really mean to be "resilient" and how can we achieve it? 

When you stop to think about it, it's pretty amazing that palm trees survive storms. The trunks are narrow, and top-heavy fronds catch wind easily. But we all know that the trees most likely to break in a storm are the dead ones - the rigid ones. 

Resilience comes from adaptability: the capacity for fluid motion.

Interpersonal and situational resilience means being able to go with the flow, regardless of what life throws your way.

Structural resilience means taking a hit or a fall without sustained injury. 

Neurological resilience means managing life's unavoidable stressors without springing into fight-or-flight mode at every little thing. Aka you don't lose your cool aka unf*ckwithability

Life is defined by motion. When you stop moving, you die. The aging process is a stiffening, but we can slow that process by restoring + maintaining fluid motion.

Our bodies are...

Whether you're trying to soften your own trouble-spots or facilitate therapeutic change for your patients, these simple steps can help. 

All change is challenging, even in the right direction.

Right down to the cellular level, our systems can be in either healing + growth mode OR protective + bracing mode, but not both simultaneously. When you consciously facilitate that shift into healing mode, the system can soften and unwind, with a more profound ability to release stored tension.

Follow these simple steps next time you're trying to facilitate change - whether in your own system or for a patient - and notice how everything becomes a bit easier.

1. Establish Safety: Since the body can be in either bracing/defense mode OR growth/healing mode and not both simultaneously, the first step must be to help your system identify the environment as a safe environment in which to unwind. This is most often accomplished simply by turning attention to your...

Calling all go-getters, influencers, visionaries, leaders, movers + shakers of the world: 

Most of us know that in order to be healthy, we’re supposed to drink plenty of water, get enough rest, make good food choices, exercise, and do something for our mental health...maybe meditate regularly, journal, or work with a therapist.

There is an absolutely overwhelming amount of information out there about what’s healthy and what’s not, and those recommendations seem to change frequently! So we mostly just try to do a decent job, and just go about our lives...tolerating the increasing allergies, frequent colds + flu (what even is flu season??), headaches, fatigue, grouchy mood swings, indigestion, mental fog...the list goes on.

Meanwhile, I’ve got things to do, family to attend to, work to accomplish, and I don’t have time to slow down and figure out how to fit a 2 hour gym sesh, hours cooking all my meals from scratch, daily yoga and...

What do you actually want to be doing as a chiropractor? Why did you join this profession in the first place?

You think that treating neck and back pain is the path to success as a chiropractor? It’s how most people already think about us, so at least people are already looking for our help with those problems… 

Except that treating pain is HARD.

 Pain is an emotion. It's an interpretation of nociception (and sometimes exists even in the absence of these alarm signals).

Now I’m not saying to ignore people’s pain…but if we stop to think about what chiropractic can really do, it’s really not about treating pain at all. It’s about FEELING (which sometimes means actually feeling the pain that is there). It’s about CONNECTION (between the brain + body, and even our ability to connect socially + spiritually). And it’s about OPTIMIZING...

As a chiropractor, I often find myself reflecting on healing for individuals and for the world. I have come to recognize that all difficulties arise out of a sense of disconnection in one form or another. In fact, our very ability to express life seems directly related to our ability to experience connection: socially, ecologically, spiritually, and particularly in our physical bodies as it relates to nerve communication.

In my upbringing, my parents drew deeply from Native American and also Buddhist and yoga traditions and ways of thinking about spirit. Through this, and my own resulting path of spirit, I have come to believe that we are all deeply connected to one another and to what one might call Great Spirit or Great Mystery or God. There is a Lakota phrase Mitakuye oyasin – "all my relations" – that...