Читать книгу Pearls of Wisdom - Pure & Powerful - Dr. Liz Anderson Peacock - Страница 4

I remember the day I “discovered” Chiropractic. It was life changing. During my years in university, I watched many friends go into their respective fields after two years of “pre-whatever.” Dentistry, medicine, and law were the common ones. I was unsure what I would do after earning my Bachelor of Science, but decided I would finish the program to buy time for choosing my career.

At that time, I knew three people who entered a profession called Chiropractic. I had never heard of a Chiropractor. I had no idea what they did, but was curious. When my friends and I reunited after their first year in their programs, the medical students looked spent, complained of exhaustion, hair loss, ulcers and many were taking multiple meds. In contrast, the Chiropractic students, though tired from the rigorous hours of academics, were generally more excited about life, could hardly wait to explain how the body functions and to apply their newly learned knowledge. They wanted to palpate landmarks on people. They wanted to see and experience people. It struck me as peculiar, since both of the professions had similar academic studies in the first year. I assumed it was due to the culture of how things were taught through the institutions. Their personas’ made an indelible impression on me.

As I continued through university, I was drawn to study anatomy. In my fourth year, I enrolled in a comparative anatomy course and an anatomy of mammals course. Both involving anatomical drawings of my dissections, along with the interplay of comparing structure and function. In my fourth year working a summer job with parks and recreation in Alberta, I hurt my low back and went to my first Chiropractic appointment.

So I went to a Chiropractor: Dr. Judy Forrester in Calgary. She asked me about my history, and while performing an examination, checked my full spine. While palpating my neck, she inquired about sinus problems, allergies, stuffy nose, watery eyes and asked if I experienced any symptoms.

To make a long story short, I experienced severe environmental allergies as a child, endured ten years of allergy shots and multiple medications. I remember back to the age of five chewing Allerest, Dimetapp or Pyribenzamine before swallowing with a glass of water. I had an air purifier in my bedroom. My family resided on a beautiful fresh water lake in Barrie, Ontario. I was a very enthusiastic and active tomboy, and loved to swim and play outdoors. Suffering from allergies began every year in June and continued through the first frost.

So Dr. Judy’s question struck me as interesting. Since I had been taking the medications, I assumed all was well within. I appreciated the break from symptoms the meds provided so I could continue on with life. When she asked, I remember thinking, “What does my neck have to do with allergies?”

The Chiropractor asked me the cause of my allergies, and I made the standard reply, “Primarily dust, molds, dander and pollens.”

She asked, “Why?”

I replied, “Because my body is releasing too much histamine when exposed to allergens.”

She asked, “Why is your body making too much histamine?”

I gave a circular reply, “Because it is reacting to the pollens, dust, dander and mold.”

Realizing I was not understanding her point, she changed her line of questioning and asked, “If you and I are breathing the same air, wouldn’t we both be breathing air with the same pollens?”

I nodded a yes.

“If you and I are breathing the same pollens in the air, then shouldn’t we both be having the same response if the allergens were the true cause of allergies?”

I had no answer. I thought my symptoms were due to allergens and by taking drugs and allergy shots the problem would resolve. I never thought to ask why my body was doing something different than other people. I had never considered asking or looking at how other people may have been living their lives differently from me.

She then explained the modulating effect of the nervous system on the immune system, and how they communicate with one other. She said I likely had an insult in my neck at some point in my past, impacting my body’s ability to adapt to the environment. My body was responding, but not appropriately for the situation.

I went home and asked my mother about the possibility of a childhood trauma, and she noted that I experienced two black eyes during a car accident at around age two. No seatbelt laws in those days, and I was in the front seat. The collision caused me to fly out of the seat and hit the dashboard headfirst. I was checked-out by doctors and told I was fine, although my mother does not remember my neck being checked.

In consideration of Dr. Judy’s proposition of a childhood trauma causing insult to my neck, I thought back to my younger years. I used to see how many steps I could jump in-flight down the stairs in my house. Most of the time I landed on the pillows – the operative word being ‘most.’ Also, there were the bicycle wrecks: riding into the side of the house multiple times because I did not know how to use the brakes, or the time a stick was caught in the spokes of my front wheel and I fell on my face chipping a tooth. I played sports, fell out of trees, and so on; pick one incident, they were all physically traumatic.

To Change Others Worlds, First Change Yourself

I retuned to Dr. Judy’s office and had my first adjustment and my world changed. My low back was not nearly as important to me as resolving my allergies. Of course, at first I did not fully grasp the importance of rest and diet. I did not yet understand how they affected the chemistry within my body, particularly the excitability of my neuro-immune system. But, upon my first adjustment, my allergies improved immediately by about 75-80 percent. I stopped the drugs; I stopped the allergy shots, and felt like I had a new found life. As if someone removed earmuffs from my ears and the fog clouding my brain, I felt able to process information faster, and with greater clarity and integration.

The following fall semester I entered Chiropractic as a career.

Without A Plan

Upon graduating from Chiropractic school, I was without a plan. I fell back on some opportunities, but in retrospect I had not fully prepared myself for the work required to begin a practice. I thought, like many, I would graduate and people would just start pouring into my office for care. I thought the hard part (school) was over. What a wake up call.

I began what I referred to as my ‘default practice’ in a location and a city I was not fond of. A smarter person would have asked “Why?” Sometimes the things we need to learn are so apparent to others, but in the moment not to ourselves. Practice was slow, arduous and I was depressed. I had done well in school, yet in my first practice felt like an utter failure. I had never envisioned I would experience complications starting out. Everything seemed so difficult. I worked long hours and commuted a great distance for a number of months. I woke up at 4:30 AM and returned home by 9:30 PM. In retrospect, if I had a patient working those hours five and a half days a week including Saturday mornings, I would have said it was unsustainable over time.

When the winter came, I moved closer to the office. But still, I muscled through every moment. I was not congruent with what I advised to patients, not eating well nor living well. In the morning, I grabbed coffee and something with high sugar content to stimulate my energy. By the time I returned home in the evening, I was no longer hungry; if I ate it kept me awake later. I was in the vicious cycle of being too tired for physical activity, and made the clichéd excuse of ‘not having enough time’ to exercise. I was so unhappy and heading in a downward spiral.

At the end of one day, I remember sitting by my bookshelf seeing a piece of paper between two books. I pulled it out, an essay I wrote prior to school on why I wanted to become a Chiropractor. “To change lives, to make a difference, to be of service, to use my brain and physical skills.” My eyes welled-up in disappointed with myself. I felt deep sadness and embarrassment. I sat blaming everyone else, shifting the responsibility elsewhere, not yet accepting it as my own. I remember thinking I would just leave the profession and do something else; that it was not for me. I almost did. I knew something needed to change. Not long after that evening, I began to realize it was me.

There Are No Failures, Only Lessons

About the same time as my practice seemed to be failing, my intimate relationship with a colleague was failing. Neither of us was happy. I am sure I contributed mostly to our dismay, as I was so miserable I didn’t even want to be around myself. So I relished in my ‘pauvre moi’ attitude, repelling most everyone around me.

The pivotal decision to leave that practice, the relationship, my house, and to move was instrumental for my future growth. By no means was it easy, though. I remember packing and traveling ‘home’ to the town where I grew up, the same town my parents retired back to. My move back home was the sort of retreat with one’s tail between their legs, very humbling and with feelings of inadequacy. My parents showed nothing less than loving support, and had more confidence in me than I did in myself. All I knew, I was starting over. Moving forward on my own, I created a sink or swim situation: no one to rescue me, my outcome fully dependent upon me. Unknowingly at that time, I was creating a springboard for my future.

After my move, I reconnected with former Chiropractic classmates, who loved what they were doing in their practices. I asked them what they had done to help themselves in practice. They noted, “The Carter Program.” I asked what it entailed, and they said I just had to experience it.

I remember receiving the registration material and thinking I could not afford the fees. In deep thought, I recognized that what I was enduring had to be more painful than change. Knowing I did not want to repeat what I had preciously created, I needed to do something drastically different. Sometimes we change when the pain of the same becomes greater than the pain of change, and that was my primary motivator to join the program.

Unaware of the synchronicity, I listened to a cassette tape series: “You See It When You Believe It,” by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Parts of the series hit me like a ton of bricks. My paraphrased memory of his words resonate, “Why worry about things you can change, because if you can change them then just change them.” Furthermore, “Why worry about things you cannot change, because if you cannot control them in any way, let them go.” Simple to say, difficult to do, yet the concept encouraged me then, and carries with me still.

Anew in my hometown, I began reorganizing my life. I introduced myself to local colleagues. Two said, “Don’t come here, it is pretty full,” implying the city reached a saturation of Chiropractors. There were about eight or nine at the time. The others embraced me with open arms. I thought, “Humm, interesting,” making a mental note of the two with a scarcity complex.

I was granted a bank loan – but only with the co-signing of a male. Although very thankful to my father for co-signing, I wondered if the same would have been required if I was male. It only fed my determination. I made my own bench tables and upholstered them myself, acquired used office furniture, then hired an assistant – the small business grant affording the initial months of her employment.

I opened my small practice and attended my first Carter Program. Formidable, it addressed full-on responsibility, commitment and accountability in everything we think, say and do. The top three ‘take home lessons’ from the program included:

1.Practice reflects me, and professional growth is in accordance to personal growth.

2.If I do not like an outcome, I change something; only I can foster change, no one else.

3.Practice is about being of service to patients first. Meet them where they are; listen, educate, provide choices and guidance. Service to others always comes first. Everything you think, say and do is intended as benefit.

At times, we have all been in circumstances of absolute frustration, fear and despair. I testify I would not change one part of this process, for the lessons promoted my growth.

Responsibility On A New Level

I learned responsibility is a duty first to oneself to commit fully to what one says one will do, and having the discipline to live by one’s word. Responsibility makes us trustworthy, reliable and solid. Responsibility means when one commits to something or someone, it is seen through. If things should drastically change and a commitment is broken, then one is upfront and honest to modify the agreement.

The change I yearned for presented within each part of my day. Implementing organizational procedures, I reduced my hours, served more people, attended seminars and still had time to read and exercise. Within six months, I developed my practice to its full capacity, which has been maintained throughout my career. I met wonderful like-minded colleagues and we gathered for philosophical discussions. To gain clarity, we asked why we do what we do? We had regular mastermind meetings, challenging each other to be better, to serve in more ways. As I grew, so did my practice. I am grateful to Jim Carter and remember fondly and cherish the colleagues I met during the ‘Carter Days.’

Ask For Help And It Will Appear

I was delivered into a higher sphere of influence. My study of the works by Dr. John Demartini in the latter part of the Eighties continued to expand my mind: Breakthrough, quantum healing, spiritual healing, speed-reading. I attended DE’s in Atlanta, Sigafoose’s Gathering, “Little Crow,” also known as Ron Gentry. Gentry was an apprentice to an elder in the Choctaw tribe, and lead me through arrowhead and Native American teachings.

Each of my breakthroughs connected me more intimately with my heart and intuition, guiding me towards yet more lessons for growth. Over this time, I met my current husband Barry, who continues to offer great influence in my life.

When I was the ready student, the teachers appeared. In the early Nineties, I started attending Seminars, such as Total Solutions, Pure and Powerful, and have continued regular attendance at Parker Seminars since 1990. The seminars I attended early on in my career were most impressionable. Without question, I admit any seminar could have inspired the creative change needed within me. I eagerly ran after my dreams and the vision of my practice.

Passion For People, Profession And Principle

The combination of the colleagues I spent time with and the seminars I attended filled my heart and stirred a serious passion to serve my community, as well as the profession. While also being very serious, I certainly have fun while serving both.

My vocation exists due to my community – specifically, the patients I serve daily. I offer gratitude to patients and the community at large for their support and for providing a wonderful lifestyle and surrounding environment for living. With thanks I give back, maintaining the flow and balance of what comes in with what goes out. If I covet what comes in, the Universal Principle of motion is broken. As B.J. Palmer said, “Motion is Life and Life is Motion.” His thought applies on both a macroscopic and quantum level. Involvement with supporting groups and charities is one way to complete the cycle of giving and receiving.

The ability to practice relies heavily upon governing bodies and associations. In support of the growth of my profession, I am compelled to serve on a variety of committees as opportunity arises. I feel strongly about stepping forward to serve on behalf of a cause greater than myself.

A profession is a reflection of those within it, every voice and opinion matters. Each quantifiably adds up to determine the tone and direction of a profession. We are carrying a torch from forefathers before us, persecuted and jailed merely because they were Chiropractors. What if they gave up on their ideals, or allowed their Principles to be over ruled by the masses? Where would we be today?

Sitting on numerous boards and committees in many ways has been an eye opener, providing visibility of the various schools of thought. I have gained appreciation of others’ perspectives, even if I may not fully agree with them.

Within our profession exists a remarkable breadth and depth to naturally attract different populations of people. The organizing Principles of D.D. Palmer, B.J. Palmer, and Stephenson lay our ground. Fundamentally, we are based on a Vitalistic model. The daily practice and application of the Laws of Life and Vitalistic Universal Principles distinguish Chiropractic within the field of health care. Our celebration comes with being able to maintain our uniqueness to manifest a divine shift in flow of current health systems.

To understand how we have been delivered to where we are today, and to connect with our pioneers, I joined groups with a long list of our professions’ historical figures. I met some really old, old-timers and felt blessed to break bread with them, hearing their stories before they passed.

Now, I realize sitting on committees or serving in elected offices is not for everyone. There are many ways to serve and make an impact. Being supportive of like-minded individuals, attending meetings, asking questions, donating to schools, research groups, and other similarly resonating organizations are all models of service. When financially supporting a group, you have the right to ask questions, as you are a co-partner, on some level. Invariably, when one asks a question, others are wondering the same thing. Posing and answering questions creates clarity.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

~ John Anster, in a ‘very free’ translation of Faust from 1835

In practice, when I kept rooted in our philosophy and talked the ‘TIC,’ I saw miracles; if I strayed or began to coast, I did not. In accordance with the founding Principles, I asked patients why they lived the way they lived, and what they thought about how they lived their lives. I asked them to consider if there might be better ways. I asked them to connect with their feelings and become aware of their body through the course of their day. I invited them to be accountable for their life, how they were living, and to spend time in it. If they did not like their results, I asked them to use themselves as their own experiment to monitor change.

I asked patients where they would rank themselves on a sliding scale ranging from death to super-ideal health. I asked them what they needed to do to move in the direction they wanted. We created baby steps for their success, and of course revisited and adjusted accordingly. This created freedom for me in practice, and placed the responsibility of health squarely on patients. In addition to locating and correcting areas of interference with their bodies, my job was to teach patients about the Principles and the supremacy of the nervous system, and support them in making changes.

Some were ready and some were not. Those that were, prepared and took action; those not ready were pretty much upfront about it. Some had no idea change was needed; but when presented, they became curious and asked questions.

In Life, To Each Their Own Path – Celebrate It

Every one of us is on a path. The illuminated path reveals itself in different ways. When an opportunity presents itself, we may or may not feel prepared. We may be focused on evolving in one area of our life and not in others. Transformation is not a linear process. There is a common tendency to revert back to old habits, falling into the comfortable and familiar. Neither good nor bad, it just is. I see my job as creating opportunity and providing inspiration for people to evoke positive change along their path.

Continue Being A Student In Life

For me, I know when I am not adapting; I feel restless and stagnant. In stagnation, I become complacent, a bit bored and dull. My inner light does not shine as brightly. I like to continually be learning and I love a challenge. I have encountered this restlessness a few times in my career, and it has one way or another caused upheavals as well as pleasant alterations.

When I developed a very successful practice in serving patients and enjoying them, I wondered if there was more ‘out there’ for me. I had some remarkable experiences with children teaching me yet another dimension of Chiropractic and healing. I considered entering (at that time) the only available Pediatric Diplomat program available, offered through the cooperation of Palmer and the ICA. Since its inception, Chiropractic has always served children and pregnant moms-to-be, though before the early Nineties not many formal diplomats or academic programs focused on mothers and children. Palmer and the ICA began their Pediatric Diplomat in 1994.

I flew from Toronto to Chicago thirty times over three years, and eventually earned the Diplomat in Chiropractic Pediatrics. With application of my newly learned knowledge to practical experiences with patients, I was intellectually stimulated. Although I had not planned it, my interest in pediatrics eventually opened doors to opportunities with numerous groups. Expanding my practice into the areas of prenatal and pediatric care shifted my practice into what I call a ‘generations practice.’ Multiple generations of families saw us as their primary healthcare provider.

I remember my eyes flooding with tears when a mother with a wonderful family reminisced on how their oldest daughter had poor confidence in school. The daughter’s teacher predicted she might not make it through high school, advising the family not to expect much from her. I wondered, what kind of person does that – thinking they can determine a child or any other human being’s potential from their limited point of view? From a Chiropractic perspective, her daughter’s upper cervical spine was very subluxated. The mother remembered my encouraging words for her daughter. I said, although I did not know her abilities, I did know she was put on this earth for a reason and she needed to find out what it was, then go for it. Further, I explained the interference in her upper neck could be choking her potential or clouding her from her purpose, confusing her. If the interference is removed, the ability of her body to function would improve. With the first adjustments, she remembers her life changing. Her academic marks improved, as did her self-esteem. She is a remarkable lady.

The same mother also had two other children, the youngest borne while she was under Chiropractic care throughout the pregnancy. One day in passing, the mother mentioned that her youngest said, “I know if anything ever happens and I can not get home, I can go to Dr. Liz for help.” I was deeply touched by a child’s trust in me.

In practice, there have been many days of eyes welling up with the stories people share. As Chiropractors, we care for the person with the body, rather than the other way around. Providing a safe environment within a community is large part of practice, and is reflected by patients’ trust in us.

Unconditionally Loving Our Patients

Sometimes we need to unconditionally love our patients when they do not love themselves. We need to give them hope and see their potential. This begins with unconditionally loving our self, and attending to our own needs outside the office in order to be able to serve within it. We need to appreciate all sides of ourselves – all shades, positives and negatives, and respect both. How could we help others and be fully present if they push our buttons for our own needs? People come to us and our responsibility is to be fully present for them. To be fully present we need to train ourselves to focus on being in the present-time whenever we are with another. This is central to what we do, as a moment feels like an eternity when someone is truly with us. In that moment, we see their whole being, and most importantly they sense our non-judgment and support.

When we establish an environment based on trust, patients feel safe enough to be vulnerable on many levels. They confide, they are respectful and become open to recommendations. Their trust is earned over time, and it only takes one moment to break. A lapse in our healing consciousness can irrevocably change the relationship and environment for healing for patients.

To borrow from a North American Arrowhead teaching, we need to be “Aware, Awake and Alert” in each moment. Through practice, our procedures become entrained to a point of unconscious competence and we do not have to think about them. Those procedures become an automatic extension of our services. When this occurs, we are free to “sense” what is going on around us: mastering our visual observation, listening to the energy behind the words aurally, and feeling the tone of the body through palpation. We tune in with our intuition for connecting with another person.

To illustrate, I remember as a student learning to palpate and adjust. I thought I was really hallucinating in my attempts to palpate the difference between muscle, fascia, joint-play and other anatomical landmarks such as TVP’s. By the time I was setting-up for an adjustment, my whole body was tense. My actions were totally in my head, mechanically thinking through each part. I was so tight there was nothing left for the adjustment, as all my muscles were already loaded.

The concept of intuitive actions applies to the performance of elite athletes. When instinctive awareness takes over, they truly become one with their activity or sport. If they become nervous, their body tenses and they lose their edge and form. Just as learning the skills of a sport, learning the mechanics and steps of Chiropractic was not easy. Through practice and experience palpating and adjusting came as second nature, without conscious thought. Akin to becoming an artist, it is difficult to breakdown and describe exactly how an adjustment is delivered: because when you think about it, you destroy it. Rather, when the adjustment is instinctive, the hands just know what to do.

When I mentor other students struggling with palpation and adjusting skills, I am reminded of what it was like for me as a student. Everyone learns differently, yet the consistency is that practice comes between performance. Learn the basics, then get out of your heads – stop thinking and begin being. Keep practicing, as practice leads to certainty and mastery.

Learning develops through four stages:

1.Unconscious incompetence – we do not know what we do not know.

2.Conscious incompetence – we know we do not know.

3.Conscious competence – we know what we know, but we have to think about it.

4.Unconscious Competence – we no longer have to think about it, we just do it.

Just about every learned process or set of skills goes through the stages: from learning to drive a car, to developing the skills of a trade. When daily procedures become an unconsciously competent habit, it frees our awareness to listen and observe the nuances.

This unconscious competence is core to the delivery of a masterful adjustment. The adjustment is our expression of Chiropractic. No other profession can deliver it as well as Chiropractors. The adjustment represents the cumulative integration of our Principles with our individual understanding of the anatomy, philosophy and science of the human body. It is what a patient will partly judge us by. It needs to be delivered cleanly, accurately and with focused intent. This requires confidence and certainty that is gained through repetition, observation of and critique by colleagues, and practice. There is never enough practice, as we always have potential for improving. An artist cannot say they have created their masterpiece since one to come may still be in their future. An athlete may have a personal best, but cannot know for sure they have truly turned in a best performance. There could always be one more, one better yet.

The Universe Gives Us What We Can Handle

At times, I may judge what has been placed before me, but know I am a co-creator in it. What I learned more than anything else is that one can be brilliant and talented, but if not lead first by the heart, it is more difficult to push ahead. I am constantly learning deeper levels of turning inwardly to ask for guidance and trust my heart and intuition, rather than my head. Whenever I have followed the advice of my head or intellect I regretted it. The conflict comes because I enjoy spending time in my head – analyzing and reflecting, debating and discussing. With recent events in my life, I am learning to let go and just be. Just being is an art. You will read about my journey in a future book yet to be published.

When faced with challenge, I realize it is a test for me to learn and grow. I may look to others who have experienced a similar event in their life. I ask how they dealt with it. Overall, the Universe will not drop more than we can handle into our lap.

People Do Not Care What You Know

Until They Feel You Care

Knowing statistics and health data does not change most people’s lifestyles. If it did, we would all be at our ideal weight, eating organic foods, drinking clean purified water, sleeping an appropriate amount, detoxifying, practicing mindfulness, and reducing stresses. Knowing the data does not change our behavior. Emotions, feelings and attachments change us. So in order for what we know to be heard, we need to appeal to others on their level, and meet them where they are. Once we have a relationship, eventually they become willing to hear our advice. Connect with hearts, then minds.

In making connections, I remember a particular patient, a male teenager. His dream was to become a pilot like his dad. He had severe long-term chronic asthma, and was devastated when he heard he did not qualify as a pilot due to the scarring within his lungs, and his poor pulmonary function.

In his mid-teenage years, he began being adjusted in my office on a regular basis. His use of inhalers decreased; in addition, the acute attacks that frequently sent him to the hospital Emergency wards began to reduce. I once visited him in the hospital. He was in a tent with secondary oxygen and was running a poor oxygen saturation rate. His breathing was labored, rapid, shallow, and he was using his accessory breathing muscles to assist his breathing. I asked for and was granted permission to adjust him. He was adjusted and within seconds, everything – and I mean everything – normalized. The rapid, labored breathing relaxed into rhythmic breaths, his oxygen saturation returned to within normal range, and his body relaxed. The attending nurse stood – eyes wide-open – frozen in place. Speechless. He returned home within a couple of hours.

A few years later, I received a thank you note from his mother stating her sons’ dream to become a pilot became reality. He had no lung scarring and pulmonary function tests were within qualifying ranges. He had no medication and no bouts of asthma.

We connect with people and help them to connect with their dreams. We make a difference in people’s lives. These experiences allow us to gain a quiet certainty with what we do. A confidence in knowing that no matter what is going on from the outside in, if the inside is not communicating, then the rest does not matter. The presence of life allows the body to be organized. Interference with life reduces efficiency of the body’s ability to function properly. If the body cannot perceive its environment accurately and resend at its full magnitude, then it will respond with a less than favorable adaptive choice, perhaps making an error in the process by finding a less than ideal way. If the body continues to operate this way over time it deteriorates human vitality.

Who We Unfold To Become

We all experience rough times and bumpy roads along our path, as they are a part of life. It’s not the obstacles that are most important, but rather who we become as a result of overcoming them. As an example, in a span of a few years a number of personal challenges were thrown my way. In respect for time, I explain with minimal detail by saying there were the unrelated deaths of my godmother, my father-in-law, my father, my sister-in-law and our oldest sixteen-year-old dog. In the same year, I had another dog hit and dragged by a truck and survive, a mother who had congestive heart failure, a mother-in-law who suffered an extensive stroke, and a brother who’s experimental brain surgery kept him in the ICU for twelve weeks during the SARS epidemic. In addition, I had a vehicular accident, when my car skidded on black ice, rolled-over and crossed two lanes of on-coming traffic. With all of these events I did not slow down, but kept my usual pace. These significant events were not fully dealt with; I just chalked them up as more life experience. I dealt with them intellectually, but not emotionally. I shifted more into my head and stayed there. I kept myself busy, which was the first clue I was not fully connecting with my feelings.

Dealing with my emotions was inconvenient. I did not want to stop what I was doing. My avoidance was excused by not having time to feel. Over time, life slowly began to feel more difficult and I became frustrated with any little mishap. Being strong, I muscled through it all using my stamina and endurance, focusing on the tasks needing to be completed. I was so busy doing I did not see it.

I recognized my disconnection when I finally caught myself saying, “I think;” whereas I more commonly say, “I feel.” A variety of other events also occurred to the point I had to literally stop to reassess who I was and how I defined myself. The doing stopped so I could just focus on being. Over the years, my neurology has been wired to the process of activity and busy-ness, and to stop long enough to change my neurology felt cruelly difficult.

“There is no process which does not require time,” Principle #6 of Stephenson’s 33 Principles. Knowing this still becomes difficult to apply. For someone accustomed to being busy, allowing time to unravel is not an easy transition for change. A principle in neuroscience is: “Neurons that Fire together, Wire together.” The reverse is also true. So I worked on reversing my neurological wiring.

With my re-evaluation of who I was unfolding to become, I began loving the down time. I needed to be reminded of who I am and distinguish it from what I do. In retrospect, it was quite plain that my outer world was reflecting my inner world. I am thankful to the Universe for providing me with the chaotic challenges, for they served as a wake up call to making change.

‘Response – Ability’ is aptly named because humans live and experience life through their nervous system. Our ability to respond has everything to do with the quality and quantity of our nervous system function. A healthy response is free to be creative. Through our ‘response – ability’ we communicate who we are to the world. In our practices, our ability to palpate demonstrates and communicates to patients our wisdom supporting what we do. In life, our response to the world determines outcomes. What we are capable of ‘seeing and not seeing’ is dictated by the limitations in our perception and experience. Our ability to adapt in the world determines our survival and health. Responsibility is an inside out process.

When we adjust our thoughts and adjust our actions, we adjust our life. Like Chiropractic, when life is pure it is without a doubt powerful.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives. It is not the fastest of the species that survives. It is the one most able to adapt to change.

~ Charles Darwin

•To help others, first change yourself.

•There is no failure, only lessons.

•Ask for help and it appears.

•Continue being a student of life.

•Love them when they do not love themselves.

•We each have a unique path – celebrate it!

•The journey is everything.