Life of a Female Chiropractor 4

Happy 2010!  It sure has gotten off to a very fast start.  I feel like it just rolled in and we’re getting ready to turn the page on the calendar to February.  One of the most significant things that has happened in my life as a female chiropractor, is the 2 new chiropractors that have joined my team at Hillarys Chiropractic.

When The Teacher Is Ready, The Student Appears

I have taken on a mentoring role in the practice with 2 new associate chiropractors.  They are both vibrant, enthusiastic and eager to learn. I am committed to assisting them while they embrace and develop into being the best chiropractors that they can be.  With the experience and wisdom of my years in practice, I plan to share and nurture that chiropractic spirit in them to love, give and serve the patients to the best of their ability.

When the Student Is Ready, The Teacher Appears

One of the new mentorees has been a wellness patient of mine for many years.  His understanding of the chiropractic paradigm and commitment to helping people is from the heart.  The other mentoree I had the pleasure of meeting through the other, as they went through the chiropractic course together.   His heart and commitment matches the core values, mission, vision statement of our practice.

Mentoring is a mutually beneficial relationship that involves a more experienced person helping a less experienced person to achieve their goals.

Mentoring provides a unique opportunity to contribute to a student’s career development by sharing knowledge you have acquired through years of experience.

Effective Mentoring

• focuses on the needs of the person being mentored

• fosters caring and supportive relationships within the workplace

• encourages the person being mentored to develop to their optimum potential

As a mentor, the role is one that instructs, helps and guides another in the process of gaining knowledge, understanding and skills.  I want to take this a step further - pointing to something that is already present in the student.  It is like teaching someone to have shoulders.  You can’t really teach someone who already has shoulders, to have shoulders.  However, you can make them more aware of the shoulders they already have.

A mentoring relationship is usually where one wiser and more experienced person assists another person to grow and learn. Humans from the beginning of time have learned norms, values and behaviours by the example and coaching of others.

New adaptations of mentoring allows individuals to interact as colleagues in a helping relationship, on a more equal basis which can cultivate growth and learning to mutual benefit.

Experience, skills and a genuine desire to help are more valuable assets in a mentoring relationship than age or position. Open and assertive communication and the trust of both parties are essential.

Benefits to the Practice

•    Greater productivity
•    Discovery of talent
•    Development of leadership for future survival and prosperity
•    Communication of values, goals and plans
•    Increase in morale and motivation
•    Demonstration of personal and professional standards
•    Achievement of excellent service
•    Implementation of equity initiatives
•    Fostering of shared values and team work
•    Enhancement of leadership and people management skills
•    Revitalised energy
•    Increase in staff satisfaction
•    Building a learning organisation

Benefits to the Mentoree

•    Development of potential
•    Increased knowledge about the practice
•    Flexibility - Mentorees negotiate with their mentors to work within available time and other commitments
•    Self directed learning - Mentorees choose specific learning objectives
•    Give and receive feedback
•    Receive encouragement and support to achieve goals
•    Develop new networks
•    Develop new and/or different perspectives
•    Get assistance with ideas
•    Demonstrate strengths and explore potential
•    Develop visibility within or outside an organisation
•    Be challenged to use talents and share expertise
•    Develop and increase self confidence

Benefits to the Mentor

•    Obtain a greater understanding of the barriers experienced at lower levels of the practice
•    Enhance their own skills in coaching, counselling, listening and modelling
•    The sense of being needed and recognised professionally
•    Develop and practise a more personal style of leadership
•    Gain additional recognition and respect
•    Learn new perspectives and approaches
•    Contribute something to others in the organisation
•    Extend professional networks
•    Demonstrate expertise and share knowledge

Both partners in the mentoring relationship benefit. Learning must be a lifelong process and one of the most effective ways to learn is to assist in the development of others. The best teachers learn much from their students, counsellors constantly learn from clients and partners in any successful relationship grow and develop along the way.

I look forward to our journey ahead, and trust that all will benefit in many forms.

Tags: awareness, benefits, Chiropractic, female chiropractor, Hillarys Chiropractic, Hillarys Chiropractor, Hillarys Chiropractors, mentor, Perth Chiropractor, Wellness

Life of a Female Chiropractor 2

There are certain signs and symptoms that seem to be more prevalent than others at different times. I have been observing this over time in the course of my practice as a female chiropractor.

Upon my daily to weekly reflection, I notice that patients present with a ‘special of the day’. This ‘special of the day’ ends up usually being the ‘special of the week’. Whilst everyone is unique and treated personally, there are similar cases that come in that may not present for weeks to months later.

For example, last week it was hip pain. Hip pain is not lower back pain, nor is it pelvis pain or groin pain. They may be related, but the patient presents with pain in the hip joint proper and possibly surrounding muscles. Usually, these are the physical symptoms and the physical manifestation with an underlying cause.

The power of the mind and how our emotions affect us can be apparent in a case such as hip pain. Hip pain has been linked with a probable cause of fear of moving forward; fear of going ahead with major decisions; fear of nothing to move forward to.

After assessing these people, I found a major common thread in that when I asked them the questions of whether there have been major decisions they have been struggling with, (as stated above) the answer was yes.

It doesn’t always mean that it will be close to the present day of signs and symptoms, it could be accumulating over years.

This happened to me a couple of years ago.  There wasn’t just a physical reason for the hip pain, it was an underlying emotional reason that resulted in the pain to alert me.  I was grateful for understanding this and for my body speaking to me.

Being aware of these things is the first step in healing. We can assist ourselves in healing when we are aware of what to look for. The body continually speaks to us; it’s up to us to continually listen. The body is like a mirror of our inner beliefs and inner thoughts.

Are you or someone you know having hip pain or a problem with the hip?  Perhaps asking yourself if there is something in your life that is holding you back from making a major decision.  If not today, then remember this underlying message that may alert you in the future.

Tags: awareness, female chiropractor, Hip Pain

Life Of A Female Chiropractor

It wasn’t until recently that I really thought about the phrase, “my life as a female chiropractor”.  I used to just think of myself as a chiropractor, not necessarily a female chiropractor.  I have been focused on becoming a chiropractor since I was 9 years old.  That must have been amazing for my mother when someone asked me as a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Instead of the usual response in those days of ‘teacher’ or ‘nurse’ - I come out with ‘chiropractor’ with confidence and certainty that wouldn’t be ‘normal’ for a typical 9 year old.  That is why it fascinates me today when so many young people don’t know what they want to do.  I guess I was the abnormal one by knowing so early.  When I look back, I feel nothing but gratitude for being awakened to one of my main purposes in life.

Being a female chiropractor for me, means juggling that with being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, mentor and woman in general!  I personally have recently been able to bring that to better balance so that one doesn’t unequally outweigh another.  I have spent a lot of time over the last few years on personal development including archetype awareness and the work of Dr John Demartini.  This included reading books, watching dvds, listening to cd’s and attending various seminars.  I believe that you get out what you put in.  There are many great personal development tips and tools, but if you don’t implement them, they are useless.  It is really quite simple, but it’s not always easy.

‘Yours truly’ with my mentor, Dr John Demartini

As a female chiropractor, I focused on the physical aspects of a patient’s health primarily.  As a female in general, I focused a lot on the physical aspects of my own health - primarily nutrition and exercise.  Over the course of my career, the insights that were so profound were the body-mind or mind-body connection.  The body affects the mind.  The mind affects the body.  Therefore, the power of the mind is overwhelming in relation to the human body.

I felt that I always knew about how amazing and powerful the human body is.  However, after doing the personal development work over the last few years, the power of the mind is what is capturing my attention primarily these days.

Until next time….in the life of a female chiropractor….

Tags: archetypes, awareness, Dr John Demartini, female chiropractor, Health, personal development

Wellness

A wellness approach to health incorporates a variety of healthy habits for optimum function on physical, mental, social and spiritual levels.

Why It Is Wise To Have Chiropractic When You’re Not In Pain

Many people think that if they don’t have pain or symptoms that they are healthy.  Chiropractic care focuses primarily on the nervous system.    The nervous system controls virtually every aspect of our body’s functions.  In order to be your very best, it is essential to have a properly functioning nervous system.  Chiropractic care can be a very important choice for a wellness lifestyle, as well as exercise and good nutritional habits.  Those who want to be at their optimum health add regular chiropractic care to their health choices.  The health benefits include more vitality, endurance and the ability to enjoy life to the full.

Chiropractic Helps More Than Just “Bad Backs”

Wellness and maintenance care are often thought to be the same thing.  However, the objective or goal in these types of health care are actually very different as are their results and benefits.  What is most important to understand is that if we want areas in our life to continue to function properly - they require regular maintenance.

Our car, our house, our teeth, our health, our relationships, and yes…our spines!  So in any aspect of our life that we are not applying regular maintenance (adding energy and organisation) over time it will breakdown and lead to a crisis.  If you don’t maintain your kitchen…crisis!   If you don’t maintain your bathroom…crisis!  If you don’t maintain your relationships…crisis!  And of course, if you don’t maintain your spine…crisis!

The vast majority of people today were not aware of the necessity of spine and nervous system maintenance from birth, therefore it is very likely that even with regular maintenance that a person will still experience the occasional relapse.  Why?  Imagine trying to maintain your teeth if you hadn’t brushed them for the first thirty years of your life. Of course you would need to go through an extensive process of correcting the problem first just to get your teeth to a place where they can be maintained.  Even then with regular maintenance it is likely that you would still experience some problems over time.

Let’s introduce wellness!   The main difference between maintenance and wellness is that maintenance simply looks to “maintain” the current state by adding just enough energy or organisation to try to maintain the current state. Whereas wellness looks to find even better states of organisation through a process of “constant and never ending improvement”.

Let’s use our kitchen as an example.  We can look to maintain our kitchen in its current state of organisation and over time we will realise that it requires more and more energy to simply maintain the kitchen in its current state.  Now if we use a wellness approach toward our kitchen, we would not only be maintaining its current state but we would continue to look for ways to improve the level of organisation, which in turn saves on the energy needed for maintaining it.

The exact same rule applies to every aspect of our lives.  If we simply look to maintain our car, our home, our health, our teeth, our relationships, as well as our spines - we will find that over time it will naturally require more and more energy to simply maintain its current state.  With wellness care we can continue to look for and implement new strategies to actively organise our lives.

When we look at this in terms of our spine and nervous system we realise that using a wellness approach toward our care is not only a wise investment, it is a better way of life.  When we look at what today’s research says in relationship to wellness care we realise that maintaining the spine in a wellness model offers our body the opportunity to learn new strategies for dealing with all the natural stresses in life.  In fact, people who have been actively maintaining their spine in a wellness model show increased healing and repair processes at levels which are not seen in otherwise healthy people.

Where do you see your health in 5 years? In 10 years? Do you simply want to maintain you current level of health or would you prefer to see your health continuing to improve every year for the next 10 years?

Tags: awareness, benefits, Chiropractic, exercise, Health, Health Benefits, maintenance, Stress, Wellness

Burnout

If you want a less stressful and more balanced life, then addressing BOTH externally-imposed and self-imposed pressures are essential.  There are times when you can’t change stressful circumstances such as a demanding workload or an annoying co-worker, but you CAN minimise the negative effects of stress by counteracting attitudes that perpetuate stress and limit attention to self-care.

Key To Preventing And Counteracting Burnout

Self-care strengthens your resiliency, which can reduce susceptibility to burnout.  Self-care is not just making healthy lifestyle choices.  It also includes self-compassion, having healthy boundaries, being aware of your needs, and staying true to your values.  Self-neglect takes a toll on your health, relationships, and your effectiveness.  Therefore preventing burnout and understanding how stress plays a role is essential.

Simply recognising the importance of taking better care of yourself is not enough.  You also need to address the psychological obstacles that limit attention to self-care and foster stress.  For example, putting pressure on yourself to always perform with excellence at work while being critical of your mistakes can cause you to become overextended and overlook your needs.  This may stem from being judged harshly and having unrealistically high expectations of you.

Self-care practices like meditation or tai chi are great, but won’t stop self-criticism or perfectionism; nor will it address attitudes that foster burnout and undermine self-care such as defining yourself by the good you do for others, an exaggerated sense of responsibility, and difficulty tolerating discord.

Stress Is Unavoidable - Burnout Is

You can take courses on time management and attend seminars on stress management techniques and still suffer from burnout.  These strategies are often helpful, but will not lead to lasting changes if you do not address personality traits that foster stress.  Much of the literature on burnout focuses more on external pressures than on self- imposed stress. While external pressures such as a demanding workload, juggling personal and professional life, unclear job responsibilities do contribute to stress and burnout, so do beliefs and personality traits.  Worries about uncertainty and lack of control can drive to burnout.  Even authors who write about personality characteristics that cause stress tend to emphasize overt and extreme behaviors such as the type A personality- overly driven, highly competitive, aggressive and obsessed with work.  There are many burnout prone people, however with personalities who do not fit this profile.  The most prominent personality characteristics that contribute to burnout are exaggerated responsibility, self-judgement and self-definition.

Perfectionism

Late at night Jacqui lies in bed restlessly, unable to sleep.  Two weeks into her new job, she is feeling nervous day and night.  She is obsessed with trying to make sure that nothing goes wrong and that no one sees her make a mistake. She has to prove to everyone, including herself, that she is worthwhile.  Jacqui believes that she is a failure if anything goes wrong.  She needs to realise how never being appreciated growing up causes her to think that self worth comes from perfection.

If you are a perfectionist you push yourself, get overscheduled, promise too many things to too many people, or take on too much work.  You judge yourself harshly when you fall short of your expectations or when you make mistakes. You probably would not treat someone you care about in the harsh manner that you treat yourself.  You learn to measure your worth by your performance and equate excelling with deserving attention or praise if your parents rewarded you primarily for excelling.

The pursuit of excellence is different from a relentless need to be the best. When you seek perfection and are unable to measure up to your ideal, your self esteem decreases. Developing realistic standards and self- compassion go a long way to counteract stress that leads to burnout.

When you make mistakes, notice how you feel about yourself.  Take notice of the ways that you talk to yourself when you fall short of your ideal.  You may not recognise that your standards for yourself are excessive.  Pay attention during the day to the ways you tell yourself how you did not do something well enough or how you could have done things better.  Has anyone else ever spoken to you in this way?  You may have internalised the ways that your parents spoke to you.  Now picture someone else talking to you the way you speak to yourself.  Chances are you would not tolerate them talking to you in this same manner.

Remember, you can’t always control the circumstances that may cause stress, but you can control how well you take care of yourself.  Taking proper care of your body, mind and soul can keep you in optimum health and wellness.

Tags: awareness, benefits, burnout, Health, Health Benefits, meditation, self esteem, Stress, Wellness

Transition II

Part of my transition included a book I had read earlier this year called, “How Would Love Respond?” by Kurek Ashley.  I had the book for a couple of months and got so busy toward the end of the year that I hadn’t taken the time to intentionally pick it up.  The journey of life has a lot of unknowns, and the messages in this book couldn’t have come at a better time for me.  Now that I have read it, I realised that it wasn’t “too late” it was actually perfect timing.  My mind and heart were more ready to absorb what was in the book whereas months before, I might have missed a few things.  I believe in reading books more than once, especially ones that have impact.  I regularly skip through it now and see what messages may apply at the given time.

I’d like to share some points of this with you and encourage you to read this and see how it applies or can apply to your own life.  Part of overall wellness includes a balance of information stimulating the brain cells.

One of the first pages of the book before it starts reads, “Your mind is like a parachute.  It works much better when it’s open!” – How true this statement is, and that is where we can change our life so much.  Things like social, family or religious conditioning can cause our minds to not be “free”.  The first step in creating change is awareness.  Awareness is the key.  From here, we can make changes in our lives.  There are several examples of his personal journey, and the fact of the matter is, “we all have a story.”  We got here today by the life experiences we have had thus far.  There are no accidents.  We have choices on which perception to believe – choosing to look at it from a positive view or a negative view.  We have that power to choose, whether you believe this or not.  By learning how to access this power, there are ways to open the mind and keep it open.  Keeping it open is even more important, because old patterns and old behaviours can creep up and get in the way.

“Life Doesn’t Turn Out The Way It Should” – Kurek Ashley shares his amazing story in detail of his life-changing experience.  We have them in different times, different forms, different places with different people – SEE’s (Significant Emotional Events) that literally change your life.  I’ll leave Kurek’s personal story described in Chapter 1 for the reading in the book – don’t want to spoil any of the details, but the messages and summary is this:

“Trust in the fact that there are no accidents and that there is something in this book that you’re searching for in your life.  And even if you don’t yet know what it is you’re searching for or maybe you didn’t even know that you are searching, have faith that it will be revealed to you, and that’s why you chose this book.”

Usually, circumstances and events don’t appear or reveal themselves for what they truly are until later.  Knowing what questions and thoughts to form around those events can make the biggest difference in the evolution of your life.  That has always been the case with me.  Trusting the process of life is a very big challenge for us all.  The points in this book set the stage for the beginning of the last 6 months of my transition.

Tags: awareness, How Would Love Respond?, Kurek Ashley, transition, Wellness