• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bed Stuy Chiropractic

Gentle, vitalistic chiropractic in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Bed Stuy Chiropractic
    • What To Expect
    • Privacy Policy
  • “What Every Body Knows”
  • Bed Stuy Acupuncture & Massage
  • Contact Us
    • Bi-Annual 3-Day Juice Cleanse
You are here: Home / Archives for Lifestyle

Lifestyle

Home Schooling and Working from Home: Tips to Keep Sane and Mobile

April 21, 2020 by ClaireFitzpatrick

Question: My friends who have been furloughed keep talking about feeling guilty about not doing enough to improve themselves now that they’ve been given all this time. But I would give anything for that time. I can’t do anything for myself.  As it turns out, my days are more regimented than ever. My partner is an essential worker. We have a 6 and a 9-year-old.  I get up early, my partner runs out the door, I get breakfast ready and pre-pack dinner for the kids, I have my Zoom work meeting, I spend two hours home-schooling, I work through late morning to early afternoon and the kids serve themselves dinner, I spend another hour home-schooling, then I try to combine their fun time with chores and queuing for groceries with masks and gloves once a week (try to do that with 6  and 9 year olds! The looks I get when I have my kids with me!). Another hour working, have my late-day Zoom check-in with the team at work, then I get tea ready, my partner comes home and we try to share at least that time together, then she’s off to spend time with the kids while I try to finish what I should have done at work during the day whilst they drop in front of the tele. I feel like I can’t be productive because of the constant interruptions on every level; I’m not there enough for my kids and my partner, and I certainly am not there for me. I feel guilty about all those things.  I don’t want to bother my partner, because she’s so tired from working out of the house all day while trying to practice social distancing and not bring this virus home, which is of course another worry. I feel like a failure at everything I’m supposed to do, let alone trying to care for myself.

Effin’ Heroes

Let me just start by saying, you’re not a failure. You’re and your partner are effin’ heroes. Look at all you’re doing to make sure you honour your commitments and to doing what you can to provide for your family and keep them safe during this insane time.  

You’re not the only one going through this shake up of life, even if it seems that way from what you say about your friends. Families all over the world are trying to restructure their roles and activities. From my perspective, this just highlights the unrealistic expectations that our busy lifestyles already had on us and our families before this crisis and the importance of rethinking the way we structure our lives now and after we’re let back out into the world. No one can be a Master-Of-All. We need one another to do what we’re best at, so we can cooperate together.

Sources of Online Home-schooling Help

I’m really glad that the Oak National Academy rolled out today in the U.K., and that there are online programs in the U.S. and the Netherlands. These programs show how, globally, we’re recognizing that our communities can and must work together for one another. 

In the U.K.

https://www.thenational.academy/online-classroom

In the U.S.

https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/k-12/online-home-schooling/

In the NL

https://www.ooadaklaslokaal.nl/

https://www.zapp.nl/

https://schooltv.nl/

Give Yourself (And Your Family) Space

First thing for you: give yourself a break. It is easy to unconsciously default to the same expectations you had of yourself before all this happened. But expecting perfect, timely, and complete results was not healthy then, and is certainly not healthy now.

It sounds like you’ve constructed a particularly rigorous schedule of events.  If you feel like you and your family is finding it difficult to keep to this regimen, maybe a little looseness is what’s needed.

Let the hours/minutes fray a little bit at the edges. If you or your kids are feeling burnout creep into this schedule, pre-schedule online chats with their classmates and friends and schedule yourself time to reconnect with friends (especially friends who parents so you can commiserate!).

Designated Space

When you are working, make sure that you’ve designated space away from the madness, space where it is your “workplace,” one that separate from your home space. Even if it is a set-up that, due to space constrains, you construct every work day, make sure that set-up is for only for your work and broken down at the end of the work day so you cannot return to it when it is family and self-time.

Let your kids and partner know that when you’re in this space, you’re not to be disturbed unless it’s an absolute emergency. Noise-cancelling headphones can help with that.

Exercise That You Can (and Must) Fit In

(Disclaimer: the following suggestions are no substitute for advice from your health care practitioner and are not meant to treat any disease. Check with your general practitioner or primary health care physician before you begin any lifestyle-related change in your diet or exercise.)

I get it. It seems like there’s no time for self-care. But you must. Must. Must. Self. Care.

Remember when flying was a thing? The flight attendant would tell you that, in the event of cabin pressure failure, to put your mask on before you put your child’s mask on.

That’s because, you’re the carer. If you don’t serve yourself first, you’re not going to be available for your children. Your body will fail you, and they are, at present, unable to care for you.

It’s the same now. Bodymind atrophy and breakdown doesn’t wait for you to “make time” for it. It happens, and then one day, your body cannot do it anymore.

A Little Goes A Long Way

As far as taking care of yourself, a little movement is better than no movement, and can go a long way to bringing your body and mind into a more peaceful, healthy place.

While in that space, set your timer every 20-30 minutes for you to stretch and move in some manner. Get up and wiggle. Breathe deeply. Give yourself a nice hug. I’ll be posting little quick videos to show you what you can do.

My YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvZ5VW56Gu9RK9FrECq7fAQ

Family YouTube Exercise

Remember that part of schooling is exercise and free time. YouTube has a plethora of free exercises and games that have built up over the years, if you cannot get outside.  Take the time that the kids are exercising to join them or do your own thing while they’re doing “free time.”

One of my favourites is Yoga with Adriene. She has about 6 years of thoughtful yoga instruction online. This is saving my body for work when I get back. I suggest it to you too.

Yoga with Adriene

https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene/videos

In the very early morning; during the day, at points when you feel like you’re about to lose it; and/or in the evening; or even in the middle of the night if you’re having trouble sleeping; put on some headphones and wind your mind and body down with some guided meditation.

There’s many; one is being built by my friend and yogi in Amsterdam, Emily Mulder. They’re quick 10-20-minute offerings to get you reset. Things won’t feel so panicky afterward, and you might be able to tap into your own answers (and she’s a home-schooling parent, so she gets it!).

Buddhi

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfzlRb_fH0O5g2Tix4jHpg

I also found this little gem, if you or your children are into Martial Arts. It will teach the basic disciplines and give them (and you) a good guided workout until you can get back to the dojo. Check with your instructor that this is all right for you to do.

NOTE: For the experts out there: you know that everything you do is built on the basics. This is key for you to keep your skills sharp.

Global Martial Arts University

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2P_ez18uOCFlNpnZParZtw

This is a free guided, weekly offering that is offered by Philip Carr-Gomm, a druid from the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. You don’t have to be a druid or shaman to benefit from these. They’re completely free, lovely, effortless, and healing.

The Garden of Retreat in Flowing Happiness

https://artoflivingwell.org.uk/p/homeretreat

Check Yourself

The following may be possible: even as you may be feeling that you’re a “failure,” because you’re being a bit hard on yourself; it is very easy to unconsciously transmit those feelings and expectations to those around you in the home and workplace.

It is just as easy to not see that your co-workers and family wants to support you but don’t know how.  Chances are they may be feeling helpless and inadequate, too, because they have not received guidance on how to help you.

Check in with your workmates and directors, your partner and your kids and be real with them.

Keep it cool and non-accusatory; instead of saying, “I feel that you don’t do this or don’t appreciate what I do…” say, “I feel overwhelmed.” Listen to them and where they’re at and remind them to keep it non-accusatory as well.

Offer suggestions and let them offer suggestions. “Here’s where I need help.  Here’s what you can do to help.” “What do you think?” “Is there a way you can help me?”  Delegate chores and responsibilities when you can, and at their ability level, of course. Let them do the same.

Collectively find a way to lessen expectations for yourself and them and check in regularly to see how it is going. Keep if fluid, and ever-changing. We all need space to breathe until we figure out how to do this. You may all feel closer together (perhaps after a good family cry and hug, if you’re able to safely do so).

I hope this helps.  

I love you. I believe in us.

Claire

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: bodymind, chiropractic, coronavirus, covid-19, family, healing, health lifestyle, home exercies, home-schooling, martial arts, meditation, mental health, physical health, society, spirituality, working, working-from-home, yoga

Mosquito Season Sucks

July 17, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” –Dalai Lama XIV

I don’t know why I thought that there were no mosquitos in Europe.

I especially don’t know why I thought there were no mosquitos in Amsterdam, a city that is literally made of landfill and canals.

It is most egregiously frustrating to have a summer of breezy cool nights punctuated by puncture marks and itchy lumps on my skin.

I do have a few tricks I use to deal with these suckers.

Tea Tree Barrier

mosquito season sucksmosquito season sucks

Mix 4 parts water to 1 part tea tree oil.  Spray around the windows, the doors, and the upper walls of the room.  They hate that.

Rub yourself with herbs.

The following herbs are anathema to mosquitos.  If you have a garden, these are nice plants to have around.  Take some of the leaves, crush them in your hand, and rub the essence on the joints of your arms and legs.

  • Rose Geranium
  • Lemon Thyme
  • Cedar
  • Lemon Eucalyptus
  • Peppermint
  • Citronella
  • Lavender
  • Lemongrass

mosquito season sucks

If you’re not into the herb garden thing, go to the health food store and buy some with some combination of these ingredients. I keep a spray bottle of a local brand, Bzzz Away, in my purse now. I’m armed.

Here’s some other ideas:

Air out your rooms.

Mosquitos like carbon dioxide, so make sure your rooms have free flowing air.

Don’t go to bed sweaty.

Mosquitos are first attracted to carbon dioxide, and then the sweat on the skin. Try to make sure your skin is clean of sweat at bedtime, and that the room is comfortable.

Avoid twilight hours outdoors.

Twilight is when those blood suckers come out.  Time to duck inside at twilight.

Avoid standing water.

Mosquitos breed in standing water, so mothers trying to get enough nourishment to grow her eggs are going to hang out around standing water.

So remember…

Running in the heat near standing water at twilight: prepare for feasting beasties!

Have a beautiful, suck-free summer!

Filed Under: Lifestyle

Chill Out in Five Minutes or Less

July 3, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

I made a Facebook video, “Chill Out in Five Minutes or Less,” last April.

I embedded the video below.

But first…you need to know that the reason I posted it isn’t the reason I gave in the video itself.

I want you to know why I posted it.

I posted it because something happened to a woman on Facebook.

Last April, a woman with whom I am friends (but I don’t really know all that well; I met her at a conference years ago) on Facebook begged her Facebook friends to please be gentle.

It was regarding the death of a murderer who had just killed an innocent man.

This woman, 60 years of age, had grown up next door to the murderer and his family.  The parents and siblings of the murderer were her friends.

Her post was a preemptive plea.

The news had just broken and she was anticipating the venom that can arise in these matters.

She knew the family was going through their special version of hell.

I was going to quote her, but she has since removed the post.

Apparently, the plea fell on blind eyes and people posted vicious responses. That’s why she removed it.

I’ll try to paraphrase her post from my memory.

In essence, she wrote:

“Please be kind. I know it is in our nature to verbally attack and condemn people and situations of which we only know little. Please be respectful of the families who in this case are truly innocent, have to deal with the aftermath. Please know that they are truly remorseful for the victims of their family member’s actions and wish them only peace and love. Please respect their humanity.”

Reacting vs. Responding

When we are outraged, it is easy to forget that, sometimes, people need kindness and understanding.

This is a great big world with many people. They are living many stories.

Sometimes, these stories collide.

Social media often provides a sense of separateness, as if the people to whom we respond aren’t real.  That they aren’t human. That they deserve viciousness that we would never dare utter to a soul face to face.

When we feel that rage, it is crucial that we take a breath before we react.

When we pause and take a moment to respond, we are taking charge of our emotions.  We are taking charge of our morality.

We are taking charge of our inner and outer health.

Reacting online is a type of road rage.

I sometimes fall into this trap.

I sometimes hear a news report and I inwardly fly off the handle.

It is during these times I apply the technique outlined in the video below.

So in the video, I lied. A little.

In the video, I told my viewers it was about getting rid of headaches.

And it is.

But that’s not why I made the video that day.

I really was thinking of the woman who pleaded for written mercy and who was denied that mercy.

It was for her that I made the video.

Reacting with hatred hurts everyone.

What happened to her, to her friends; indeed, to the victim, seems endemic these days.

Whether online or in the flesh, people who react violently and ignorantly seem like they are in our face 24/7.

Of course this has an affect on our outlook, the way we see the world, and our health.

There are tons of studies that show that rage hurts our physiology, as well as the physiology of everyone who is a receiver of that rage.

Rage itself is a killer.

I, too, have to remind myself that the only way out of the morass of moral chaos is calm, stillness, compassion, and peace.

The video below teaches how to chill out in five minutes or less. It teaches how to gain that peace quickly.

Chill Out in Five Minutes or Less

[video_page_section type=”custom” position=”default” image=”https://joyhealthandbodyworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Chill-Out-In-Five-Minutes-or-Less.png” btn=”light” heading=”Chill Out in Five Minutes or Less” subheading=”A Meditation for Your Mind and Your Head” cta=”Do this right now!” video_width=”1080″ ][/video_page_section]

If the above link doesn’t work, you can watch it here.

There is no downside that I know of regarding following its instructions. The worst that can happen is that you fall asleep.

The best is realizing that you have control of your inner situation, and if that’s true, that you have control of your outer situation.

Use this technique. It is my gift.

It is my gift to you and to me.

Let’s all remember to take a step back and focus on our own journey before we insult and judge those who we feel “safe” to condemn.

This is my mission:

To help us clear our nervous system of stress so we can get to the business of living well.

If we can live well, we will gear our efforts toward helping each other rather than hurting each other.

Over the last ten years, I have helped many people reduce interference to their brain and nerve systems via chiropractic adjustments, lifestyle adjustments, and mindset adjustments.

It is the single most important thing in the world to me.

I am opening my chiropractic practice this week in Amsterdam. I am SUPER EXCITED about that!!!

I am also so grateful that technology has gotten us to a point in which I am available around the world through my online coaching company, JOY! Health and Bodyworks.

What I do in JOY is everything I do for my patients in the office, minus the chiropractic adjustments.

Those you need to get from your local chiropractor, and I can help with that. I also help you find practitioners like psychologists and counselors to aid the process as well.

Those are just some of the bonuses with working with me in JOY!

You can take a look at my programs here.

You have a blessed day. Talk to you soon!

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: chill, chiropractic, faith, fear, healing, health, knowledge, love, meditation, philosophy, rage, react, respond, wisdom

Opioid Addiction, Chiropractic, and a Single Payer Option

June 29, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

I met a woman here in the Netherlands whose husband has been struggling with opioid addiction for 10 years now.

It’s hard on her, her husband, and her marriage.

Very hard.

She said that, for the last 10 years, she has been living with a different man than who she married.  She told me she’s not even sure the man she married exists anymore.

She’s been struggling with thoughts of suicide.  Her own.

Things seem to be looking up, though.  He has finally agreed to enter a rehab here in the Netherlands.

Luckily, the health care system here is such that it will not abandon them, and it will not bankrupt them.

The opioid crisis is global. Thank goodness she belongs to a health care system in which her insurance premiums are manageable, in which crisis care is covered indefinitely.

The Opioid Crisis

I find it ironic that the mainstream media has only recently “discovered” that there is an opioid addiction problem in the United States.

I assure you, there has been an opioid problem for quite a while.

Since I started my practice in 2005, I have watched many practice members and their families struggling with addiction to prescription pain medication.  I can’t tell you how horrible it has been to watch my patients’ families ripped apart, and even lose their lives, because they or their loved one cannot break their addiction to pain killers.

I can’t tell you how sad it makes me that my daughter personally knows young people whose friends have died from heroine addiction after they were unable to obtain opioid pain killers from their “suppliers” anymore.

This shouldn’t be a thing.

It’s a scary world we live in when the United States, the richest country in the world, comes in #36 in the Save the Children’s “The End of Childhood Report” the world in terms of the quality of life our children experience.

What are we doing to secure the emotional, physical, and spiritual health of our children and our families?

Right now, from The Netherlands, I’m watching the U.S. health care debacle unfold.

Listen. I was not happy with The Affordable Care Act (ACA) that President Obama put forth a few years ago.  It is FAR from perfect. The most glaring omission is a single-payer option.

But the insurance situation right now in the U.S. is better than it was in 2011, I can tell you that.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a health care bill that would dismantle much of the progress the ACA made.

Now the senate wants to push through a plan that will not only roll back time to the dark days before the ACA, but will make it WORSE, especially for our parents and children.

The Congressional Budget Committee evaluated the bill and determined that 22 million people’s current health insurances are in peril.

More: the cuts in the senate bill will roll back Medicare/Medicaid benefits that help pay the treatment for people struggling with opioid addiction.

Many of our parents, our children, our neighbors, and possibly even we, WILL die if they do this.

Tell them to stop

Call your senators and tell them to stop this nonsense.

It is outrageous that our future is at risk because our politicians are so short-sighted. Our government needs to own up to its responsibilities as our servants – not our killers via neglect.

Our kids need our support in the home and in our communities.

We have to stay healthy

In any case, we need to make your that our and our families’ inner and outer environments are clear of toxins, trauma, and emotional stress so that we won’t fall victim to the United State’s dysfunctional health care system.

As a doctor of chiropractic, I have known for a long while that chiropractic is an effective and affordable health care delivery method.

Health care. Not “sick” care.

Chiropractic care is health care. It keeps our bodies and minds healthy, minimizing our need for sick care.

Kids, as well as adults, respond well to chiropractic care, especially in terms of how chiropractic helps us to adapt to our environment.

Last year, the National Institutes of Health released the results of a survey of 2011 utilization of chiropractic care by younger disabled Medicare patients and its correlation of opioid use.

They found that those patients who were receiving chiropractic treatment used much less opioids than patients who did not use chiropractic care under their Medicare plans.

That was in 2011 – BEFORE the Affordable Care Act.

Now, our politicians are planning roll back these benefits, and many others.

Tell Them You Want A Single Payer Option

Call your senators and congressmen RIGHT NOW to tell them you want them to vote no on this current health care bill.

But it’s not enough to call your senators and congressmen to tell them you oppose what they are doing.  They need to know that, if they’re going to craft a new health care bill, we need A SINGLE PAYER OPTION.

Also, we need to make sure that chiropractic care – as well as other natural forms of health care — are included in that option!

As of this writing, he senate pushed back the vote on their health care bill until after the July 4 recess.

They’re hoping to rally support around it, and they’re hoping we forget about it.

Call your senators and congressmen RIGHT NOW and tell them.

https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

There’s no time to lose. Government is supposed to serve us.

Our families need us.

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: chiropractic, healing, health, health care bill, health insurance, opioid addiction, single payer

How to Spot if You Are Talking Yourself Out of a Good Thing

June 22, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

How do you spot if you’re talking yourself out of a good thing?

I’m not talking about an impulse buy. I’m talking about that noun — that person/place/thing/idea  — that you’ve been thinking about for weeks.  Months.  Years.

  1. Are you taking too long to think about it?

Whether it’s an idea, a pair of jeans, an opinion, or a bag of (fair trade, organic) nuts; are you deliberating longer than you should?

You know you want it. You even know you need it. You want to say it. It needs doing.

But you just sit there with it in your hand and your heart, looking at it. Deliberating over it.

  1. Are you worried that someone else won’t like it?

Is there a familiar sickly tug inside that is trying to remind you that you have to check with your wife/husband/daughter/boss/friend/cat before you make a move on that thing in your hand and heart?

  1. Are you feeling voices?

You read me right. Not hearing…feeling.

Is there a feeling of a voice inside, that sickly tug, that is saying:

  • It’s not going to work.
  • It’s a waste of time and money.
  • That’s not your place.
  • You don’t deserve such a fine thing.
  • You haven’t worked hard enough for that.
  • That would be selfish.
  • No one wants to hear that.
  1. Is your attention starting to drift?

The thing is in your hand and heart; and you start remembering that you haven’t done the whites yet. You have to pick up your daughter in 45 minutes. You have to call your brother back. You wonder if that check has cleared in the bank yet.  You need to check your Facebook or Instagram to see if anyone liked your last post.

  1. Is there a pain in your body?

Wherever there is a “weak link;” is it starting to flare up?  Is your “bad” knee starting to hurt? Your back? Are you getting a headache? Do you feel nauseous? Are you getting gassy?  Is your elbow aching?

  1. Are you still staring at it?

Is your hand starting to vacillate between holding it to your heart and putting it back on the shelf?

  1. Are you repeating all of the above over and over while you stare at your good thing?

 

Then yes. You are talking yourself out of a good thing.

Here’s what to do.

  1. Stop thinking.

You’ve done enough thinking about it. You know you want it, and you know how to get it.

  1. Commit to it.

Shut down the nagging advisors.  They are not in charge. You are. This is something you’ve wanted/needed to do for a long time.

  1. Run to the checkout./Open your mouth.

Let the people in the really real world, the ones OUTSIDE your head, know that you are committing to your plan/idea/opinion/thing.

  1. Own it.

Whatever it is, make it yours.  Open it. Craft it. Shape it. Eat it. Use it. Do it.

If it doesn’t fit, if it doesn’t work, if it wasn’t what you thought it would be:

Fix it. Make it better.

Or gently release it.

It doesn’t matter.

This is what matters:

You made a decision.  You owned it.  You acted on it.

That’s what really matters in the end.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Spiritual Health Tagged With: failure, faith, fear, philosophy, success, wisdom

A Letter of Love. Are You A Sage or A Student?

June 5, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

I have a confession to make.  The only things I really know for sure are the things I’ve done wrong.

I am in my 50s now; and I am old enough to realize that almost everything I thought I knew as a child, a teenager, and as a young adult, changed at some point.

When I was in college, I used to give advice to everyone. EVERYONE.

I honestly don’t know how anyone tolerated me.  If my memory is correct, I must have been insufferable.

I don’t know who told me that I was right about everything, but I most certainly thought that I was!  I look back now on those years and laugh.  I’m glad I can laugh.

Turns out, I was only right about some things.

I was right that I was good at writing. I was right that I have a good ear for music.

I was right in thinking that everyone should be loving and compassionate to each other, animals, plants, nature, and the planet itself.  I was right that we have a responsibility to do so.

I was right that love is a verb. It is not a stagnant state, one that simply exists. It is something we choose to embrace and act upon.

I was right thinking that the most important people in the world are the ones who choose, through blood or choice, to love us, to have our back, always, even when they know we are wrong.

This last is especially true.

About almost everything else, I was wrong.

That’s why I find it interesting when people younger than me automatically assume I have answers to life, the universe, and everything. They actually listen to me as if what I am saying carries weight.

I do have answers. I have always had answers.

I’m just not sure that they are right answers; and if they are indeed right, I don’t know if they will be right tomorrow.

It’s kind of an awkward thing to admit.

I mean, I am a doctor, by profession and training.

My specialties are chiropractic and natural longevity. I have a lot of schooling, training, and clinical experience to back up my opinions, and I try to keep on top of current science and research so that I can best serve my clients and patients.

I often find that what science believed was correct twenty years ago changes too.

Twenty years ago, we thought that genes determined our destiny. Now we know that the proteins that surround our genes determine the expression of the genes, and that we must protect the health of the proteins, as well as the genes, so that we can express ourselves properly.

That one statement is huge. It is also so new that there are still doctors alive who don’t know it.  But science knows it, and now you know it.

Fifteen years ago, we thought that the nervous system communicated only via its axons and dendrites. Now we know that harmonic resonance and electromagnetic waves can cause whole cities of nerves to fire simultaneously, instantaneously.

Huge.

Just two years ago, we thought that the only cleansing mechanism in the brain was cerebral spinal fluid. Now we know that the brain has lymphatic drainage, like the rest of the body. That may not sound like a big deal to you, but anatomy books the world over have to change, and doctors have to take this into account when addressing brain health.

In short, these are all game changers. They have changed the way science is approaching not only health care, but how we develop technology, bioengineering, chemistry…everything.

And those are only a few of the things that have changed since I was a teenager, even since I was a doctoral student.

There is something else that I think is true, but I haven’t told you yet.

Ready?

Here it is.

There is an intelligence that informs the structure and function of all physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual expression. It informs the structure of all consciousness itself, in all its forms. It is, in fact, universal, and each manifestation of the universal expresses a face of that consciousness. That consciousness also includes, but is not limited to, the universe itself.

Big words, right?

Science can’t prove that one yet. But faith and philosophy systems have been intuiting this truth at least since we figured out how the tides work, and how to light fire.

I’m willing to bet that’s true.

Chiropractic thinks it’s true.  That’s a big part of the reason I am a chiropractor.

I am also willing to bet that your body knows a lot more than any book written on the human body. Your body has a wisdom that lends itself toward life and the exploration of consciousness, and it wants to express itself through health as much as a plant in spring wants to grow toward the sun.

I think we have a responsibility to care for our bodies as much as we care for the ones we love. That we need to have our own backs, even when we make mistakes.

When we love ourselves enough to care for ourselves, we love life itself. We love the universal intelligence in us all.

Just something to think about.

I think about it every day.

By the way: the only reason I am sharing this, and everything I do, is because I love you.

Truly.

I want us to grow old together.  I want us to get smarter and wiser every day, without losing our sense of wonder.

I want us to be okay with knowing that we are going to learn new things as we go; and to know that the power of love never changes.

Let’s grow old well.  Together.

— Claire

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: aging, faith, healing, health, knowledge, longevity, love, philosophy, science, wisdom

Webs of Belief — Can We Release Ourselves?

March 15, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Webs of Belief

I was reading the March 13 New Yorker Magazine Tuesday evening. I was working from home during the snowstorm on Tuesday, and I treated myself to curling up with the actual magazine with a nice glass of red wine.

I’m one of those people who start at the very beginning. I read the cover. I read the Table of Contents. I note the contributors.  Then I read The Mail.

One piece of mail struck me as interesting. It was commentary on an article written by Elizabeth Kolbert, a psychologist, who had discussed three psychology books on the limits of human reasoning – in this instance, she was referring to the human ability to deny the efficacy of proven if those facts don’t support a person’s worldview.

Worlds Collide

The commentary was made by a philosophy professor, who was annoyed that these ideas were being claimed as psychological ideas, because, in her view, philosophy had been exploring these same ideas for decades prior.

The commentary, made by Sharon Schwarze, elegantly explained Willard Van Orman Quine’s idea, the “web of belief.” As in a spider’s web, the strands holding the beliefs together are more concentrated at the center, and therefore, more “entrenched.” Those ideas at the center move together – they are more entwined, and therefore, reliant upon one another’s integrity. If a fact comes along to disprove one or many of these central ideas, people will discard the fact because it doesn’t support the narrative of the central belief.

Do We Own Ideas?

It seemed she was trying to reclaim these ideas away from psychology and put them squarely in the philosophical camp – and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they can’t be in both camps.  Philosophers explore observed events that lead to philosophical conclusions; psychologists tests these conclusions to verify their voracity.

But a psychologist can come up with the idea, too.  Just as a storyteller might, or as a scientist, or a poet, or an artist, or a musician might.

Humans Have Ideas. Sometimes The Same Ideas.

These are human ideas. We are all living a human experience; we are bound to notice the same ideas. We explore these ideas in our own way. When we do, we have multiple expressions of a single idea, and therefore a fuller, richer understanding of these ideas.

We do not own ideas. We borrow them, we play with them, and show the world what we’ve done with them.

Many Approaches to The Central Idea of Healing

The different aspects of healthcare, I believe, are the same thing.  The premise of all branches of healthcare want the same thing: the health and wellbeing of the public. When different doctors or professions try to deny the efficacy of the other professions and claim ownership of this central idea, it is a form of this dissonance of which Schwarze spoke, and Quine espoused.

I hope that Schwarze one day sees the irony of falling squarely in the middle of Quine’s web.

I hope docs who think they corner the market on healing step out of their center into a larger world.

Filed Under: Lifestyle

When is Quitting an Option?

March 3, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Patient Fabulous was freshly back from her trip to South America. She is an independent health consultant in Brooklyn, and has been for some six or seven years.

The last six or seven years have not been easy on Fabulous. Despite her passion and expertise, she has struggled with financial solubility for most of her professional career. She finds it difficult to sell health here in New York, and even more difficult to charge an amount that would help her pay herself after expenses.

The stress has taken its toll on Fabulous. Her anxiety level is sky high. She has little day-to-day enjoyment anymore because her neighborhood is gentrifying. All the artistic haunts and mom and pop stores have disappeared.  Her friends have departed for other cities one by one, and she finds herself lonely and frightened.

Fabulous came to me because of the pain in her neck (see Dr. Claire).

For six months, Fabulous was having trouble turning her neck. The pain woke her at night and made her days increasingly unbearable.  She felt like her head was too heavy for her neck; just lifting herself off of her pillow in the morning was a chore.

Sometimes We Need Help

She tried every way she knew to take care of herself. She did all the stretches she knew of, strengthening exercises, meditation, yoga, supplements, eating right, but none of her expertise was helping her get rid of this pain in her neck.

The went to acupuncture, had massage, physical therapy, and finally she decided to try chiropractic. Fabulous is early in treatment, but she is already starting to respond.

The pain in her neck is subsiding, and its function is returning.  Which are all good side-effects of chiropractic.

But they are not chiropractic.

Chiropractic is something else — something else entirely.

And Fabulous is learning what chiropractic is.

With every adjustment, Fabulous is getting more and more clear.

The real jewel of chiropractic is removing interference between the mind and the body. By clearing interference to the nervous system, chiropractic helps turn your life force potential on. It helps you get clear. It brings light to your life and clarity to your world.

So your body heals, but so does your mind.

Fabulous is getting clear.

Fabulous set a health retreat in South America, and had just enough participants from New York to cover her expenses. While conducting the retreat, she met people from Canada, Europe, Brazil, Ecuador, Columbia, and many other places, who responded to her message, became excited by her work, and got on her mailing list.

Fabulous was in my office, fresh from South America, bubbling over with excitement. The people she met from around the world have invited her to come to their countries and teach their clients her wisdom.

But that would mean shutting down her practice here.

Now Fabulous has a choice to make. She is grappling with the question: is it wrong to quit what she is doing in order to chase brand new opportunities?

One part of her, a major part, feels that if she quits doing what she’s doing, she will be a failure in her own eyes to herself, and in the eyes of her peers.

The other is excited that her work is valued by a whole other set of people who she never even considered were a possible audience for her work, a set of people whom  she never would have met had she not first taken a chance to host a program in South America — a move that was already outside of her own comfort zone.

She asked me my opinion, the answer to which is the point of this blog post:

Sometimes Quitting Is An Option

Quitting, and all that it connotes, is not necessarily unhealthy. Sometimes you have to look at your situation, the struggle you are putting into it, and be honest about the outcomes, or lack thereof.

Sometimes a good idea is ill-timed or ill-placed. Sometimes what seems like a good idea just isn’t. Some commitments should never have been made.

The sooner you can recognize you’ve made a mistake, the sooner you and your loved ones can recover from that mistake.

I’m not talking about flightiness, or starting one thing, finding it takes work, and then chasing another thing because its bright and shiny. In these cases, the way to success is to push through the boring and frustrating day-to-day details that make a worthwhile endeavor work, whether that endeavor is a business, a relationship, or a health program.

I’m talking about putting your heart and soul into something and running into brick walls all the time, not seeing that there is a door and an open window right behind you.

When one is on the right track, things seem to materialize to help that person stay on that path; similarly, when one is following an incorrect course of action, no amount of effort will help it materialize. It seems like the universe closes doors in every direction of effort.

What is Clarity?

Clarity means being able to step back and know the difference between an effort that simply requires tenaciousness and an effort that will end in futility no matter what you do.

There is no shame in quitting these latter scenarios. Indeed, it is a measure of strength to be able to realize when it is time to pivot and take a new direction.

It is a measure of spiritual health, which ultimately feeds your emotional and physical health.

That is how chiropractic helps. It connects one’s body and mind with the spiritual through the health of the nervous system.

It is why Fabulous knows now that she has a choice, which is why her neck is feeling better and stronger. Her neck health reflects the scope of vision she now has, and her ability to choose her path. She has the ability to choose now.

So do you.

Filed Under: Lifestyle

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

  • Bed Stuy Chiropractic
  • Bed Stuy Acupuncture & Massage
  • Privacy Policy
  • What To Expect
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Bi-Annual 3-Day Juice Cleanse

Copyright © 2023 · Peace Chiropractic Arts, PLLC · 181 Lexington Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11216 · All rights reserved.