Peace Chiropractic Arts

Gentle, vitalistic chiropractic in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn

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Bring Your Voice to Life

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Your voice is strong.  Bring your voice to life.

I believe there is a place for your passion in this world.

If you think that others have already paved the way, and that your voice doesn’t matter…

LOOK AROUND

For every aspiring healer in the world, be they chiropractor, medical doctor, spiritual director, energy healer, yoga instructor, financial advisor, teacher, space organizer, nutritionist…you get my drift…

…there are THOUSANDS of people just like you who are trying to do the same thing – heal the world – and, despite the many voices speaking words of encouragement and love,

THEY DO NOT HEAR THEM.

It’s because they are waiting for you to deliver your voice – your point of view — to the healing conversation.

It is very easy to get overwhelmed by what is happening around us.  Hate, destruction, manipulation, and greed often seem to have won the spirit of humanity, to have stripped us of all reason and compassion.

IT. IS. NOT. TRUE.

You hold the key to our freedom.

We all do. We each have a key, unique and personal to our nature.

The world needs you to use your key.

IF ALL YOU SEE IS DARKNESS

If you feel like you are fumbling in the darkness, desperately searching to unlock the door to your successful entry into the world of world health and healing,

GET STILL.

Turn off the news.

Turn away from the noise around you and turn inward.

If only for ten minutes a day, listen only to your breath and the sound of your heartbeat.

MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE FOR ANSWERS.

When we feel that overwhelm, that’s what we project into the void.

Overwhelm is  not what we want to bring to the world, is it?

I know you want to bring love and healing.

We all do.  And, we all want that for ourselves.

One law of nature that is true, that sees itself realized over and over…

YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE OUT.

It’s not a new message, but one that bears repeating.  Over, and over, with many words from many different mouths.

The gifts of love, gratefulness, compassion, and forgiveness know no equal at any time. Like the many faces of Divine Light that we wear, our gifts of love are unique for each and every one of us.

Remember: there are billions of people in the world, with billions of points of view.

We all need your voice of love.  We all need your light.

Even if you think your voice is small now, exercise it.

Massage it.

Bring it to life.

Bring it to LIFE.

I love you. I believe in you.

A Lesson For Us All

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The following story illustrates one of two huge reasons why it’s hard to change our eating habits:

  • We talk ourselves into believing we are addicted to them.
  • We actually are physically addicted to them.

In this blog post, I am going to address #1.  I’ll address #2 in a future blog post.

Food is an easy comfort.

All we do is reach for it and consume it.

Food becomes a reward we give ourselves for putting up with, and making it through, yet another dissatisfying day.

it’s the same attachment that some of us have with alcohol and drugs.

To ask ourselves to give up our eating habits is asking us to give up the one pleasure that we allow ourselves.

We are so attached to that addiction that we actually tell ourselves that our eating habit is our choice, and we actually embrace the addiction.

We submit.

We succumb.

We release the struggle for a better way, and we accept — for better and for worse — the way we have.

I want to tell you a story.

It is a terrible story.

Last week, a man I know lost his girlfriend to heart disease.

She was not obese. She was not “obviously” ill.

She was relatively young, she was financially successful, and she died — shockingly and instantly — in her lover’s arms.

Let me fill in the details.

I’m going to change the names.  We’ll call him Paul.  We’ll call her  Joyce.

Paul is 43 years old. He is an acquaintance.

He is in the “acquaintance” camp because he’s kind of unbearable.

He’s judgmental. He makes ugly jokes that are designed to hurt, then he says he didn’t mean anything by it.

He’s sneaky. If he can get away with manipulating a situation to his benefit, he will.

He talks about people behind their back, and then when that person is in front of him, he will shower that person with praise.

We all have our stories…

He has a story about that. He suffered abuse at the hands of an ex-spouse, who took everything – his money, his child, his dignity – and moved to another state.

Since then, he’s become a bit unbearable.

Don’t get me wrong. I am sympathetic.  However, that doesn’t mean that I am willing to suffer his abuse.

So I don’t.

About two years ago, Paul re-met an old lover of his from his college years, Joyce.

Joyce had her own story.

She was smart – too smart for her life choices.

She had once worked as an editor for her local newspaper. The newspaper was purchased and went in a direction in which she didn’t agree, so she moved on.

Eventually, she got a job that paid very well but was extremely unrewarding.  She was the director of a bunch of managers at a company whose mission she disagreed with.

She made a lot of money but was never satisfied with her life.

She had had long-term lovers but never married. She was sensitive about what people thought about her, but she didn’t hesitate to tell others what she thought they were doing wrong with their lives.

If you tried to engage her in discussion, she accused you of being insulting. If you tried to respond to one of her criticisms, she told you that you were being defensive.

Joyce and Paul had one thing in common.  Food.

They each had allergies. He has allergies to dairy and wheat. She had allergies to nuts and legumes.  For their allergies, they listened to their respective doctors and were on a great deal of many different drugs.

They also both hated vegetables and they both loved sugar.

So, they spent a great deal of their time and energy together searching for and sharing sugary, starchy foods that met their allergic profiles. When they ate meat, it was processed meat, as cheap as they could find.

That’s actually quite a niche, isn’t it? That’s not easy – finding sugary, starchy foods that are dairy free, wheat free, nut free, and legume free, while at the same time avoiding fresh vegetables. That takes effort!

Neither smoked; that’s one good thing.

However, neither exercised. They didn’t even like to walk around the neighborhood. They drove to the corner store.

They complained of this ache and that ache, of this or that trip to the doctor.

They complained that the doctor could never “find anything,” and would take the pain killers that were prescribed.

But, whenever I tried to tentatively suggest natural, lifestyle changes in answer to Paul’s complaints, he would chuckle at me and say, “I know that’s what you do for a living, but I don’t want to be bothered; and sorry, but I just don’t believe in that stuff.”

So, we didn’t see much of Paul after he started dating Joyce.  When they were together at a party or a function, we chatted politely for a few minutes and moved on.

On the few times we saw Paul when they weren’t together, Paul would grumble about Joyce.

He would complain and tell unflattering stories about her habits.  Afterward, he would declare, “Well, it doesn’t matter. She’s as good as I’m getting. But I’m sure as hell never getting married again. She can forget that!”

It is difficult being close to people like that. It is not emotionally rewarding.

Time went on.

I haven’t seen Paul – or Joyce – for the better part of a year.

Last week, it was reported to me that Paul and Joyce were in the kitchen, putting together a meal.  According to Paul, they were having an argument. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” he reported. “We were just pecking at each other, you know,” when she stopped short and grabbed her chest.

He ran to her and caught her in his arms, just as she was falling.  They both tumbled to the floor.

She died in his arms.

She was 42.

Friends say that Paul is a wreck right now.

The last thing I understand he said to a group of people he visited was, “I wasn’t very nice to her. I wish I had treated her better.”

Was it her eating habits that killed her?

Given that she had seen doctors on multiple occasions to get evaluated for “serious diseases,” I could guess yes.

But I would hazard a more nuanced guess that her eating habits were only part of the story.

You see, food habits, like any habit that hurts us, are symptoms of bigger problems.

Those problems are inside.  They require self-reflection and a willingness to see oneself honestly.

So, the way we relate to food is often a reflection of the way we feel about the way we live.

You never know when the result of a life not-well-lived it’s going to happen.  But in retrospect, you can always say that you saw it coming.

You never know when you’re going to die, but you can often have a direct influence on its length and quality by intentionally living well.

I am 51.  These things are becoming very clear to me in my own life.

As Claire Fitzpatrick, private citizen, I have been to too many funerals of forty- and fifty-something friends and acquaintances to not notice these patterns.

As a chiropractor and nutritionist

I have seen people turn themselves around.

It is the most gratifying thing in the world to know that I have been a small part of their successes.

However, when I have a patient in my office who wants something I don’t offer – a “quick fix” – someone I can’t reach, someone who is a lot like Paul or Joyce, I shake my head and sadly move on.

I can’t help anyone who doesn’t really want help.

I can’t “walk the walk” for them.

Sometimes, the patient isn’t like Paul or Joyce.

Sometimes, the patient is someone who lives with, and takes abuse from, people like Paul and Joyce — someone who has no kind, loving support.

Sometimes, the patient is sweet, giving, lovely, shy, and lonely. Food is their intimate friend.

Sometimes, the patient is sad, depressed, anxious, and suspicious; someone who want to believe in themselves but ultimately sabotages themselves with excessive food (and, very often, with drink).

Sometimes, they want something better for themselves, but they don’t try.

Or, when they do try, when it becomes emotionally difficult to sustain the effort (as it always does), they lack the will to continue and they quit.

These are the cases that break my heart.

I have all kinds of tools to give. I can show how to use them.

For instance, as of this writing, I am hosting a 28-Day Rapid Reset Challenge (click here for details).

But ultimately, any tool I offer will fail if it is not used.

 

I’m not a psychologist.

I am a chiropractor.  I’m sort of a “neuropsychologist” for the body.

However, I do work with psychologists, and I recommend them often. We tend to see a lot of the same people.

You know, I have seen this over and over: Physical pain is worse when we have emotional pain.

Pain — physical and emotional — is frightening and isolating, and so it often becomes part of one’s self-identity.

Physical discomfort is easier to manage and eliminate if one has faith in oneself.

I wish I could reach into your heart and fill you with self-love and belief.

We walk beside you as you heal; but ultimately, we all walk the inner road by ourselves.

The best I can do is be here, continue to tell you how much I believe in you; and that, when you’re ready, I am honored to help.

Try to Speak Their Language

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This morning, I visited a business networking group in a suburb of Amsterdam called Amstelveen.

First of all, I was late.  I was so late.

The Dutch, like New Yorkers, are very prompt.  They pride themselves on three things: orderliness, cleanliness, and timeliness.

I have cleanliness down.

Orderliness and timeliness are challenges for me.

When You’re Too Excited…

Last evening, knowing I needed to get up about 5:30, I went to bed at 9:30 and promptly laid awake for 45 minutes.

Then I woke at 2 in the morning; at 2:45, I decided it was time to meditate (I have free meditations here).

I dropped back off to sleep at about 4.

So guess where I was in my sleep cycle at 5:30?

R.E.M.

I’m talking deep, R.E.M., “you-ain’t-waking-me-for-a-fire,” kind of sleep.

After three “snoozes” and an inner, semi-conscious grapple that lasted 25 minutes, I finally dragged myself to the bathroom at 6:15.

The meeting was at 7:00 a.m.  In the email, they had advised that I really should be there at 6:45.

The trip from home-to-meeting, if I made the train, was 33 minutes.

Uh, Yeah…

I’m good, but I still can’t bend time as well as I’d like. Still, against all odds, I ended up arriving at 7:20, after everyone had already sat down and began networking.

In Dutch.

“Spreekt Jij Engels?”

I’ve been studying it for over a year now; and still, I only have a toddler’s grasp of Dutch.

I blew into the room and I knew enough to say, “Het spijt me; ik te laat (I’m sorry, I too late), before I found my seat…

…a spot in the middle of the room where a nice little printed table tent, a plastic container full of member business cards, where a little advice note on meeting etiquette – in Dutch — lay waiting patiently for me to arrive.

The president of the meeting introduced me in Dutch as I hurried to my seat. I heard my name, “chiropractie,” “New York,” and “wonen te Amsterdam laast maand” before the fellow gave me a break and asked me, “Is that right?” in English.

“Yes.  Ja. Yes,” I stammered as I navigated my big back pack, my handful of keys (remember my legendary set of keys in New York? Somehow, I’ve managed to collect a set of 20 keys for the locks in the city of Amsterdam), and my jacket around my seat.

The room of 50 business people then proceeded to conduct the whole meeting in adult – not toddler – Dutch.

“I’m an Amrrr-ican.”

Look. I know the reputation that people from the United States have.  English is the primary language, and although we have the opportunity to learn other languages in school, it is not mandatory. So it is rare that an American will speak other languages fluently.

I’m guilty.  I know just enough Spanish, French, German and Dutch to say “beer” in German, to order it in French, using Dutch pronouns, and adding, “por favor,” at the end.

Not So In Europe — And Everywhere Else

In the Netherlands, English is a mandatory language. Particularly in Amsterdam, everyone speaks English to at least a seventh-grade level of understanding.

So, I knew going in that everyone in the room would understand me if I spoke English.

But I also know that we, in the United States, have a bit of a reputation of not bothering to learn another countries’ culture and language.

There’s good reason for that.  I forget the exact number — 20 or 30 percent — but very few people from the United States ever visit a foreign country.  So, when are we going to use another language?

That is changing, however, as more and more people from different countries emigrate to the United States, and do business with U.S. over the Internet.

The World is Getting Smaller

I remember a networking group to which I was a part in Connecticut.  There was a woman from Ecuador – I’ll call her Lisa – who probably knew as much English as I know Dutch now.  She was a member of our group.

Lisa’s native tongue is Spanish; yet spoke nothing but English every single meeting.

She struggled and apologized and struggled some more to get her message across in English.  This is back when Google Translate was not even a thought in a developer’s head.

Everyone loved her for it.

Ten years later, she is still a member of that same group, and doing very well for herself.

Toddler Dutch

Like I said; my Dutch is kiddie Dutch. And I have Google Translate.

I thought of Lisa.

When it came time for me to stand up and introduce myself, I typed my speech into Google Translate on my phone, and I proceeded to read my speech in probably the worst Dutch pronunciation this group has ever heard.

I got an ovation.  When I gave an exit testimonial about how much I appreciated their hospitality – again, in Dutch – I got another ovation.

I also got an invitation to come back to the meeting, a few one-on-one appointments with members to get to know one anothers’ businesses, and a man who is fears the “cracking” sound that chiropractic sometimes makes who would like to try my services.

Not bad for a few minute’s effort.

Try To Speak Their Language

The Dutch are also very honest, straight-forward people.

More than one person said I was “very brave” to stand and speak to this room in Dutch; that other English speakers just “walk right in,” and “proceed to do everything in English.”

I don’t know if what they meant was that I was “brave.” I think what they were saying is that it was very considerate of me to try to speak to a group of people in their language, a language which I clearly have no mastery.

I learned a long time ago that, whatever way I perceive a situation, someone else perceives it a different way.

“Fix it, Doc!”

Most people come to a chiropractor because they are in pain, they can’t get out of it, and someone told them a chiropractor might help them.

That’s all they know. They want to get out of pain.  That’s why I first went to a chiropractor, too.

I’m now on the other end of that spectrum. I went through the physics, the chemistry, the organic chemistry, the biomechanics. I went through the neurology, the anatomy, the kinesiology, the art, science, and the philosophy of chiropractic.

Chiropractic now means something very different to me than to the average person on the street.

Bringing the Mountain to The People?

I once thought it was my job to bring people from “get out of pain” to “the sole purpose of chiropractic is to reunite man the physical with man the spiritual,” during the first visit.

At first, I had a lot of trouble recruiting patients to my practice.  People ended up going to “the pain guy” – whoever it was — down the street.

People don’t speak that language right away.  They may never learn that language.  You have to walk with them along their road before you point down the path of yours and begin to explain its twists and turns.

If they are called to “the mountain,” like me, they will have to make the effort to learn the language.

That takes time.  I was a chiropractic patient for fifteen years before I went to school as a chiropractor, and I didn’t speak the language when I went in.  It took me time to learn that language as well.

What Language Do You Have to Learn?

Do you need to learn how to speak your partner’s language? Your boss? Your child’s?  Whose perspective are you so bent upon converting to your own, that you are forgetting how to listen to them?

Find out where people are. Take the time to understand the language they are using when they speak to you about their struggles at work, school, on the playground, in the internet world, at home.

Meet Them Where They Are.

I once saw a chiropractor spend the entire first visit with a patient in his crowded waiting room, because it took all the effort in the world for that patient to even make it through his front door, let alone the examination room.  He examined and adjusted the patient right there, and got him to a place where he could walk around a few feet without excruciating pain in his back and legs, all in front of his other patients.

This doc is one of the most philosophical, spiritual chiropractors I have ever met. I barely understand what the hell he’s talking about when he speaks about the nature of chiropractic to a roomful of other doctors of chiropractic.  He’s way out there in the stratosphere, when it comes to chiropractic neurology and philosophy.

Notice, I said he had a crowded waiting room.

His Patients Know He Cares For Them

His patients, at first, don’t know that, when he finds the problem and addresses it, that he’s opening communication between their central nervous system and the rest of their body, that he’s clearing interference so that the body is able to heal itself more efficiently, and that, in his mind, he’s tapping into the forces of divine creation of which Rumi and Hafiz wrote about with such eloquence.

He first meets them where they are…in his waiting room, scared and in pain, hoping that somehow this guy can fix it.

Nothing brings that home than to try and explain chiropractic care in another language to a group of strangers who aren’t even looking for help.

In every ministry – be it parental, political, spiritual, intellectual, financial, legal, whatever…there is no way that we are able to deliver the message of health and healing if we don’t figure out what the person believes is wrong with them.

Faster Horses? Or A Better Way?

You know that famous quote about Henry Ford who said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

At least he knew their desire.  He knew the meta-message behind that request: that they wanted a better, faster, easier way to get from here to there, and they didn’t know how to go about it.

You know how to go about it.  But people don’t know need to know the method behind your genius.  They just want to know that you hear them, that you care, and that you will do everything you can to eliminate their trouble.

They Really Just Want to Know That You Care

And they want to know when you can’t. They want to know that, even if you can’t, you care about them.

And that’s the real meta-message. People want to know you care about them.

You do that by meeting people where they are, and trying to speak with the language they understand.

They don’t even need you to be fluent in their perception. They just need to know you’re trying.

Because, you really do care, don’t you?

Sometimes Being There is Enough

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One of the reasons I chose chiropractic as a profession is that I like to fix things.

I think I got this from my mother. Whenever I asked a question, she had an answer.

Sometimes, it was a wrong answer. But to her, that wasn’t the important thing. The important thing was to have an answer. To be of service.

She was letting me know she was there.

Bless her heart: I don’t think she knew she was doing it.

I think her mother also had an answer for everything.  I didn’t have the privilege of knowing her mother very well, but the family stories suggest that answers flowed like water from MeMa O’Grady.

It was her way of showing she cared.

Being of service has always been a strong calling in my family, on both sides. We have a rich tradition of spiritual leaders, former police officers, writers, health care providers, volunteer caregivers, teachers, veterans, artists, musicians, etc…in our family.  The O’Gradys and the Fitzpatricks have a history of service, and of wanting to serve.

Of course, I adopted the habit. Being of service drives everything I do.

So I know that of which I speak when I say, you don’t always have to fix the problem.

The important thing is not always the answer.

The important thing is being there.

My patients brought that lesson home to me over the years.

When I first got into practice, I thought I had to know everything. That I had to have all the answers.

The first time I was able to bring myself to say, “I don’t know,” was a huge relief.

Sometimes the subluxation — a subtle, physical interference to the nervous system — manifests because of an emotional block, like the feeling that we are facing our challenges alone.

Chiropractic is like that. When the nervous system is free to express itself, sometimes what happens along with the physical release is a revelation.

When that happens, I have learned that my place is to witness and hug.

 

We don’t know how to fix everything.

None of us do.

None of us really know what its like to walk in our neighbors’ shoes. None of us truly understand the perspective of our children, our partners, our parents. None of us can fix all of the others’ problems.

We all go through transitions that are painful, sometimes irreversibly so.  It is the way of things.

Some things cannot be fixed, even if we desperately want to fix them.

Sometimes, all that’s required of us is our presence, to witness and to let the one in pain know that we are there.

Be love. Be there.

I know this message will reach someone who needs it today, right now.

Trust me.

Be love. Just be there.

Chill Out in Five Minutes or Less

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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!

Opioid Addiction, Chiropractic, and a Single Payer Option

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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.

Guest Post: Jack Tricarico on Tai Chi

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I’ve known Jack Tricarico for going on three and a half years now. 

Jack is an accomplished painter and poet from New York City. He also teaches tai chi and meditation.  He is turning 80 next month.

Since I’ve known him, he has touted the practice of tai chi, and credited it with saving his sanity and his life on many occasions.  

I asked Jack to contribute his story, that it would touch the life of someone who needed to hear it; and he very generously obliged.

When you read his story, you may think that Jack is an understated fellow.  On the contrary; his personality is big and his talent wide. His work is anything but understated!

I highly encourage you to get to know him and his work. Links are provided below.

By the way: the teacher who introduced Jack to tai chi, Eddie Rodriguez, is also a talented massage therapist on New York City’s West Side,  

I refer patients to Eddie very often. A link to Eddie is below as well.

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Jack’s Story

In the year of 1988, while teaching drawing and painting to high school students at an after-school program in Manhattan, I met a young man named Eddie Rodriguez; who, at the age of 17, was already a black belt in karate, and knowledgeable of other martial art systems.

After the program ended Eddie asked me if I wanted to learn karate. I had never practiced a martial art form before then except boxing in my adolescence which I enjoyed, but had no talent for.

After a few months of practicing karate, I became bored and quit.

Shortly after Eddie again asked me if I wanted to learn tai chi, which he thought I might be better suited for.

He was right.  At the time, I had a close friend who practiced tai chi also, and it appeared to be a discipline I might enjoy learning because it looked so profoundly meditative when I watched him do it.

Before that, I had practiced yoga for a couple of years and Zen meditation sporadically. I enjoyed these disciplines for both the calmness and the energy they produced.

So, in July of 1989, at the age of 51, I began learning the Kuang Ping form of tai chi, an early Yang style technique, from Eddie.

During this time, I was in the midst of an emotionally turbulent relationship with a woman I was nevertheless rapturously in love with.

Practicing tai chi for a couple of hours daily enabled me to maintain some semblance of sanity throughout this affair.

The practice utterly reduced the stress of the continual conflict that went on, sometimes edging toward violence, between my lover and I.

A year after that relationship ended, I met someone else who I eventually married.

Since then, I have learned 3 more tai chi forms: the short Yang style which I learned from Larry Galante, the Chen style and the Yang style classical sword form which I again learned from Eddie.

I have survived 3 car accidents, which caused spinal, knee and nerve damage, and cancer since then.

Today, at 80, practicing 2 to 3 hours of tai chi and meditation daily, I feel better than I did at 30.

This routine has also helped me creatively more than I can imagine.

I am both a painter and poet. My work can be viewed at: New York Art World, web director Johanna Lisi, and Collaborative Pursuits, LLC, web director Courtney Rogers.

I thank Eddie Rodriguez and Larry Galante for teaching me tai chi. It helped save my life.

Jack Tricarico

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Jack’s paintings are available at the above links; some of his poetry is also on Amazon. For further works of his poetry, you can contact Jack through his art agent here.

Eddie Rodriguez practices massage therapy at 448 West 57th Street, Garden Level, New York, NY 10019. His contact information is here.

Something Will Beg You to Fear

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Fear is Holding Us Back

If you haven’t seen the movie, Defending Your Life, you should. It is an incredibly intelligent Albert Brooks comedy from 1991, starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep.

I don’t know many people who remember the movie, and that’s unfortunate.  For me, this was a bellwether story. It voiced something that I had felt for a long time, but for which I had no words.

It’s about a man who dies (needlessly) in a car accident and finds himself in Judgement City, a sort of weigh station for souls.

At Judgement City, he must defend is life, in terms of how much fear he was able to overcome. If he was judged that he overcame his fear, he could “progress forward.”

If not, he had to be “sent back (reincarnated)” to try again in a next life.

Defending Your Life did not deliver a brand new message, but it was presented in a way that I could understand in a meaningful way.

Art is like that. Each piece of art is its own perspective on a premise. It may speak to millions or one.

The premise of Defending Your Life, as I understand it, is that fear is holding us back from our evolution.

I agree.

I’m am not saying we don’t need fear.  We can’t do without fear. Fear is part of what made us.

But fear has its place.  These days, for us in the Western world, it need not take a huge place.

Have you ever driven a stick shift?

You have to play the clutch and the gas against one another as you get the car from 0-15 mph (or 0-24 kph).

You need first gear for that.  It’s important, but only for a few moments.

Imagine that you have a car.

The car is a stick shift — a manual.  It has seven gears.

Now imagine that the car you are driving is life itself.

Fear is first gear in the Car of Life.

First Gear: Fear

Fear is as old as life itself.

Without fear, creatures do not know when to remove themselves from dangerous situations. Those who don’t fear, don’t survive. Fear is primal.

I’m eating a root. There’s a big animal with sharp teeth moving toward me in the grass.  I run.  Or I kill the animal before it kills me.

That’s the “fight-or-flight” response. It is an autonomic (automatic) nervous system response called the sympathetic response.

Fear gets you away from the sharp-toothed animal.

Then I rest and eat my root.

That’s the “rest and digest” response.  That is an autonomic nervous system response, too. It’s called the parasympathetic (“around-the-sympathetic”) response.

These are primal, necessary nervous system functions, the health of which cannot be ignored. We feel them every single day.

But you can’t run a car in first gear. You’ll burn out the engine.

You have to shift to second, third, fourth, etc…

Each gear builds on the gains of the others.

Second Gear: Love

Nature decided that life should have a nurturing aspect. The very next thing that Life gave us was the ability to love and care for others.

I just ran/killed that sharp-toothed animal and now I’m eating my root.

I see my neighbor. My neighbor wasn’t so lucky. His leg is bitten and bleeding, and he’s sick.

I don’t know what to do, but my root makes me feel better. 

I share my root.

Without love, life is little more than fight/flight, rest/digest, pee/poop, birth/death, with a little sex for relief. Hopefully.

Without love, nothing beyond the will to survive is possible.

Third Gear: Forethought

This is where the animals start to separate themselves out from other animals. The act of planning is a huge evolutionary step.

I have to gather and hunt to feed myself and my family.  What if I cooperate with my neighbors? We are all good at this and that. We can take on different tasks to get the job done better and faster, and we’ll have each other’s backs.

How do I get that across to them? We need some way we can share ideas in common so we know how to collaborate.

And…

It took my tribe and I four days to hunt this animal, and another four to carry it back to the family. How do we keep it fresh until then?

Soon it will be winter and it will be difficult to find food.  How do we store our food so we can make it until spring?

Without forethought, there is no science, no logic, no language, no architecture, no innovation, no adaption. No progress.

The Fourth Gear: Choice

Without choice, we have no real autonomy and no way to communicate alternative ideas peacefully.

My aunt wants me to gather berries.  But I like to hunt.  Also, we have many people who like to pick berries.  I think we need more hunters.  I will hunt.

I can either hurt my aunt’s feelings or I can persuade her that this is a good idea.  I would rather we are both happy, because I love my aunt. I will persuade her.  

If I can’t persuade her, I can either cut myself off from her or remind her that, although I will not take her advice, I love and respect her.  I don’t want to be apart from my aunt.  I choose to tell her I love and respect her.

Without choice, there is no real respect for one another beyond fear. There is no peace.

What is the fifth gear of life?

The Fifth Gear: Wonder

Wonder is the emotional result of the realization that there are forces at work that are greater than you and your tribe.

When the moon is full, the tide is very high. When the moon is gone, the tide is low. The moon makes the water rise.  The moon must be very powerful.  I wonder how the moon does that? I wonder if the moon knows I am here?

Wonder can be painful. Sometimes pain can cause fear. Pain is sometimes necessary for growth to occur.

My father was laughing with us last night. This morning his body was here, but it was cold and he never woke up.  My father is gone.  My father’s body is beginning to turn to earth. The Earth must want my father’s body.  But without my father, I don’t know who I am, or what my life means. Where did my father go? What will happen to me? What will happen to my family?

But because we have choice, we can choose how we process pain. Wonder lets us do this.

When we kill an animal, its body is inside me, and in the earth, like my father’s body. Is the animal a part of me? Did it have a soul, like my father?  Is it part of the earth, like my father?  Are we all?

Without wonder, there is no appreciation of mystery. There is no philosophy. There is no wisdom. There is no Homo sapien.

The Sixth Gear of Life: Art

Art is our intuitive expression of wonder. Art isn’t just the appreciation of something bigger than ourselves: it is our interpretation of that which is bigger than ourselves.

The moon is beautiful. I want to draw the moon and the water.

My father was funny.  I want my daughter to know this.  I will act out stories about my father to make her laugh.

I like the way I feel when I raise my voice high and low. It makes me feel warm and wonderful. I will sing.

You may have noticed that, as the car accelerates, the car slips into the higher gears more smoothly and easily. It seems as if they are seamless.

The car slips so easily past the sixth into the seventh gear, it’s difficult to know where it began.

Seventh Gear of Life: Oneness

Oneness is not just our interpretation of that which is bigger than ourselves; it is our awareness that we and that which is bigger than ourselves are one.

When I sit very still, I feel the moon glow and the cool waters flow inside me. They are part of me.

When I act the part of my father, I feel my father inside of me. My father is still with me.

If I am still and think of the animal inside me, I feel it becoming part of me. If I let myself, I feel the animal in the earth. I feel my father inside me and in the earth. I feel we are all part of one another.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because sometime today, something is going to beg you to fear.

  • You are going to hear about xxxx who was a victim of xxxx, and the results are brutal.
  • You are going to find out that someone took away someone else’s power/rights/life.
  • You are going to face a challenge.
  • You are going to be judged, fairly or unfairly, on your talents, your looks, your skills, your wit.
  • You are going to be subject to someone else’s fear. It might look and feel like violence (in this case, it probably is).
  • Someone will believe in you, will trust you, will have faith that you will do the right thing.

When any or all of this happens, I want you to remember:

Fear causes pain. Pain can be necessary for growth. Pain can send you backward, or you can process it differently and move forward.

You have a choice. Wonder.