Inside The Polished Apple

It's Appreciation Month at Elan Family Wellness.  I'm happy to have Scott Hutchison guest blog today - yes, Scott is my husband, a Massage Therapist and Allergy Sensitivity Testing and Treatment practitioner at Elan, and photographer with Stick Out Your Face Photography.  Enjoy his thoughts on a recent lecture about Living Thinking presented at the Calgary Waldorf School.   I came across a new term called Living Thinking last week. Living Thinking was coined by an amazing teacher named Michael D'Aleo who is possibly one of the smartest people I have ever had the opportunity to hear lecture. If you want to learn more about Michael, his patents and where/what he teaches --drop me a line. Living Thinking is this: A story -- either self generated or told by others -- that relates important information by way of a narrative that deep-roots it into a person's mind. This causes extrapolations to occur in a way that a person can then see a broader picture of their world an

At Elan, March has been our month of “Patient Appreciation Day” for a few years, so it seemed like the appropriate theme for the month-a chance to invite you to participate in our Yearly Event, a chance to highlight a great charity, Made by Momma, and show our appreciation for the local businesses that help us to make this day happen. Last year we were able to raise over $700 for Made by Momma, and we look forward to beating that number this year! Having a focus on Appreciation is an instant mood switch. Deciding what to write made me suddenly see with more clarity-we were recently in Banff and enjoyed a weekend in the beautiful Rockies (and I am one to drive through them multiple times a year without even seeing them); we've been enjoying some late winter merging into spring weather and getting outside more; and I've been stewing on what I can most appreciate and write about. Then the book on my bedside table jumped at me, “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne. How do we

We went to Banff this past weekend. Absolutely one of the best things about living so close to the mountains, and also something we rarely take advantage of.  Beautiful mountains, fresh air, excellent sushi (don't we all go to Banff for sushi?), healing, mineral hot springs. Sounds lovely, yes? While I was there, I checked my email and coincidentally, had one commenting on the benefits of being outside (kids and adults) for 2-3 hours per day. Yes, 2-3 hours a day.  I don't think commuting in the car counts.   Are you outside this often? Are your kids? So many benefits of being outside: Fresh air Better sleep More exercise (unless that's lying on a beach, or in a hammock) Ability to explore our natural world-trees, bugs, animals, mud... More neurosensory stimulation (like waking on uneven surfaces, balancing on logs, new textures) Family time Unplugged time Did I find enough reasons without looking up any research articles?  I know the resea

A topic that has come up for me lately...How are you motivated by Your Goals and Expectations?   In a balanced world, we set realistic personal (and work) goals and achievable expectations.  We plan ahead to keep our life organized and functioning efficiently and effectively.  What happens when we create unrealistic expectations?  Not just for ourselves, but for how everything and everyone should function.   This may be a problem for you if you hear yourself saying, "This is not the way it was supposed to be." "Why is this always happening to me?" "I can see it so vividly that I can almost touch it."  Perhaps the over scheduling, degree by age 22, married by 25, first child by  age 30... Retire at age 50... Or, "Maybe I'll run a marathon this year..." from the person who hasn't run longer than 5 minutes in their life. I see it in my office when practice member's pain interferes with the life they think they should be living.  Wh

It's Valentine's Day!   Of course, our practice members are the heart of our business and the reason that we've been in business for 8+ years in Calgary (8 years at Elan and 2 1/2 years prior).  How do we love our practice members?  Let us count the ways.   We love that we get to share in your health discoveries. We love that we get to see you from being grumpy in pain, to happy and joyful with life. We love getting to share in the journeys of pregnancies and birth. We love that we get to see kids grow up! We love to see people more comfortable in our community environment. We love being a piece of your life. We love seeing you take charge of your problems and making changes. We love when we see proactive changes to your nutrition, exercise, lifestyle.   We love seeing the changes in your health, your work, your relationships. We love when our practice members are in joy, connected, and contributing.   We love when we see practice members "getting y

I have had the opportunity to travel for work two times in the past three weeks. Why would I want to spend this precious time away from both my family and practice? Fortunately, the trips were for two amazing seminars, which I have been asked about by many practice members. Here is the why and what I have learned. In January I travelled to Denver for 4 days for Dr. Donald Epstein's Intermediate and Advanced Care Intensive seminar. This is the advanced technique seminar for Network Spinal Analysis and is offered yearly, although I have not managed to attend since I last attended in Como, Italy. We have a lot of information to cover as Dr Epstein is constantly refining the work, and we get both lecture and hands-on practice time. As part of his new Reorganizational Healing model, we are learning new ways to work at different depths in the body to refine both the Respiratory and Somatopsychic (healing) waves. It's pretty amazing to see how the work is constantly changing

Today was Vision board creation day. The highlights: Heart Centered Connected relationship with Family Health for our family & families we work with Community Circles Food, Food, Food! (I cut those pictures out last month) Travel to new places and experiencing new cultures. While I would love to say Russia, France, Africa, Costa Rica & South America are all in the plans-just a general theme of exploring somewhere new. Abundance, success, and a leader in my work and community. Pretties for my high aesthetic-flowers, food, clothes. Creative & domestic outlets. A smattering of words to tie it all together, et voila!

Hurt, Jealousy, Competition?   Is this the type of feeling you would expect from your child as a response to your relationship with your smartphone?  For an item that has integrated itself into most aspects of our life, we should give some thought as to how it is impacting our children.   I am guilty of using my phone to email, Facebook, and text while I am with my daughter.  I have occasionally been tugged back to reality when I spend too much time on it.  Subtle cues such as, Push me on the swing Mommy!  Or, Come and walk through the jungle forest.  I do aim to limit my time on my phone when I am with my daughter.   Our school has a "No Phone Use" policy, which helps make me more conscious of how often I use it.  On the other hand, I have also spent some of her gymnastics classes playing on my phone rather than watching her learn new skills.   Have you looked around at any of the un-parented classes?  The majority of us parents are on our phones for most of the class.

We had a Waldorf pre-school meeting last week where we discussed parenting and the different theories of human growth and human needs. Hearing our teachers, presenter, and other parents is inspiring to me. Parenting and teaching is a learning process in so many ways-getting to know our children, ourselves, and seeing how we grow into this role as parents. It is always encouraging to hear others going through similar growth and challenges. This weekend I had a chance to review my notes from last week. My favorite part comes from notes on the Stages of Development in Seven Year Cycles (from G. O'Neil The Human Life). As our daughter is on the first cycle, that's what this will be about. The first seven years is about the development of the physical body with their life being about their sense response (development of their senses). I think of this as the time when these precious little spirits or angels are coming into their bodies and learning about the physical body the

Our office Elan has just sent out our monthly newsletter and this month our theme is warmth... Creating a warm home environment, wool, libido, fevers and warmth in general to tie it all together. It makes sense, doesn't it? Half of the country is getting ready for spring, but for us, let's dig our heels in for that next month or two of winter. Scott and I have finished our last leg of the food challenge. Paleo won over Vegan, but I'm pretty sure some of the grains and dairy will sneak back into our diet. We both lost 10 pounds in the month, which I think is amazing. My success breakfast when I got sick of eggs and spinache.... Applesauce with sesame, pumpkin, flax, and hemp seeds. Now that we're done, I'm realizing I don't know how to eat anymore! Another project to consider, but I'm tired of giving so much energy to food. February has arrived with a new challenge for me! I was tossing around the idea of warmth and considering what I wanted to