Inside The Polished Apple

I am excited to have this article appearing in Calgary's Attachment Parenting Village Newsletter published today.   Babies and young children live primarily in the physical world. She (baby) is learning how to make her body her own and learning how she can be in her body. She is all about exploration-using and developing her senses to understand her world. To explore, she needs to move and develop physically. I would like to share ways that we can help our babies and children to experience more movement and more opportunities for physical growth and development. Opportunities to stretch and move. I believe that infants should spend the majority of their time either in a caregiver's arms/ carried, or in an unrestricted space with room to stretch and move. From a physical viewpoint, being carried gives baby a chance to develop stability muscles as a response to her caregiver's movements; to develop her balance and proprioception. What is our propri

Happy Spring Equinox!  So much anticipation and excitement for our upcoming spring weather, sun, and returning to life outside.  What new beginnings are you welcoming into your life?  I 've been hearing and reading some disgruntled parents complaining about the plethora of ( commercial) holidays that schools, kids, and society feel we need to celebrate.   Yes, we had a pie on pie day.  Yes, I celebrated St. Patrick's Day with lots of shamrocks, rainbows, Scott with his Guiness, and a nod to our Irish ancestry.  Yes, Easter will be celebrated with egg painting and an egg hunt.  Yes, I am marking the equinox and am considering having the bonfire tonight.  Yes, we like the routines and rituals associated with many of the holidays and it helps us to mark the calendar with celebrations to look forward to.  But, absolutely no expectations that we will mark every one-we didn't even send Valentine's to school this year and nothing came smashing down on our heads the next d

Is there a pot of gold at the end of this fruit rainbow? Here's some shots of our annual Patient Appreciation Day on Saturday, March 16th.   We had a busy three hours with around 50 people visiting Elan Family Wellness for chiropractic entrainments, reflexology, health coaching, food & fun.  We kept to a St. Patrick's Day theme with tattoos and face painting for the kids, green smoothies for everyone adventurous enough, and green shamrocks everywhere.   The day was designed as an Appreciation Day to our Practice members and community, and as a way to raise funds and awareness for the charity Made by Momma.   Mikaela getting ready for her first face painting customers!   Scarlett & Amelie-2 butterflies! Scott making Green smoothies for St. Paddy's Day!   Musical guests Jessica Erlendson and Bob Erlendson Some of the swag-all together we had 14 prize donors!     Somewhere in there, a bunch of practice members joined us

It's Appreciation Month at Elan Family Wellness.  I'm happy to have Sandra Catania with us today as a guest blogger.  Sandra works with us at Elan Family Wellness Centre as a Reflexologist and a Flower Essence Student in Training.  She is also Owner of Goddess Mommies and mom to two littles.   This was previously published in our March newsletter . It is said that the more you appreciate things, the more good things come into your life to appreciate. I believe in this wholeheartedly, and in the whole concept of Gratitude. It took me quite a long time, and quite a few years of struggling, before I finally came to embrace this way of thinking.  As a moody teenager, my mother used to have me write lists of "things to be happy about" in order to cultivate my attitude of gratitude. Something must have sunk in somewhere along the way as now I would definitely describe myself as a glass half full type of person. Thinking positively and feeling appreciation for all the

The team from Elan Family Wellness Centre spent this past Saturday at the Festival of Health and Wellness sharing our secrets on how to have more health and well being in your life.  We had Allergy and Sensitivity Testing and Treatment demo's, information on Acupuncture and Network Spinal Analysis, and a workshop on 3 Tools to Connect your Breath and Body . The biggest attraction...the magic mister. It was a full and busy day and we hope it helps some of the dozens of people who came by to visit! Dr. Adrienne Perkins, our Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine/ Acupuncturist.

It's only days away- Elan Family Wellness Centre's Patient Appreciation Day!  We hold this as an annual event to thank our Practice Members for being part of our life and our office-whether they've been with us for a few days, or for the 8+ years that we've been in business!  In the last few years, we have also invited our Community to join us, so regardless of how you know us, we'd love to see you... You're Invited!!  (and some Luck O' The Irish to You!)  Join us March 16th from 10am - 1 pm.   Entrainments/ Adjustments for Current Practice Members Reflexology & Health Coach Sessions by Appointment or Drop In as available. In exchange for a donation to our charity Made by Momma !  * We'll have snacks, live music (from 12-1), face painting, and amazing door prizes and fun!   A HUGE THANK YOU!!!! to all of our incredible donors!   The Seed Event (two all day event passes). Stonespeaker  (jewellery!) The Rebm

It's Appreciation Month at Elan Family Wellness.  I'm happy to have Janis Isaman join us with some words about Appreciating You!  Janis works with Elan Family Wellness Centre as a Health Coach and has great nutritional and lifestyle/fitness advice.   This has been previously published in our March newsletter . It's relatively easy to show appreciation to friends, family or even strangers who hold open a door.  With a simple smile or thank you, we say or show that we care.  But when was the last time you took a moment to appreciate YOU?  Here are some easy ways to give yourself the appreciation you deserve this month: 1. Turn off the inner critic!  Instead of focusing on what you didn't do or what went wrong, make a mental, verbal or written list of the ways that you accept yourself, good deeds you did or things you did really well.  You'll find your internal report card is filled with positive surprises.  2. Eat like the King or Queen of Your World, because y

Anyone in Calgary knows that our first three days of March have been only too typical of March-Days 1 and 2 lamb-like; Day 3 lion-like.  I feel its only an indicator of what is to come this month so I'm taking a deep breath while I still can.   We have a lot coming up at our office this month as you can see in our current newsletter:   Elan's March Newsletter Our first big event is this upcoming weekend, with the Festival of Health and Wellness .  I'm excited to be both an exhibitor and a guest workshop presenter.  I'm using this week to put the final touches on my workshop.  I'll be sharing 3 Steps to De-stress;  using breath techniques from The 12 Stages of Healing (a book by Dr. Donald Epstein)  to identify where we hold tension in our body and easy ways to connect and release this tension.   Right now, I feel like I need that deep breath to re-focus.   Wouldn't a 5 minute break be a perfect addition to today?  Here's a simple way to take a stre