Visions Medical Center

There are many summer sports and with this article I wanted to touch on a very popular one that causes aches and pains and often requires hours of training and sporadic competition throughout a long season.   This sport is of a green and growing variety – it is gardening!

Gardeners know all too well that a healthy growing crop requires a rigorous workload of tending the greens and harvesting the goods it produces.

Growing up in rural North Dakota, my parents were recreational gardeners and my grandfather was a former farmer.   Large gardens inhabited a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, etc. which would quickly find their way to the dinner table or a canning Jar.  From this background I have come to appreciate the sweat and true sportsmanship required to succeed in a “sport” like gardening.

The complexity of the sport. Thought goes into seed selection, soil composition, planting times and other growing logistics while physical labor goes into landscaping, soil tilling, lifting, moving, planting, watering, pruning, harvesting, etc.   This hard work can cause soreness to the body, but with the appropriate provisions the ‘weekend warrior’ or the ‘constant gardener’ can prevent back and neck pain, knee pain and more.

Although gardening is generally a low impact activity, many approach this summer sport as an activity that does not require much special preparation.  Be conscientious that you do not make the transition from the winter months to this new activity too quickly.  Our deconditioned, or shall we say “winterized,” bodies can be susceptible to spring and summer injuries.   After many hours of kneeling, repetitive bending over and lifting through awkward positions can result in pain, stiffness and a reduced ability to enjoy the summer months.

For tips on how to prevent injuries while gardening stay tuned for Part II and III of this blog.

– Eric Roseen DC

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

Respond

respondere = to promise in return

As I’m sure you know, spiritual beings having a human experience are encouraged always to respond and never to react. I say, maybe. Sometimes the best response in the world is silence.

A client called me once to say that she’d cheated on her lover. I said nothing. Finally, she sputtered at me something about me giving her Hail Marys or some sort of penance. I laughed, and told her that’s not why she’d called me. She called to see if she would still be loved despite the fact that she’d cheated on her lover. Then she laughed with the sheer freedom of it.

The point was: what was she going to choose now? People cheat on their lovers all the time. What is your best response to that choice?

So, X happened, and now, heeding the Latin root of the word, what Y do you want to promise in return?

The best response is always a way to go forward from where you are to where you want to be. My client promised herself she would be true to her lover from then on. Ask:  How can I best respond to what is happening right now?

Infinition:

I choose my responses consciously today. I ask myself what I want to promise in return to any happening, and I keep my promises.

Susan Corso, DD

Back pain can significantly affect your quality of life and your ability to perform your usual activities of daily living. You may experience back pain in any part of your back, although the low back, lumbar spine, is the most common locations for back-related problems. Back pain may be caused by traumatic injuries, overuse injuries, poor posture, physical deconditioning or muscle imbalances throughout your body.  Back pain may also be caused by certain organ problems, which means back pain is a sign that should be assessed by a healthcare professional.

Possible causes of back pain include:

• Ligament sprain
• Muscle Strain
• Herniated disc
• Degenerative disc disease
• Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
• Spinal stenosis
• Leg length inequality
• Fracture

Chiropractic care can help treat each of these conditions. Chiropractic is a manual medicine system that uses gentle, controlled, and directed forces delivered to your spinal joints and tissues to encourage healing of your acute and chronic back problems. Chiropractic treatment for back pain usually involves the use of adjustments to joints that are not moving properly. However, other hands-on techniques I utilize for treatment include mobilization of the soft tissues, therapeutic taping procedures, and myofascial release. A unique combination of treatment modalities will be performed to eliminate your back pain and resolve your underlying health problem.

Chiropractic care may help treat your back injuries by:

• Restoring normal joint mobility and alignment in your spine
• Reducing pain, adhesions, and inflammation in your back tissues and structures
• Relaxing tight back muscles that may be contributing to your back pain or other symptoms
• Restoring normal range of motion in your thoracic (mid-back) and lumbar (low back) spines

My work at the spine center at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, MA has equipped me with the evidence-based guidelines for treating low back pain and assisting those recover from injury.  If you are in pain, call to get an appointment and be on your way to better health.

Eric Roseen, DC

I love to muse over the saying, “The only constant is change”.

Whether we are feeling despair over a loss or a disappointment, or exuberantly enjoying a perfect moment…we know, this too shall pass. The only constant is change. I find this truth to sometimes feel disturbing and at other times, comforting. But finding it anything is merely a resistance to a core truth about life. It is what it is.

It helps to accept that Life is fluid; our experience is not the same from moment to moment, nor from day to day. We need to let go of attachment, of holding on, and instead, deliberately trust, and participate in, what is coming next, trusting it to be better than what came before.
How can we make transitions feel easier to negotiate? How can we stay centered and allowing of change? How can we live in trust that all is and will be well?

Here’s another truth about Life. Life inherently wants for our happiness, our health, our healing, our joy. And, as Co-creators in life, we have a say about what happens.

We steer our path when we appreciate the wonder all around us, the incredible beauty, and intentionally speak of our appreciation and Gratitude for it all. This sends out an intention to the universe asking to bring more of the positive.

Our thoughts are powerful. We can effect what comes next by deliberately paying attention to, and changing our thoughts, attitudes and beliefs.
I tell my patients to develop a Gratitude practice…3 minutes at the start and end of each day…everything we can think of to feel grateful for…my dogs, children, friends, my bed, the blast of the shower, the lilacs blooming this week, all of the simple abundances in our lives. Appreciation brings more to appreciate.

We can decide to live in joy, to “en-joy”.

We can maintain a daily spiritual practice. This builds a foundation of love, acceptance and perspective….and, ever the doctor here, it calms our cortisol.

Remember that from the void of the great Unknown comes all things. And change is the agent to bring forth more of what is meant for us to grow and to have full lives. As we let go of the past, and of the present as it becomes the past, we can walk into this great Unfolding with trust that there is always more good, more joy, more love waiting for us.

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

React

re- = again

+

-agein = to lead

As part of my spiritual practice, I seek the guidance of God on a daily basis.  One of my favorite ways to test the guidance I get is to ring up a friend and ask for a gut reaction. I state what I heard, and I ask for her very first answer, not for thoughtful consideration.

Usually gut reaction is accurate if you can catch it before your brain kicks in.  We who live on a spiritual basis are encouraged not to react any more, but to respond to stimuli that come our way.

Because this is based on the radical judgment that reacting at all or ever is “bad,” I don’t think this is always the wisest approach.

The Greek roots of react mean to lead again. Reactions can lead us to inner truth in a lightning bolt sort of way.

A spiritual teacher gave me a wonderful visualization that I’ve used for years. Picture a traffic light in your body. The three lamps, from top to bottom, are head, heart and gut. She suggested we use it as an instant barometer for choices about taking action. Unless all three lights are green, don’t go.

Learn which of your reactions to trust and which to query. Ask:  How are my reactions leading me to where I need to be today?

Infinition:

I trust my reactions, and if I don’t, I check them out with other wise beings.  I know my reactions can lead me to my truth.

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

Remember

re- = again

+

-memoris = mindful

Lately, young friends of mine have taken to invoking the great god Alzheimer when they forget things. (Be careful what you invoke!) There are all sorts of reasons we forget things and Alzheimer’s isn’t the half of it.

Stress, to be sure, is one major reason although I think most of the reason is so that we actually make the opportunity to remember! Amazingly, Old French defines the word member as a part of the body.

Do we ever forget and leave our hands and feet at home when we go to work? Not usually. Memory is a Divine gift to us all.

A few years ago, a dear friend of mine forgot my birthday. It came up in conversation about a month later, and although I was fine, she felt terrible. I told her that stress will do that to us—she was renovating a house, moving her office, and doing everyday life all at the same time!

At the same time, something about me had been on my forgetful friend’s mind. When she had the opportunity to remember, she was mindful again.

Mindfulness is a state cited by the Buddha as awake. When we forget, maybe we’re just asleep. Ask: How can I stay awake to all the members of my world today?

Infinition:

I am mindfulness itself today. I remember what I need to remember and I forget what I need to forget. It’s easy to tell the difference.

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

Forget

forgietan = to miss or lose one’s hold

Forgetting seems to be paired with forgiving in the Western world. I know for a fact that forgiving doesn’t really mean forgetting; it means that the emotional charge is released from whatever needs forgiveness.

The Old English root of this word explains why forgetting has been associated with forgiving. They mean: to miss or lose one’s hold. Funny, but that’s the result of forgiving!

When we’ve forgiven, the event or person loses its hold on us. Forgetting is just a possible next step. Notice that neither one of these words is condoning.

We can forgive. We can forget. And we need not condone. Ask: How can I lose my hold on something today?

Infinition:

How can I lose my hold so that I and it may be free?

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

Illness

ille = ill

Somehow humanity has embraced illness as a normal and expected part of the human experience. Why? Think of other species, like lions. They don’t say to themselves that it’s perfectly acceptable to be unwell.

I have a theory about illness that was inspired by some words spoken by Swami Satchidananda: “When we get out of the I and return to the we, there will be no more sickness.” Think about it.

Let’s take as a working premise that all illness is foreshadowed in our lives in some way. Namely, we are forewarned. A lingering, repeated headache. Recurring bronchial troubles.  Soreness in a hand or foot.

What do we do with that piece of information? Some of us heed the message. Others push willfully right by it, toughing it out. There is a shame to being ill, at least in the West.

If you’ll look at the root of the word, it could be read as the contraction for I will—I’ll. Is it sheer stubbornness that makes us ignore the signs in front of our faces?

When a lion is ill, it returns to the pride and seeks care.

Are we to re-turn our pride from I Will (… prevail),and focus on the We’ll of belonging to the community of life itself? Is it belonging to we that helps us let go the I? Ask:  How can I let go my I will and belong to my community today?

Infinition:

If I catch myself ignoring the billboards God is placing in my path, I let go my pride and return to the community of life which gives me care. I am wellness embodied.

Over the next few months, I’ll be on a blogging odyssey based on what Library Journal called my “folk etymology” with words. I’m in the process of working on my book based on the same premise. It’s call How To Live in a Body. To your radiant health!

Health

heilide = hale, whole

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The first wealth is health,” and so it is. Just think of a time when your health seemed to have deserted you! A flu or a broken limb or perhaps something more serious.

Health is the one great gift many of us take for granted. Its Old High German roots mean hale, whole, and infer soundness of body—that condition in which its function are duly and efficiently discharged.

Take growing eyelashes, for example. When was the last time you ever spent any time thinking about growing your eyelashes? Probably never. And yet, they still grow. That’s health, a body that runs itself.

What about when some functionality of the body is impaired? Well, beloved, that’s a wake-up call! Stub your toe this morning? What’s the message?

The body is the ultimate messenger, an angel of mercy to your spirit.

If you will listen to him/her, you will be amazed and delighted at how much your own body can teach you about well-being. Ask: How can I be hale, hearty, wholly healthy today?

Infinition:

Health is indeed a great wealth. I am so very grateful for all the health that is mine.

It gives me great joy to extend my practice of acupuncture to Visions HealthCare.  I enjoy the integrative center approach where so many services are available under one roof.  Like many of the providers I have met here at Visions, I also enjoy being a part of people’s journey to natural healing. I hope to add my service as a reliable and effective way to treat and heal no matter what stage a person is at on the journey.  Acupuncture is a medical treatment which can benefit the entire body and even emotions.  Consider acupuncture to treat pain, digestive problems, respiratory conditions, insomnia, allergies, women’s health, weight concerns, fatigue and more.

Liên Zayhowski,

Licensed Acupuncturist