If it was so great, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?
Part 1 💖
Good evening, sweet people! Hope you got to stay cozy and warm this weekend ☕
A couple of weeks ago at the Intro to Care and New Client Gathering at New Day, one of the participants raised their hand and asked the uncomfortable question that sometimes haunts me (and no doubt many other people who work in “healing”).
“If Network Spinal is so great, and if it’s such an advance over what has come before it, why aren’t more people doing it? If it works so well, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?” 🙀
14 years into my journey with this work and 10 years into practice (and now going to my 14th or 15th Transformational Gate this coming weekend SEE BELOW!), this question can sometimes weigh heavily on my mind 😢
Add to this my experience this morning when I decided to go check out a spiritual experience (in the form of an in-person service) at a church near where I now live in Skokie.
I was dismayed to discover that I ended up being one of about 12 people loosely gathered in a dingy church basement.
As the service began and I looked around at the seemingly rag-tag group of individuals I was surrounded with, I noted that besides the musicians I was by far the youngest person in attendance.
“What a terrible turnout” I thought. “Plus everyone here is old. Clearly this can’t be a very good church.”
Contributing to my growing feeling of discomfort in that moment, naturally, was the fact that I could certainly apply the same logic to myself, Network Spinal, and New Day!! 😱🙏😂
At what point do we, the practitioners in the health, healing, and spirituality realm decide to take a good hard look at ourselves and conclude that our “product,” as it were, must just be inherently flawed? If it’s so great, why ISN’T everyone doing it?
Or, do we take the opposite stance?
Do we instead look around at the people who choose not to do what we do and benefit from what we have to offer and respond by saying, “all those simpletons just aren’t ready! We’ll just be over here doing our thing, and they can come to us whenever they are ready.” 😂
Hilma af Klint: “The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke.” “Life is a farce if a person does not serve truth.”
I will continue to ponder all of this for quite some time, I’m sure ✨
Certainly, there are structural, sociological, economic, and psychological factors that keep people from benefitting from experiences and modalities that are not the status quo.
And certainly there are areas where some of us probably DO need to take a good hard look at ourselves 💥
I know that, for example, we in the chiropractic profession could probably be doing a lot more to produce a unified message to educate the public on our “product.”
Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on the Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint.
I had come across her work several years ago, spurring me to add a print of one of her pieces to the adjusting room at New Day. But I didn’t really know much about her.
The cliff notes version of her life story is that during her life her art was mostly unappreciated.
And, due to the overt sexism in the art world and in art history scholarship, and her unusual spiritualist philosophy, she was basically left out of the entire narrative of the history of abstract and surrealist art until recently being rediscovered ✨✨✨
During her life she toiled in near-poverty and near-seclusion, unwilling to compromise her vision (wildly colorful and otherworldly shapes and images on gigantic, larger than life canvasses).
Now, I am definitely NOT comparing myself or anyone else right now to Hilma af Klint.
I’m not struggling alone and misunderstood in poverty. Far from it!
But it is very inspiring to learn about how she stayed true to her calling and her art, even though the people living at that time really couldn’t seem to appreciate it 🌍🌀🧡🖌️
Hopefully you can find that inspiring too. When it comes to your life and the things you are passionate about, don’t give up 🧡
I don’t have all the answers. But I believe that it really does take all kinds.
This world needs the rag-tag and the Hilmas.
And just as much we need all the other people, including the ones who mostly just seem to be going about their everyday lives minding their own business. Everyone is essential.
Have a fantastic and inspired week, New Day. Your vision is an important part of this world ☀️
Don’t forget that I will be out of the office this coming weekend until next Monday at 4PM for the Transformational Gate in Colorado (Monday morning people, please reschedule for later in the week!)