Don’t kill the vibe!
Accidentally doing THIS will keep you stuck
Good afternoon, sunshines of my New Day life ๐๐ตโ๏ธย Thank you for taking the time to open this message. I hope you had a wonderful Easter โจ
It’s always so fun and interesting spending my whole week with New Day practice members in the adjusting room.
Whether you are new to the New Day scene, or you are more of a New Day “classic,” or somewhere in between, you are part of a completely unique combination of energetic ingredients that make this place and this experience of care what it is ๐๐โ๏ธ๐๐ฅ
I hope you are always noticing the uniqueness of this too! Whatever other souls are in the room with you when you are getting adjusted, whatever they are saying and doing is meant for us all.
Have you ever noticed someone else in the adjusting room at the same time as you get up from their adjustment with me and say,
๐ “Nothing has changed– I’m not getting better.”*
OR ๐ “My shoulder and hip have really been bothering me.ย All week.”*
OR ๐ “I stillย have pain. My lower back isย still bothering me all the time.”*
(*I underlined the words above for a reason. I will discuss them momentarily!)
Maybe you have heard someone say something like this AFTER their adjustment, causing you to think to yourself, “Wow, this care must not be working for them as well as it is for me!”
OR maybe you recognize that you have actually been that person; expressing such complaints directly after your care!
Honestly, we’ve probably all been there at some point ๐ฑ๐๐
Part of my job in being your doctor and practitioner in all of this is to take the lead in communicating the messages that need to be sent and received to help your experience be as beneficial for you as possible, and so that this community can always be growing and evolving ๐ฑ๐ท๐บ
Here are some tips and thoughts I have for you on how to best direct your focus through your adjustments and your communications with me ๐ฅ
Get it out there
I get it that when you come in for care, you may be in a hurry.
And there are other people around. And you see that all of them are just getting on their tables right away, rather than stopping to engage me in a conversation.
Or maybe you notice that everyone else who talks to me seems to be talking about how great they’re feeling and how much care is helping them. And you don’t want to be a complainer.ย
But if you have a communication that you do not express, there is a danger that you will inadvertently lay on the table THINKING about it rather than EXPERIENCING your nervous system changing through the adjustments ๐ฑ
In other words, you’ll be in your head, and not in your body ๐ฅ๐ฅ
So even though maybe you are in a hurry, or you don’t want to be a bother, or you don’t want to be a complainer, and you just want to feel better, can you see how holding in something that’s real for you rather than getting it out there could be holding you back?
While it is useful for me to know where your focus is at, be aware that your communications are at least as much for you and your wellbeing as they are for me.
So don’t be shy; just get it out there. Plus, in the open room environment, you never know who else you could be helping ๐
Step 1: Get related
Remember how at your first and second adjustment with me, as soon as you lay down on the table and before I do anything, I take you through a process for getting aware in your spine and body.
It goes a little something like this: “Start focusing on your legs and feet. Feel the weight of your legs on the table, and compare the feeling of your right leg to your left leg. Then bring your focus up to your hips and lower back. Now focus on your arms and shoulders. Your head and face. Now start focusing on your spine. Starting at the end of your tailbone, and then travelling up like you were going up a little elevator, through your lower back, between your shoulder blades, and all the way up to the back of your head. Feeling the bones of your spine, and also potentially getting a sense of all the nerves running through your spine, sending energy and information to and from the body. Now focus on your breath. Just notice your normal, natural breath pattern right now. Taking a moment to focus on any and all areas of pain and discomfort that you have right now, or that you’ve had recently. Just getting a really good sense of everything so that you will be in an EXCELLENT position to feel for changes, now and later.” โจโจโจ
(By the way, it only took me about 25 seconds to type out the huge paragraph above because I have been saying literally the exact same thing at every first and second adjustment, and sometimes at other times, for more than 10 years ๐ฅ๐โจ)
Did you find that even just reading that big paragraph just now, and imagining me saying it, helped you in some way?
Getting related– just getting focused and aware of how things are RIGHT NOW– does wonders, even just on it’s own!
And then that awareness it is also a pre-requisite for getting further results ๐ฅ
You may be wondering, if this step 1 is so important, why don’t I say this out loud at your EVERY adjustment, instead of just the first couple times?
Honestly, I am starting to think that I should start saying it more. But at the same time, I am also trying to give you the space to get in the habit of getting related on your own. After all, I’m only with you for about .3 percent of your life. ๐ค
Practice getting related when you’re on the table, when you’re on your way to your adjustment with me, in bed before you go to sleep, in bed before you wake up, at your desk, etc etc.
Focused Breath is a breathwork modality that can also help you with getting related so that your nervous system can connect, release, and energize (more on that below) ๐
It’s not about “being positive”– but it is about being in the here and now
My last 2 points about “getting it out there” and “getting related” are to help you get the most out of your adjustments and this care process.
But what if you do those steps and you still find yourself sitting up after an adjustment with an overwhelming desire to say, “My (whatever it is) hurts, Dr. Katie!”
If that’s the case, I want to empower you to share that with me! ๐ฅ๐ฅ
I want you to understand that these tips that I’m sharing are not so that you can stop being “negative,” or so that I won’t have to deal with your complaints ๐
If you got on the table with no awareness of any pain or problem whatsoever (perhaps because you were in a hurry, hadn’t gotten related in a while, or you had stifled a communication you had wanted to share with me), and now you suddenly feel aware of something hurting, that can actually be a good thing!
Healing is about noticing and feeling, and, at times, expressing. I’m here for that ๐ค
Healing is also about being able to be in the present moment and having an experience. And not being in a story.
Now I want to circle back to my underlined phrases above. When I hear phrases such as:
๐”Nothing has changed.”
๐”I stillย have pain. Itย wasย horribleย all week.”
๐ “My lower back always feels crunchy.”
These are all examples of communications that tell me that you are not focusing on noticing in the moment. These are things that were true in the past.
This is telling me that right now, you are in your head, and in the past, and now you’re telling me about that (and that isn’t going to feel good).
Pain can be difficult to overcome because pain patterns are addicting.
We become addicted to focusing on it, addicted the story we have about it, addicted to telling people about it, addicted to trying to figure it out, and addicted to trying to fix it.
Don’t accidentally kill the vibe!
This entire process I have you in with Network Spinal care and Focused Breath is meant to interrupt these repetitive, addictive pain patterns so you can heal and transform ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
And so that you can become addicted to noticing changes in your spine and nervous system and feeling good instead!! ๐
So please, do not further entrench your pain patterns by coming right back to sharing about them AFTER you just had an adjustment.
When you do so, you are inadvertently putting yourself into the exact same old body posture, thoughts, emotions, and physiology that you were living in BEFORE your adjustment. That’s not how I want to send you back into the world ๐โ๏ธ๐
As I sometimes like to joke, “It’s called “New Day” (not “Old Day”).
Thank you SO MUCH for your amazing commitment to your health and betterment. I look forward to seeing you at your adjustments this week (and at Focused Breath on Saturday!
