Survial can Never Lead to Thrival

January 29, 2021 by

In the summer of 2107, I was a part of the greatest experience I have ever had in sports. I was an assistant coach and trainer with my eldest son’s lacrosse team at the Ontario championship tournament. We were one of the lowest seeds in the 16 team ‘B’ division, which was a higher calibre than the ‘C’ that we had been used to.

     The team really gelled during that tournament and we advanced through our pool play and the quarterfinals and wound up facing the runaway favourites to win the tournament from Burlington. The only reason Burlington was not playing in the ‘A’ championships was a glitch in the ranking system. They were clearly in a class by themselves.

     While we were clearly outpowered, our boys did what they could very well, our goalie was ridiculously great, and we got some timely scoring from a couple of our talented majors.

     We were well into the third period and we were ahead 4-3. They came at us with everything they had in those final minutes and we just held on for dear life. Trying to score was completely out of our minds, we were just trying to survive in our defensive zone.

     After what seemed like an eternity, the final buzzer sounded, and we had done the unthinkable. Our bench was silent, their bench was silent, the entire crowd was silent in disbelief about what they had just witnessed.

     We went on the win the first ‘B’ championship for a Cornwall lacrosse team in 50 years.

     Going into SURVIVAL mode for a few minutes served us very well in this case. We were clearly overwhelmed and outmatched. Had we tried to match their skill and talent in that third period it would have led to slaughter.

     SURVIVAL mode can be a valuable tool for a short period of time…..when our survival is at stake. As a long-term strategy, it is a nightmare.

     Everybody in that arena knew that had the game gone another few minutes they would have tied it up and likely won shortly thereafter. We were in no position in those last minutes to expand on our lead or even express the talent we did possess. All of our focus and energy went into one thing only – surviving elimination.

     This is a lesson that can be applied to life in general. Hopefully for most of us, we spend extraordinarily little time with our survival actually at stake. We experience this when we have serious physical trauma or a major disease, our job or business is at stake, or perhaps a close relationship is on the brink of collapse.

     The value of SURVIVAL mode is that it buys us some time until we can gather ourselves and take action. Unlike lacrosse games, an arbitrary buzzer doesn’t go off to signal the end of the game in real life. At some point we must figure out the threat in front of us.

     The C-19 situation has clearly created lots of SURVIVAL mode in people. In some it is literally a matter of physical survival. In others it is about financial survival, academic survival, and unfortunately mental and emotional survival.

     The initial response in March for most was to lock everything down – just like our lacrosse defense locked down. Stay home, close your business, stop working. Survival. We were initially told 2 weeks and almost everyone agreed that this was a reasonable trade off.

     Here we are over 10 months later and many in our population are still locked in survival mode. Some by their own choice and others as a result of restrictions placed upon them.

     Regardless as to whether we agree or disagree with what has transpired, it is clear that there have been massive deleterious impacts of this prolonged survival mode. Physical illness, mental illness, loss of education, financial hardships, destroyed relationships and lost opportunities.

     This once in a lifetime situation illustrates what happens when we remain in SURVIVAL mode for extended periods of time. When we are focused in SURVIVE, it is impossible to THRIVE. If we are stuck in SURVIVAL we cannot grow, learn, expand, or create – all the things that make life joyful and full of meaning.

     People just trying not to die, will not do things to create abundant health (have you noticed the C-19 authorities recommending a healthy lifestyle to combat the virus?). A business doing everything it can to keep its’ doors open will not build long term success strategies. A person on the verge of mental/emotional collapse is not focused on building mental health, just not succumbing to a lack of it.

     The key to success in any area of life is to be able to enter survival when appropriate, take the lessons from within it, and then use the pain, fear, and dread to move into thrival.

     When we are able to do this, we can actually use our mortal fear of a virus to create a greater level of health than we had before. We can take the pain of the loss of money or a job or a business to take actions that will make us wealthy. We can develop strategies for increasing our joy and happiness BECAUSE of our mental health crisis.

     The key is adaptability.

     One of my focuses at Nexus throughout the last 10 months has been to help people’s nervous systems to be as adaptable and flexible as possible. To help people to become ‘unstuck’ from the SURVIVAL state of a nervous system locked in fight or flight. To give their physiology a glimpse of rest, relaxation, and ease so that instead of just getting by, they can start to THRIVE.

     Ten months into this thing, ask yourself, ‘where am I THRIVING and where am I just SURVIVING?’

     ‘How can I use this crisis as a catalyst to THRIVAL, both now and in the future?’

What’s Happening at Nexus this Summer

July 10, 2017 by

While the weather may not agree, it is finally summer. At Nexus we DO slow things down a bit over the summer months – such as reduce the number of evening presentations and take a little bit of time off. We also understand the importance of the regular care of your spine and nervous system so are sure schedule things in a way that ensures we are here for you.

Here is what you can expect this summer.

Our final Head to Toe NeuroSpinal Show of the season will be Tuesday, July 11 at 7pm. This is our introductory presentation that gives you all the information you need to know about what we do in addition to teaching you steps to keep your spine and nervous system healthy OUTSIDE our office. The next one after this will be in September.

Our series of Advanced Presentations will also resume in September.

We will have a few days with Dr. Amanda Chan providing care when I am away. Dr. Chan – who I attend trainings with regularly – will be at Nexus on Monday, July 17 and Monday July 24. The office will be closed on Tuesday, July 25.

In August I will be travelling with my sons’ lacrosse teams for the Ontario Championships and Dr. Amanda will be looking after Nexus on Thursday Aug. 4th and Thursday August 10th.

Have a great summer! The extra time off and nice weather provides a wonderful opportunity to get healthier at this time of year. Please take advantage of it.

 

What’s Going On

January 23, 2017 by

As we get settled in to the new year, there are lots of exciting things happening both inside and outside Nexus Chiropractic. We have some new programs to announce and I will be attending some seminars and training that will continue the never ending evolution of the care we provide you. Due to travel, the office will be closed some days and we have the amazing Dr. Amanda Chan from Ottawa covering on some others.

 

I will be heading to New Orleans on Feb. 1st where I will be arm candy for my wife at the International Neuropsychology Conference. While I am kind of just tagging along, I do attend the program which is not only interesting but surprisingly applicable to Neurospinal Optimization chiropractic.

Nexus will be closed on Wednesday the first and Dr. Amanda will be here for regular office hours on Thursday, the second.

 

The following weekend I will be off to Denver for the final live seminar of the Master-E plus program I have been a part of for the past 2 years. This program is the latest and most advanced approach being taught by my long time mentor, Donny Epstein.

Dr. Amanda will be covering our hours on Monday, Feb. 13th and the office will be closed on Tuesday, Feb. 14th. I will be back and ready to roll on Wednesday.

 

On the weekend of Feb. 17th we are travelling to Philadelphia where my sons are playing in a lacrosse tournament. The tournament finishes on family day, so we will be driving on Tuesday the 21st and the office will be closed. Back to regular hours on Wednesday.

 

We have also previously posted about our commitment to providing more extensive workshops to our patients and practice members this year. Our next Head to Toe, Neurospinal Show will be held on Monday, Feb. 27th at 7pm. At this presentation we explain a bit about what we do at Nexus and then teach you habits and tricks that will help you to keep your spine and nervous system strong and healthy.

On March 14th we will be presenting Neurospinal Optimization Demystified, which is a rare peak behind the curtain of what I do. This will include a demo with explanation and a chance to ask me anything. You will get so much out of this workshop that you will only need 8 more years of school and hundreds of hours of practice to become an NSO chiropractor yourself!

You can see the entire 2017 workshop schedule HERE.

 

Last but not least, we will soon be announcing the dates for our first ever SEASONS OF HEALING intensive series. This will be 4 workshops – each diving deep into a season and the exercises that will put you on the road to mastery. There will be a small fee for this series and it will be strictly limited to a small number of participants, so keep your eyes peeled.

 

Please take advantage of all Nexus Chiropractic has to offer. We invest a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources to bring you incredible resources for health and healing and nothing makes us happier than seeing those resources put to good use.

 

 

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