As I have gotten older – and hopefully a bit wiser – what I place value on has changed. What I get excited about has changed. How I choose to invest my time, energy and money has changed.

     One way to look at what it is we value is to simply look at what material possessions we cherish the most. Over the past handful of years, the material possessions I get the most excited about are a pair of selvedge denim jeans, a pair of Redwing boots, and a cast iron frying pan.

     What is it about these items that I value so much? They all get better with age and wear. Every time I wear those boots and jeans and every time, I cook with that pan I know that they are getting even better.

     This is in such massive contrast to most of our current ‘throwaway society.’ We buy TV’s, computers, appliances and even cars that we expect to last us only a few years before we upgrade to the next new and shiny version. Very rarely do we even repair things anymore, we just toss them out (remember when TV, radio, and appliance repair shops were all over town?).

     It feels good knowing that my jeans will be even better in a few years. It feels good knowing that my      boots (still not completely broken in after 4 years) will be works of art in ten years – and look damn cool! It feels good knowing that my kids and even perhaps their kids will inherit my frying pan and continue to make it even better.

     Like anything else, there is a price to be paid for getting better with age. Typically, items of this type of value cost more initially. We need to invest in ‘good stuff’ if we expect it to get better over time. I remember paying over 200$ for my baseball glove when I was 16 years old (that is over 30 years ago). A couple of years ago when my son was at a baseball camp, he had my glove and the other kids we in jealous awe of that beautiful hunk of leather.

       Things of value often require an investment of time as well. Selvedge jeans are stiff and do not always look that cool at first. Redwing boots really hurt your feet during the initial phase of wear. A cast iron pan needs to be seasoned and is not perfectly non-stick at first.

     Items of real value also require ongoing care. I only was my jeans in certain ways and at certain times and I currently need to take them in to be patched (which makes them cooler). I regularly clean and condition my boots and will need to resole them next year. The frying pan needs to be cleaned and re-seasoned in just the right way.

     Is the extra effort worth it? I sure think so.

     I believe that these lessons apply – perhaps even more powerfully – to other areas of life. Especially our health.

     I think that it is obvious that we should value ourselves and our health significantly more than our material possessions.

     How can you get better with age? How can your health improve each year? How can you invest your time, energy, and money to ensure that you are getting better over time? What difficult investments can you make in yourself now that will pay dividends in the future.

     You see, these are the important questions that can create lasting value in your life. Most people never ask them because they think that they are not possible. Having been a practicing health care professional for over 20 years I can tell you that it is very possible to improve with age.

     At Nexus we have been teaching and helping people how to do this for decades not only in the office but through ongoing workshops and presentations. These events ground to a halt with C-19, which has been a big loss of value for everyone.

     Keep an eye out in the coming months for ways to access these tools consistent with the care we provide without having to gather, so that we can all continue to age like a pair of Redwing boots.

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. 1^st 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. 13^th and the office will be closed on Tuesday, Feb. 14^th. I will be back and ready to roll on Wednesday.

On the weekend of Feb. 17^th 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 21^st 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. 27^th 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 14^th 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.

When I sat down and started the car to drive my kids to school this morning I was a little stressed out. There had been a disagreement with one of my sons, we were running late and just as I was about to pull out of the driveway I realized that my windshield was covered in ice.

My initial instinct was to just start driving and hope that I would be able to see well enough until the defroster did its job – after all, I was in a hurry. Of course I did NOT do that. I got out of the car, retrieved the scraper from the trunk and proceeded to clean the windshield.

What would have happened had I not taken the time and due diligence to clean my windshield before departing? Certainly a series of less than desirable outcomes could have occurred. Minor consequences such as getting a ticket from the police or perhaps bumping into something and damaging my car would certainly be possible. Hitting a person or other vehicle and hurting either my children or someone else would have had much more severe consequences for all involved.

Obviously, the smart thing to do and the only REAL choice was to stop and clean the windshield BEFORE leaving my driveway. Convenient? No. Necessary? Yes.

I see several parallels between my windshield and your health. Very often the bumps and bruises, aches and pains, diseases and challenges we end up with are secondary to dirty windshields.

Regardless of how careful we are, life throws a lot of mud, and crap – and in Canada, ice in April – at us. Things can get pretty dirty over time and it makes navigating difficult at first, dangerous after a while and then next to impossible if it goes too far.

Trouble happens when we focus on what usually begins as bumps and dents in our car. Like aches and pains these small secondary effects are quick and easy to handle. A little paint or a new signal light will do the trick just like an aspirin, massage or good ‘crack’ will.

What will happen if the windshield stays dirty and then continues to accumulate filth? The bumps get bigger until someone really gets hurt.

At Nexus Chiropractic we know that to really get healthy the first thing that needs to happen is that the windshield needs to be cleaned. In fact, most of the people we work with have already spent years treating secondary conditions (symptoms) and know they need a different approach.

Our Initial Phase of Care (IPC) is focused on normalizing a primary condition known as a Neurospinal Shift (cleaning the windshield) that commonly underlies the secondary conditions people suffer from.

As your windshield clears up suddenly there are less bumps, bruises, aches and pains. And…because your body is not made out of steel and plastic it has the opportunity to heal old wounds.

Once the windshield is clean some people choose regular, less frequent care to make sure it stays that way. Others love their clear view so much that they continue more frequently in order to navigate towards the best life possible.

Click HERE to read another article I wrote about addressing the primary cause.

If you would like to know more we have an introductory presentation at our office on Tuesday, April 21^th at 7pm. We will also be having our Level 2 – Transform workshop on Tuesday, April 28^th at 7pm, which I encourage all current patients to attend. Both workshops are at no cost and you can reserve a seat by calling the office.

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST

For those of you who were wondering how Habits 1 and 2 were going to actually help you to become a healthy and successful person, Habit 3 is where the rubber hits the road.

Habit 3 – Put First Things First – is the physical creation that evolves from first being proactive and then deciding what life we inevitably want to live. Now that we know what is truly important, it is time plan our lives and expend our energy and time accordingly.

The old time management systems of to-do lists, checklists and schedule book are incomplete when it comes to putting first things first. Instead of focusing on things and time, we must shift our attention to results and relationships.

Central to this form of life management are the 4 Quadrants. The quadrants are defined as follows:

Quadrant I – Urgent and Important. These are activities that are crises and demand immediate attention. If you severely cut your hand and it is bleeding profusely, it is essential that you stop the bleeding NOW!

Quadrant II – NOT Urgent and Important. These are activities that will create positive results, yet are not an emergency at the time. Exercise, eating good food, planning your meals, meditating and seeing professional who not only prevent problems, but enhance health are Quadrant II activities.

Quadrant III – Urgent but NOT Important. Are activities that are essentially distractions in the moment that really are not important to our desired results. Responding to social media or responding to a phone call, when it is time to exercise is an example.

Quadrant IV – NOT Urgent and NOT important which is essentially time wasting procrastination. Watching junk TV or playing angry birds are PERFECT examples.

This is what the quadrants ARE. We all spend some time in all of them and that is fine. Whichever quadrant dominates our time will produce very different results from the others and that also applies to our health.

QI will produce stress, burnout, ever growing crisis management and constantly putting out fires. Is this not how most people manage their health? Most people go from treating one problem after another and inevitably the problems continue to get bigger over the years because the underlying causes were never addressed.

QIII is characterized by short term focus, the lack of any plan or goals, no follow through, disappointment in results and the feeling of being victimized. People living mostly in Q3 will often be heard saying, “I have tried everything and nothing works for me.” In reality they have not really committed to anything and done a bunch of things half way at best due to constant distraction.

QIV is usually mixed with QIII activities and produces total irresponsibility and dependence on others and institutions for basic survival. Luckily this is not common.

QII on the other hand produces individuals and families that have a vision for their health and wellness, are balanced, disciplined and over time tend to have fewer and fewer crises. The people who truly focus on moving towards their vision of health typically get sick very rarely and are often considered ‘lucky’ by the folks living in the other quadrants.

So, as you can probably guess, the key to being a highly healthy person lies in shifting as many as your Q3 and Q4 activities into Q2 activities. Obviously we all have crises (Q1) from time to time and they must be handled on the spot. As we said earlier however, the more time spent in Q2, the less Q1 will be required in the future.

Your homework for now is to look at how you spend your time and categorize it into the quadrants. BE HONEST with yourself! Nobody will see this but you. Then start to replace the unimportant with non-urgent important stuff. It will take some discipline, but the results will be worth it.

In the next article we will continue with Habit 3 and will go deeper into Putting First Things First a part of your weekly routine.

Speaking of Quadrant 2 activities, our 19th Clear Day has been officially booked for Saturday, April 12 at the Boys and Girls Club in Cornwall. Ask for an application at the office to see if you are ready for this full day intensive event designed to take your health and life to the next level.

We also have several special workshops booked for the spring including for the first time my Nutrition Workshop. Learn how to eat in a way that optimizes nervous system function, reduces pain, boosts energy levels and helps fat loss.

BE PROACTIVE!

In the last article, I introduced some of the principles underlying Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which we are repurposing here to apply to your health. Please keep these principles in the background of your mind as we begin the journey through the 7 Habits that can help make 2014 the Best Year of Your Life.

The first habit is one that is particularly important (and commonly deficient) to the area of health. That is the habit of BEing Proactive. Being Proactive is one of the amazing gifts possessed by humans. When something happens to us, or we are in a particular situation, we always have a CHOICE in how we will respond.

When we are faced with a health challenge, we have a choice in what we will do about it. We can choose interventions that may temporarily make us feel better but ultimately hurt our overall health, or we can choose to take action that will get to the underlying problem and thus improve our long-term outcomes. We can choose to cover up the surface, or work on the source.

If you listen to the languaging most people use regarding their health you will notice that they are REACTIVE, as opposed to PROACTIVE. They say things such as, “I had to have that surgery…my kid made me sick…my back is out…my doctor won’t let me play golf anymore.” These are examples of reactive language.

PROACTIVE language sounds like this, “I have been having a health challenge and therefore I am looking for ways to live a healthier life…I have allowed my immunity slip and am sick, time for a change…what is underlying this pain I am experiencing and how can I address it?”

Reactive language focuses on what you have or don’t have that is separate from the person living the life. Proactive language focuses on the person with the problem and the choices they can make. Reactive people’s health essentially comes down to luck. Proactive people influence their own outcomes.

Covey says in his book, “Any time we think that the problem is ‘out there,’ that thought is the problem.”

Central to being proactive is focusing on what is called your Circle of Influence, NOT your Circle of Concern. Your COI is what you have control over and what choices you can consciously make in regards to it. COC contains many things that we have no involvement in and cannot do anything about.

In regards to health, people have MANY concerns – just eavesdrop in any coffee shop and you will hear people talking about them (as they eat donuts)! Unfortunately, many people are not even aware that they have a Circle of Influence and do nothing until they feel like they have to go into pure reactive mode. These people go from crisis to crisis, their overall health typically gets worse as they age, and they feel like they are victims of circumstance waiting for the next problem.

Proactive people don’t wait for crisis to take action. They understand that their choices and lifestyle (while not bulletproof) have a massive influence on their present and future health. Most of their time, energy, focus and money go to PROACTIVELY improving their health, not reacting to crisis. If and when a crisis arises, they are typically well equipped to handle it, and their level of health typically gets better with age.

People utilizing Neurospinal Optimization care in my office use it both for Proactive and Reactive reasons. Most enter the office in pure reaction; in order to undergo care must come to an agreement to at least look to correct the underlying problem. We simply DO NOT patch up surface problems – there are others who are real good at that.

Neurospinal Optimization is designed to be Proactive and many of the folks we have been working with for some time are walking examples of a proactive mindset and lifestyle.

So, for the next week notice where you are proactive and reactive in your health and life. Pay attention to the words you use when speaking about your health. Where can you start focusing more on your Circle of Influence and less on your Circle of Concern?

Next week we move onto Habit II and don’t forget that we are having a workshop on Tuesday, January 28 at my office to go even deeper to Make 2014 the Best Year of Your Life. Phone Adele at the office to reserve a seat. This workshop is open to both patients and non-patients so will fill fast.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

            -Aristotle

I had a good laugh with one of my long-time patients this week when we were talking about our upcoming Best Year of Your Life workshop that I will be presenting at the end of January and the series of articles I will be posting starting with this one. She remembered workshop and articles with the same name each of the last several years and was joking about each year being the best. I pointed out that this was EXACTLY my point.

When we make sustainable progress in any area of our lives, it means we can build on it. When we create more awareness, learn new strategies, build new structures, and develop more wisdom we OWN those things and we can use them to take the next step for a lifetime. In this way – if we do a job of this – each year CAN be the best year of our lives regardless of external circumstances.

For this year’s series of articles I have decided to use Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and apply them to your health. Of course any and all of these habits can be used to improve your relationships, career, finances, or any other important part of your life.

There are several key concepts that run throughout Covey’s 1989 classic and will be important to keep in mind as you progress through this series.

This process is one that is, “Inside-out.” This means that in order to be healthier (or happier, or wealthier) you have to start by focusing on YOU. There is perhaps no other area that the average person is “Outside-in” than in the way they see their health. To be healthier, don’t start looking for it in a pill, a diet, a workout, a doctor (even an amazing chiropractor!). We will not start with anything outside of you. Starting on the inside will allow us to not only be more effective in choosing and using the tools we have available to us, it will also make the results much more sustainable.

Another principle is developing all 3 parts required to form a new habit. These are Knowledge(what to, why to), Skill(how to), and Desire(want to). Without all 3, our progress will be temporary at best as we will fail to fully ingrain the new habits we require – hence most New Year resolutions that rarely last into February.

The next principle is that of the Maturity Continuum. This continuum moves people from dependence, to independence, and further on to interdependence. A dependent person requires help from other people – it is a matter of survival, not thriving. Many people are dependent on a certain drug or doctor in order to stay alive or get by – while this may be necessary and is great to have available it can severely limit the level of health we can achieve.

An independent person takes things into their own hands and gets good results, while an interdependent person knows how to work symbiotically with others to get the greatest results possible. Habits 1, 2, and 3 will help people move from dependence to independence. Habits 4,5, and 6 will lead to Interdependence and the real fruits of your labour.

The final principle running through this series is that of P/PC balance, with P representing Production and PC representing Production Capability. This concept is famously illustrated by the story of the farmer whose goose(PC) laid a solid gold egg(P) each day. When the farmer focused too much on P, he slaughtered his PC in order to get more eggs. As a result he literally killed his capability to create wealth. The same applies to our health. How often do you go after a result in a way that actually hurts your ability to be healthy in the future?

I am looking forward to the next 7 or 8 articles and if you are in the area and would like to attend our in-office workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 8^th at 7pm, give Adele a call and reserve your seat. This workshop is open to patients and non-patients alike.

‘For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.’

–       Thoreau

While I had planned to move on to a different topic, I had an interesting conversation last week that prompted this article. I think that looking at this example of weight-loss may aid in helping many people shift their focus when it comes to their health and therefore avoid being doomed in that area.

I was speaking to a friend (who is extremely fit) at the gym who was telling me about their sister. The sister has been over-weight and unhealthy her whole life and had really struggled with weight-loss. My friend was very happy to report that her sister had begun a group program (which I am not criticizing here) focused on weight loss and had made more progress than she had in a long time. The program included exercise and coaching on diet – both great things for your health.

After acknowledging her success and asking a few more questions, I said to my friend, “The thing is that if a person is solely focused on weight-loss…they are completely doomed (only I used a harsher word than doomed).” My friend’s jaw dropped and I could tell that she thought I was a bit crazy!

Here is the thing. If the sole focus is weight-loss (and I am not saying that it is in this program), what is the best possible outcome for this person? That’s right, to lose the targeted amount of weight. Total success would be reaching the target weight. Most people won’t get there but the ultra-successful and most dedicated likely will.

What now? What happens after all of that weight that had been a cause of suffering in her life is gone? Now she has to focus her efforts in keeping it off! The elephant is still in the room and now she won’t even have the motivation of the pain of being fat to keep her in line. Even though she is now thin, she will still be controlled by the weight that she does not want to put back on. This is suffering and this is a lifetime of doom – unless she can learn to shift her focus.

I completely acknowledge the power and value of starting the journey using weight-loss as a motivator to get you started. However, if this focus does not change quickly, it results in the yo-yo doom we see so many people struggle with.

What if the focus instead shifted to having amazing and sustainable energy and vitality? That focus could certainly include weight-loss, but would provide so much more. How about to age gracefully so I can lift weights with my grandchildren? Do you see how weight-loss creates a prison, where a shift in focus creates freedom?

I see the same dilemma in health care. People focus on being pain or symptom free. First of all, some pain is a necessary part of life and being completely pain free for any length of time is impossible so you are failure before you even start!

Also, pain and symptoms are always SECONDARY to something else (like being overweight is secondary to something else) and focusing on what is secondary won’t help you address what is PRIMARY. Fighting pain leads you to a lifetime of fighting pain. It will never end. DOOM.

Instead, why not focus on creating great health, performing and functioning well and expressing life to the fullest. Will you have less pain if you do that? Very likely and when symptoms do inevitably show up, you won’t care so much.

In our office, we focus on Neurospinal Optimization. As the spine and nervous system are optimized a whole host of secondary conditions improve or disappear – often some conditions that the patient did not even tell me about.

I encourage you to implement this way of thinking and living to any and every important part of your life. Parenting, relationships, finances, career, etc. Life is too short to live in our own self imposed prisons and it is a lot more fun to be free.

If you would like to learn more about how we help people in a fun and comfortable setting, you are welcome to attend one of our Introductory Presentations on select Monday and Tuesday evenings. Phone the office for details.

While we are on the topic of weight loss, check out this interesting article and pictures comparing the average man’s body in different countries around the world by clicking HERE.

In the final article of this series we will shift the focus away from being DOOMED to a lifetime of frustrating secondary conditions and worsening health and onto the HOW of going deeper to get better. While many of you found the last article rather negative, I disagree. Once we are AWARE of what is not working, we now have a choice to do something different in order to obtain a better result. What could be more positive than that?

The first key in Going Deeper to Get Better is to begin changing the questions we ask of ourselves and our doctors when faced with a challenge. This definitely takes some practice as our habitual questions are usually so ingrained that we aren’t even aware of them.

Let’s say you wake up one morning with a nasty headache or backache. What questions do you start asking? Most people would say, “What is wrong with my ___? What is wrong with me? How do I get rid of this pain?” Or some combination of those.

Now, what is the best possible outcome from these questions? The best outcome would be some kind of treatment that would successfully get rid of the pain for the time being. Seems great except….we now know that this will eventually lead us to….DOOM.

What are some different questions we could ask that will start the process of going deeper? The possibilities are endless, but some examples are: “What is going on here? Why is this pain showing up now? What could this condition be related to? What have I been doing that may have contributed to this?”

These questions move us away from ‘fixing’ the secondary condition and towards seeing what is behind it. This is the EXACT purpose of pain and symptoms – to get us to pay attention, look deeper and then make a change!

These questions may lead us to make some lifestyle changes that will not only help the pain, but make us healthier and happier. They may help us to discover and then address a primary condition behind the secondary that will have a profound impact on our well-being. Perhaps we will become aware of a pattern of behaviour or thought that has been having a negative impact on our quality of life.

Can you see that a lifetime of asking these questions will lead to better awareness, better choices and better outcomes?

Naturally, this approach can be used in other area of your life. If your child (or spouse!) are screaming, you can turn up the TV volume or dig deeper to see what is going on. If a student is getting bad grades they can cheat on the next test or develop some new strategies. If you can’t make your rent you can try to find the $ you need, or make whatever changes are necessary to be sure to have it next month and the months after that.

Make going deeper a new habit. Ask better questions and you will get better answers. I promise that it will change your life.

At Nexus Chiropractic we focus on looking deeper and we help our patients to learn how to do so as well. An excellent resource is our complimentary workshop that we present every month at the office. The next one is Sept. 17^th at 7pm. Just phone our office to reserve a seat.

I decided to delay the final article of the Winning the Game of Life series to celebrate the 12^th birthday of Gault Family Chiropractic! The time has flown so fast that it hardly seems possible that 12 years have passed. So, in this article I will share some of the history and evolution the practice has undergone.

Gault Family Chiropractic officially opened its’ doors on August 14^th, 2000 after I had graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa in February of that year. Our first location was in the former gas station at the corner of 5^th and Marlborough streets (now a methadone clinic)! At this time I had no children, had not yet re-met my wife and believe it or not hand an almost full head of hair. I also started the office without any staff and did it all myself (very stupid in hindsight).

When I opened the office I had barely even heard of Network Spinal Analysis, let alone have any thoughts of practicing it. Initially, I practiced a very structural (yet specific) system of chiropractic called Gonstead. In fact, I had been the president of the largest student technique club in the world at that time at Palmer and had attended hundreds of hours of professional seminars before I had even graduated. With Gonstead, we did full spine x-rays on almost everyone, and all women were gowned on each visit while men were seen shirtless. Obviously we used a private room at that time.

On the strength of word of mouth and the regular workshops I still give to this day (although I no longer show a VHS recording of a live birth or use big words like ‘histopathology) the practice grew nicely and I hired my first staff member Elsie Craig. Shortly thereafter we were joined by our first co-op student, Amy Main who is still a practice member in the office.

In spite of the growth of the office, early in 2001 I began to become dissatisfied with the long-term sustainability of the results I was getting with my regular patients. They seemed to hit a plateau and stay there. At this time of dissatisfaction and questioning that I happened to hear an interview with Dr. Donny Epstein, the founder of Network Spinal Analysis (NSA), who seemed to have many of the answers I was looking for (and a whole lot more). A month later I was at one of his seminars, he placed me on a table to demonstrate an entrainment and at that moment I knew I had to bring NSA back to Cornwall (even though I didn’t want to)!

Over the next year we transitioned the practice into full NSA, Elsie left to go to teacher’s college and we hired practice member Sandra Hanniman to replace her. The practice grew immensely at this time as I dedicated myself to mastering NSA. By 2006 I had become only the 12^th Canadian doctor to achieve the highest level of certification in NSA.

In the winter of 2004 I met massage therapist Matt Beaudette, who was about to open his own practice. He had a vision for a building with a variety of health care practices under one roof. In fact, he already had an accepted offer on 24 Adolphus St. and was looking for a business partner. That was the birth of The Adolphus Wellness Centre that included GFC; several massage therapists, a dietician, naturopath, EFT practitioner and a great psychologist (my wife).

In the fall of 2004 perhaps the event that has had the greatest positive impact on GFC occurred. I hired Cindy Besignano and Adele Gannon as Sandra was moving to Ottawa. They have literally been the backbone of the office over the last 8 years.

In 2009 I began coaching, tutoring, and consulting for other Network Chiropractors as a part of the “X-CELS” program started by my personal mentor, Dr. Pierre Bernier which I feel has given me the ability to have an impact not only in our community but around the world.

Thank you to everyone who has made this possible. We love the work that we get to do and love helping people of all walks of life. A huge thank you to my family who sacrifices so I can be obsessed with improving my work. Thanks to all of the patients, practice members and guests who have trusted us and supported us over the years.

The one thing I can promise is that we will never get stale. We will continue to refine our care, services, and procedures to get better and better. I can promise that on our 24^th birthday, we will be light years better than today. Thank you for 12 years of healing, passion, and fun!

On behalf of Gault Family Chiropractic I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Be sure to celebrate in preparation for Making 2012 the best year of your life.

As inspiration for the new year, here is a video of Tony Robbins speaking to a crowd about his personal discovery of Network Spinal Analysis and introducing Dr. Donny Epstein as well as a recent article by my amazing colleague, Dr. John Amaral about some of the technicalities of NSA. I hope you enjoy.

In a few days I will be posting my first article in a series helping you to Make 2012 the Best Year of Your Life, to go alongside the workshop of the same name to be presented – both in my office and at the Caveman Strong gym – on Jan. 17th and 18th respectively.

Click HERE the Tony Robbins/Donny Epstein video.

Click HERE for Dr. Amaral’s article

“Even the predictable turns into a surprise the moment we stop taking it for granted.” Brother David Stendl-Rast