Creating Clarity (and Peace) through Contrast

Ask and ye shall receive. This is true. I have asked to be busier and I am…now I’m just going to have to be better at managing my time and following the flow as things shift in the moment. Being at my office unitl 10pm most nights does NOT work too well. Also what doesn’t work is an unhealthy working environment caused by others using chemicals in the building which I discovered last weekend. EEK! What do I want?! Contrast births clarity. I want a healthy working environment, so I had to request changes to maintain that healthy space for myself and my clients. I was willing to leave, not that I wanted to find a new office right now while I was creating an advertisement with my address on it, but I had to take a stand for the health and wellness of myself and my clients. Good news, all worked out and the environment I do treatments in won’t be compromised in a negative way! YAY!

What else do I want? The clarity comes from knowing what I DON’T want…seeing too many people in a day like I did at the hospital system. What do I want? I want a certain amount of clients to work with per day and no more, with adequate time to have dinner or lunch. I also want clientele who can pay for services or whom I can take their insurances. I had a few policy changes added to the mix this week to ensure that as I get busier that I’m effective with my clients and also covering my back. For example, I’m going to only accept people for treatment that agree to the terms. This would include that they do their movement homework and make payments on the same day of their visit. Most of the people I work with do their movement work and do pay their co-pays, and I’m very grateful for that. They see the benefits quicker because they are doing their part. I feel valued for the great work and effort I put in to each and every session when they are responsible for their bill. People that don’t get the results are the ones that oftentimes do not work up to their 20 minutes a day of movement reprogramming exercises. I also made some changes with which insurances I will accept. If I were a PT who saw multiple people at once this wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but I choose to give QUALTIY versus QUANITY, and because I give one on one care…I had to make some changes. It’s all for the better, really. I am willing to work with people if they are willing to work with me. It has to be a win-win for both people in any relationship. Health and wellness providers have to eat, too! Lol. That’s funny but not. It’s not so much of an issue now, because I have new clients sign a form about my cancellation policy, and yes there are of course times where emergencies happen and I take that into consideration, but a lot of people who aren’t business owners don’t think about the fact that if you cancel that the practitioner could have scheduled someone else in their spot. I have seen many wellness people that because of being so giving have wavered on this, yet suffered. Or they might have been afraid to lose that client. A massage therapist I know gives her clients this example: “what if you went in to work and your boss said we don’t need you this week…oh and by the way you won’t get your salary this week. We have to put food on the table, too. So when you cancel last minute that is loss of money for me”. I agree with her and us “wellness entrepreneurs” have to run a business like a business. Since I’ve had this cancellation policy in place since the summer I have had people give me notice in advance, and on the rare occasion, pay me their late cancellation fee. Because these people value me and my services they keep coming back. I value my time so that’s why I’m not afraid to put a policy like that in place. I want clients who respect my time as I respect theirs…as I do show up for them and keep a timely schedule.

Now by running a business like a business I don’t mean having no heart. In fact, when faced with the seeming “upsets” this week of chemicals at the office, clients not paying copays, and deciding whether to accept someone back into my practice I had to meditate on it all. I didn’t just make those decisions on a whim. In our Abundance Cubed coaching program our coach, Noam Kostucki suggested when we have a big question to ask in meditation what our head says, then our heart, then our guts, and then our loins. I was happy to have this process because especially when it was playing on my emotions I almost felt like my head and heart were in a battle…that was even reflected in my dreams. After doing this meditation process I came up with creative solutions based on the answers I received. Next time you have a big decision use this process to gain some clarity. And peace!

Movement Awareness Break: Speaking of peace…are you missing some because you’ve been holding your shoulders up so high like they were earrings you were wearing? Not good for those upper trapezium muscles! If that’s what you’re doing…no wonder they are a bit tight or sore. So here’s a little exercise if that’s your habit which I call the shoulder cradle. Let’s say it’s your right shoulder that’s been up because you were tilting your head waaaaay to the side talking on the phone (your very thin cell, mind you!). Ouch…it’s called Bluetooth, speaker phone or headset…so please change that head tilt habit. Anyhow, in sitting with feet flat on the floor, take your left hand with your palm up and place it under your right elbow. You have your right elbow bent (almost as if your arms are crossed). Now push your right elbow up to your right ear. Yes, that’s right…the SAME direction we don’t want it to go in…up. Don’t trust me on this, try it yourself! Hold it there for 15 seconds with the work of the left arm pushing up. Breathe the whole time…no holding your breath and don’t push the shoulder so far up if that it is increasing your pain. Do less if that’s the case. While you’re holding that shoulder up attempt to soften the shoulder/neck muscles as you breathe. After your 15 seconds, bring the shoulder back down by releasing the lifting from your left hand. Relax for 30 seconds. Try this 2 more times. Notice now how that muscle feels. Is it more relaxed? Does the shoulder hang more naturally, without force? Does it feel more relaxed than the other side? If so, try it there, too using the right hand to push up on the left elbow so that your left shoulder is up towards your ear. Try it three times there, too. Feel the muscles melt as you hold the shoulder up with the opposite hand and breathe. For the brainy-acs that want to know “why” this makes a difference we are taking the work away from the upper traps and having the opposite arm do the work. We are also going in the direction the body is already going in…to shorten the muscles. When the brain gets that message that we are shortening the muscles with support it can let go better and lengthen! AHHH! Doesn’t that feel good? Just remember to do this as often as needed if you catch your shoulders creeping up again. Be on the look-out with what you are feeling in your shoulders. That’s the awareness part. We can’t change something unless we are first aware of it! Shine that light of awareness, dear ones!

PS so a funny side note on parentheses that I would never normally use in a title. You know () those guys. But what the heck, I thought I'd throw them in based on another area of contrast that I had this week. That advertising that I'm doing, well I've never done an ad that small or big so I didn't know how much verbiage I could put in it. I figured I'd help the designers out by putting some expendable words in parentheses if it was too much verbiage. I sent an email stating to do so. That way if it was too many words, they could take out the parentheses and what was in between. I asked for feed back if they thought I needed even less than without what was in the (_). Apparently these are supposed to be "professional designers" giving me "professional feedback". Well, after days of waiting when they told me we are due to print ASAP...they send back the ad with ALL of the verbiage AND the parentheses still IN the ad! Can you believe it?! LMAO. Are they that busy they couldn't take the parentheses out?? Ok, so I'm thrilled it's a new week soon! Thought I'd share the laugh!