A List of Happiness

4 Comments

I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from my “A Happy Life” post last week (if you missed it, you can read it here).  I love when my blog strikes a chord with people, and I love it even more when they take the time to let me know their thoughts.

One person in particular really touched my heart.  Remember my Auntie Carol?  I’ve written about her before, and about the special role she plays in my life.  Well, she lives on a farm in rural Eastern Alberta, just outside of the teensy town where I was born.  I spent much of my childhood time on her farm, and it’s the setting of some of my fondest memories.

Following my post, she sent me a list of the things that make her happy.  This list was something she’d been working on for a few weeks she said, scribbled on a notepad by the computer.  Just jotting down happiness thoughts, not for a blog or for Facebook, or for an article….. just for herself.  She shared her list with me, and has given me permission to share it with you.  You see, our lives are thousands of miles apart and our day-to-day activities could not be more different, but what struck me about her list was the simplicity of it. b7081851e49a47b24ce844f4ed3cfa84

“Yes,” I thought, as I read it.  I nodded along to every point.  I think it’s the simple things in life that bring joy to all of us.

Here’s her list.  I hope it inspires you to make one of your own:

  • The awesome song of meadowlarks
  • ‘Explores’ in the coulee with the grandchildren
  • The tickle in my finger from a newborn calf’s suckle
  • Eating fresh peas from the vine
  • Tobogganing in the coulee
  • Watching the kids jumping bales with the dog
  • Friends stopping in for coffee
  • The taste of raspberries off the bush
  • Canada Geese flying low over the house
  • Baby calves running around in the corrall in the evenings
  • Watching the kids slipping and sliding down the slope of the lawn
  • Enjoying the spring bouquet of crocuses that my husband picks for me
  • Playing ‘hide and seek’ on 4-wheelers with the grandkids
  • Kids helping me make homemade pizza
  • Fresh corn on the cob
  • Coffee and cold drinks on the deck with my daughter-in-laws
  • Hauling bales on a beautiful October afternoon
  • Decorating cookies in ‘Grandma’s kitchen’
  • The peace and tranquility of my 6am gardening
  • Trips to the pasture at Sounding Lake
  • The wonder of fresh rows popping up in the garden
  • I feel so Lucky and Blessed to be living in my beautiful ‘little corner of the world’!!

Me too, Auntie Carol, me too.

inn-banner

A Happy Life

6 Comments

I’m still trying to figure out the nuances of me.  I know that sounds strange.

But in fact, just the other day, I discovered that I can focus much better in complete silence.  It’s not that I didn’t already know this about myself; after all, I spent eight years of post-Secondary education in quiet libraries, but I’ve just recently learned to articulate this fact.  No wonder my study days in Mt. Pleasant’s Second Cup required earplugs.  How unusual that I never noticed this quiet=focus effect on myself.

I’m emotional.  I’m sensitive.  I see colours when I read words, especially people’s names.  I am a homebody.  I love to travel, often, but for short periods of time.  I have a semi-photographic memory, especially for the written word.  I am interested in real estate and architecture.  I have a spatial mind.  I communicate best through writing.  I only like camping if someone else is doing the work.  I love yoga and spirituality and self-reflection.  I need fresh air and an elevated heart rate daily.

These are all revelations that I’ve had in my adult life.  I’m 36 years old and I’m still figuring out me.  And the reason I’m telling you this?

  1. My blog is an extension of my professional self.  The doctor-patient relationship is built on trust and this outlet is how you can get to know me. (This is Me.)
  2. These revelations have affected my parenting, and hey, I like to write about parenting.

How has it affected my parenting, you ask?  Well, thank you for asking, you’re playing along nicely.  You see, as a teen I often overheard people talk about “figuring out who they are” and I didn’t quite understand what that meant.  I heard people talk about “figuring out who they are” at University, “figuring out who they are” through travel, “figuring out who they are” through sport.  I did all of those things, and yet I still couldn’t define myself, my role, my reason.  These revelations seem to have come to me later in life than most of my peers, or perhaps I’m just late in learning the vocabulary associated with soul-searching and self-contemplation.

As such, lately I’ve been talking to my children about “who they are.”  We’ve been chatting about things they like, things they don’t, things that are/aren’t important to them, and their hopes and dreams.  I’ve been trying to give them the verbiage of introspection, to open up their childhood minds to the language of what characterizes them, and makes them proud to be unique and special.  To be themselves, whomever those selves may be.

For now, my job is to give them opportunities to learn.  I see each exposure to something new as a chance for personal growth.  That’s why we spend our Summers traipsing around Southern Ontario and our Winters at every event within an hour’s drive.  We go to see monster trucks and rodeos and conservation areas and waterfalls and baseball games and theatres and ceramic studios and Teen Tour Band concerts and beaches and outdoor rinks.  We show them the world and try to help them figure out their role in this wonderful community of life.

I posted this on my Facebook Page a few days ago: “I really think a happy life is about balancing all of your favourite things.  Lower the stressors you have control over and prioritize the things that you love.”  And how are they to know the things that they love if I don’t give them the tools to discover that?

“Happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good.”

And it seems to me that if you figure out your good, you will figure out your happy.

 

happiness

Sit, Stand, Bend, Lift, or Twist

Leave a comment

I’ve come across a concerning trend in my practice lately…. that is, patients assuming that all low-back pain is the same, and therefore all low-back pain solutions are the same.

Low back pain (LBP) is most definitely the number one condition that walks into my office, even though we offer a full-body approach; from necks to toes and everything in between.  But here’s my concern: please don’t assume that your low back pain is the same as your friend’s low back pain.  Just as you wouldn’t take a friend’s prescribed medication, be wary of taking a friend’s prescribed rehabilitation exercises.  I hear this all the time:  “My friend told me to do ____ for their back pain.”  “I saw this stretch on Google.”  “My sister had back pain and she still did 100 sit-ups a day.”

Please, no.  (And also, please, please, please, NO sit-ups.  Ever.  We can talk about this later.  Email me.)

Don’t assume that your back pain is the “same” as your friend’s/neighbour’s/Uncle’s/dog’s.  There are many causes of low back pain, and it’s my job to figure out what is causing yours specifically, and give you the appropriate rehab to support that.  In certain cases, forward fold stretches can be helpful.  In certain cases, they can be harmful.  The same can be said for extension exercises, and mobility drills, and activity limitations.  Each has their time and their place, and one size does not fit all.

Low back pain is a widespread condition; in fact, up to 85% of working Canadians can expect to experience LBP in their lifetime.  And if we all work together, from practitioners to researchers to personal trainers to patients, I think we can dramatically lower that statistic.

There is one hard and fast rule that everyone can safely adhere to: a neutral spine is always the most preferred, protective posture for your spine.  Keep that in mind the next time you sit, stand, bend, lift, or twist.

lying

Happy Tuesday.