Anchored for the evening at Julian Bay

I’ve had a few requests (from the astute patients who recognize my photo-frenzy tendencies) to post some pictures from my recent sailing weekend in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior.  This left me thinking–”How do I sneakily connect what I learned about sailing to what I know about chiropractic so that I can blog about this?”  Truthfully, chiropractic is such a huge part of my life (and has been for such a long time) that I am constantly seeing metaphors to it in so many of the things that I do.  So read on, and enjoy the pictures!

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  A beautiful double rainbow in front of the jib.

  You don’t have to be an expert sailor to realize that so much of the sailing experience depends on the wind.  You also don’t have to be an expert biologist to realize that the function of the body depends on the nervous system.  Your brain, spinal cord, and nerves are constantly transmitting information that tells your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, your muscles to be tight or loose.  And just as you can maximize the the effects of the wind by a slight change of direction or an adjustment to the sails, you can maximize the functioning of your nervous system by adjustments to your spine.  Just like taking the “kink” out of a garden hose, adjustments to the bones of your spine take pressure of the nerves…and it’s easier to sail your ship.

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  A picture of the sun setting on the Riptide (and crew!)

  Another thing I learned about sailing is that you really have to pay attention, and if you go off course, you take corrective action.  The same thing happens with our bodies.  Sometimes we stop paying attention to our body’s needs–be it exercise, diet/nutrition, stretching, water intake, or adjustments, and then we go off course.  Corrective action is required to get us back on track.  That’s why at our office we offer both preventative care and corrective care.  With preventative care, we’re doing our best to pay attention to small problems before they become big ones.  With corrective care, we work to get to the underlying root of an ongoing problem and correct it.

• Finally, sometimes we experience smooth sailing and sometimes there are rougher seas.  We will always do our best to help our patients through the flare-ups, but it makes us really happy when we get to the point of smooth sailing.