Inside The Polished Apple

Thank you to the information shared from Modern Loss (via Instagram) and @goodgriefnj With reports of stress levels rising as we continue to self-isolate, we at Elan Family Wellness Centre, thought it would be timely to focus on Mindfulness for the month of May and to provide you with resources for your mental well-being. Please let us know if we can provide more specific help to support you. For Access Mental Health in Alberta, visit  here. 7 Tips for Reducing Feelings of Isolation:  Name Your Emotion- It's an effective way to reduce and regulate difficult emotions. It may help you to feel more control and that you can manage them more effectively.  Seek Out Regular Social Interaction (phone, video, letter)-We may need to be more proactive in setting up those online "dates" and connections. Regular interactions can lessen the likelihood of feeling lonely or isolated.  Get Physical-include some measurable goals to be active and increase your heart r...

There's lots happening at our office! Here's a new face you will soon be seeing a lot of!  Please welcome to the clinic, Kayley.   You will seeing her behind the front desk during your visits to the office and we are very pleased to have her join us. Pop in and say "hi" next time you are in Bowness!    As some of you know, July 31st was Kim's last day. We will miss her and we wish her well as she goes "BACK TO SCHOOL"! ~ Scott

Thanks to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist with us at Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, for these thoughts on how to apply behaviour in your life!  Do you ever find yourself stuck on the sofa with a list in your hand and no energy to do it? Have you ever had a problem that seemed so big that there was no way even to start it? Have you ever felt trapped trying to come up with a plan, but seem to chase your tail finding the correct “right” way? This is me... all the time. With some of you, this will resonate. For me, it's like a sledgehammer. So, how does one break out of this mess? I find myself struggling with the above a lot, however, I have a different awareness over the last few years. You see, if I start from a structure or a feeling before I do a behaviour, my energy drops and nothing happens. But.... If I do something productive, almost anything productive, my confidence grows, my ability to think clears and my superpowers of strategy emerge. Prest...

Thanks to Scott Hutchison, our resident Registered Massage Therapist at  Elan, for his thoughts this April!  It's Wednesday March 28 th  at 5:05am and I am working on my April article. This happens to be version 3.0 of the article. The first article was an introduction to  EpiEnergetics . But I got to a point in the writing process where I needed way more exposition than I could fit in the space of a newsletter. So I jumped onto an article about how health care shares similar parallels to the consumer electronics industry. The slow roll out of new technologies generally is controlled for monetary reasons and not necessarily for the benefit of the public. Then I took a shot at the educational system and was working my way up to a swing at the government. So I stopped. What I want to talk about, really, is not the broken or the newest thing. I want to talk about the programs running in your head and my head. You see, we have both been programed by our culture and ...

News from Marguerite Kennedy, our Registered Acupuncturist at Elan!  I have some exciting news to share with you! From April 12th to 16th I will be in Toronto attending two amazing seminars with  Dr Suzanne Robidoux . The first is Scalp Acupuncture for Neurological and Psychosomatic Disorders, and the second is Chinese Medicine for Parkinson's Disease. I'm looking forward to being able to take these opportunities to further my acupuncture skills in neurological disorders. I can't wait to share with you all the new techniques I've learned! ~Marguerette

Thanks to Scott Hutchison, our Registered Massage Therapist at Elan Family Wellness Centre, for his thoughts on raising our energy state.  The march theme is nourish. So if we are to nourish our bodies and soul, we need to be in the correct state. Tony Robbins says things work best in a Prime or Beautiful State. Our own Donny Epstein says we need to be at least high energy neutral or #energyrich to get optimal advantage of the food, sun, water and love around us. Meaning higher states are more about giving than receiving. Poor states can be thought of as lack states or lowest available energy states. The energy vampire states. When we are in an energy poor state, our whole being is focused on just maintaining that energy level and it becomes very hard to shift towards a new higher state. It can take time and for certain you need nourishing things super loaded into your body. But alas, even the thought of more can be daunting, if someone has an awareness of needing to...

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Chiropractor at Elan Family Wellness Centre, for this article on some ways to nourish yourself this March!  As the days get longer and we can feel spring in the air, the snow begins to melt nourishing the trees, the grass, and gardens. Nature has a natural cycle, naturally composting. Microbes in the soil are always actively transforming the leftovers from past years growth into nutrients to fuel and support new growth and so the cycle continues. As you move towards spring how are you nurturing yourself?  It's always good to take inventory before jumping into action. How active have you been over the winter, what has your diet been like? These types of questions will help you nourish yourself in the best way possible. With the winter we just had maybe you are feeling a bit of cabin fever, so you will want to get outdoors, go for a hike. It may be as simple as a walk around the block, taking a pause to feel the sun and wind on your face. Maybe a...

Thanks to our RMT Scott Hutchison for his thoughts on Heart  Month. Enjoy the read!  WARNING: This will be the strangest article from me yet folks! A short time ago, I came across a person. A highly paid and respected computer programmer, who uses custom coded analysis programs (“web-bots”) to detect changes in language on web forums and comments. These changes are of unusual nature and unrelated to the overall themes of said forums or comment threads. The programmer then uses the data as a predictor of future trends and events in society. Kinda like an internet Nostradamus prediction of events to come, by using internet bots to sift through big data for outliers of content in seemingly unrelated things. It's kinda creepy and surprisingly more accurate than you would think (...told ya it would be strange)! So what does that have to do with the heart? Well, around the same time that I met this programmer, I started seeing articles hit my consciousness about the hu...

The theme is Celebration this December!  Do you make celebrating a routine activity in your life? I like the concept of celebrating a win at the end of the day (soon to be added to my evening routine!) As you read this, take a moment to celebrate that you have made health improvements over last year and that you are getting healthier every year! We want to celebrate your wins with you, so please share them with us when we see you. And if you want more health wins, we can help with that too. The energy of Celebration is aligned with the Advanced Season of Care or Wellbeing that we honour in the office. I'm super excited to be recently back from training on Advanced care and will share some experiences from that in another post. I'm hoping that we can inspire you to also include more purposeful, action directed advancement in your life too, so we can make a positive impact on our little piece of the world. An example...I went to my recent seminar thinking that the adva...

Late November was our wrap-up to Elan Family Wellness Centre's First Practice Member of the Week event. Here's some photos of our celebration at Extreme Restaurant here in Bowness.  We've been asked how you qualify as Practice Member of the Week? It was a hard choice, and some of the things we look for are length of time in care (we have practice members who have been with us for decades!), participation at our workshops or events, your enthusiasm, commitment to care & sharing Network Chiropractic with your family & friends. Watch for the stars in your travel card and watch for our spring program! 

D id you know that acupuncture can help with more than just back pain?   In fact, acupuncture can even help with burns and scars left by burns! Pain, infection control, and scars are the most important issues when it comes to burn injuries and acupuncture treatments can solve all these difficulties at once without using medication or surgical procedures. Acupuncture can remove the feeling of burning pain. Between five minutes and one hour after treatment, depending on the severity, the pain subsides. Usually patients feel the cooling effect of acupuncture needles. The acupuncture treatment (which is around 30 minutes) should be once per day until the site is dry and the scar begins to form. Eventually, the scar will fall off naturally. The major functions of acupuncture for burn care are: pain control without painkillers stimulating the body’s own healing power to generate new tissue and skin infection control without using any antibiotics not needing surgeries (ie. skin gra...

S cott's Thoughts: Gratitude in November~ it's perception month at Elan Family Wellness Centre! Thanks to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist at our office (and founder of Energy Rich Day!!) for this information on Gratitude and Priming.  And swoosh... November has blown in for it's yearly visit. As we start to shiver and wonder where our wonderful summer went, it's a great time to look back early and say thanks for an amazing year! Around our neck of the planet, we shoot for a daily practice of Gratitude. A study was once done around effect of external stimulus on the emotional preconception of our environment. Shortly, something as simple as temperature (even brief but extreme exposure) could have lasting emotional colouring in ones day. Knowing this trick of the mind and body, we can hack our day to look for opportunities of gratitude. Imagine taking just 10 minutes to set your nervous system and brain/body antenna to tune into areas in your life to f...

Do you know of the many benefits of cupping? Truly deep therapy as the cupping suction can affect the tissues up to 4 inches deep with reverse pressure. Reduces muscular pain and tension as cupping stretches surrounding fascia making space in the tissue allowing for better circulation, mobility, and reduced residual inflammation. Releases muscle spasms by flushing lactic acid away from the muscle to stop the prolonged contraction. Detoxifies by draining toxins and lymph from restricted areas of the body. Helps to ensure a healthy lymphatic system. Increases circulation and warmth to limbs in winter months. Better digestive system: when applied to the abdomen the cups assist with peristalsis of tired and tense muscles in the large intestine. Relieves the congestion from coughs, colds, allergies, and asthma. Improves skin health through rejuvenating the layer of collagen and elastin under the skin. Promotes healing: initially increases inflammation to damaged tissue by bring...

It's Structure month at Elan Family Wellness Centre-Thanks Dr Robert Clarke for some words about how Structure can lead to more Freedom in our Life! Sometimes we resist structure because we value our freedom. What we need to shift is our perspective. Having a structure actually allows for greater freedom within the structure. The structure, if set up well, helps take care of the essential commitments of our lives.  As an example, having a designated place for keys when you come in the door allows you the opportunity to know where your keys are, saving you the hassle of looking for them later. A kitchen where you know where everything is, is much easier to cook in and allows the creative cooking process to happen. The structure or organization of the kitchen gives more freedom to the cook. Sometimes it's externally applied structure that we resist. In these cases it is good to step back and see if the they are serving on a bigger level. Sometimes we gain perspective b...

I've challenged myself to improve my fitness. My working plan is to stop my post-partum (ha-its over 2 years now) weight gain, improve my strength and cardio so I can easily engage in physical activity with either of my girls, and to improve my energy, sleep, and overall well being. I've been so engaged with my story-since 20 weeks into my last pregnancy, I have been completely reliant on a steady input of nutrient dense food, leading me to learn more about the Weston A Price diet. During pregnancy and at least the first year post-partum, I would experience dizziness, fatigue, light-headedness, etc. If I deviated from my diet. (which essentially meant eating at least 6-8 times per day and I have no idea how many calories-it didn't matter since I was burning them all!). Blood work tested fine; no medical problems identified, I just kept attributing it to having a baby at 40+ years old, and then supporting a baby via breastfeeding, and burned out by lack of regular sleep...

Elan Family Wellness Centre is excited to welcome back Mother's Wellness Circles, presented by Full Circle Parenting and Womankind Calgary. The Story: If you are like most moms, your life experienced a radical and overwhelming upheaval when motherhood happened to you. You're probably spending the majority of your time focused on your child or children, and you may feel like there's no time left for you. In the back of your mind, you may be hearing a quiet voice, whispering: Who are YOU now, anyway? You may not know what you do for fun, anymore, or what kind of career you want, anymore, or what you want to look like, anymore. You may also be trying to remember what it feels like to be 100% you - maybe you are struggling with expressing yourself fully and authentically around your children. Maybe your friendships aren't feeling fulfilling to you.  Maybe you want to go back to some of who you were before you had kids, or maybe you're pretty sure that pre-mom you i...

Coming up October 14, 2017... 11 hours of training, inspiration and amazing vendors devoted to helping you add energy to your life! Want to hear and see more energy rich stuff? Check out our  Facebook Energy Rich Day event page !  Plug into our  Energy Rich Minute YouTube vlog here  on the Elan channel. Be aware, our  Energy Rich Day  in October is now selling tickets. Act fast... the VIP  tickets  will sell out soon. energyrichday.ca Eventbrite YouTube channel Facebook event

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Chiropractor at Elan Family Wellness Centre, for this article on Giving & Receiving in the Theme of Community. Giving and receiving, this is what we all crave about community. To belong to something bigger than ourselves. In days gone by it was essential to survival. We may not need it to survive in our modern era, but it's essential to help us thrive. Sharing and helping feeds our souls, it feels great to support others. The important part of the equation is to be open to receiving. This completes the cycle of being in community, it's about building relationships and these need to have balance. If you're fortunate to have some abundance and you're in a position to give to others, allow yourself the opportunity to receive. Maybe you don’t have need of things, then receive gratitude. Be open to the heartfelt thanks of others and even if you're not currently needing help from someone, graciously accept a reciprocal gift if one i...

We are excited to welcome our new Acupuncturist, Dr. Stella Choi , to our family here at Elan. She will be available to see patients on Mondays and Thursdays starting Monday July 10th. Dr.Stella Choi (DTCM, R. Ac.) is a graduate from Canadian Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a member of the College and Association of Acupuncturists of Alberta .  Dr.Stella is also registered nurse in South Korea and has more than 10 years of experience in Western Medicine. Combining acupuncture treatments with traditional diet therapies, Dr.Stella guides clients to discover their own potent healing power and encourages clients to develop a lifestyle that both creates and supports a healthy body that is immune to disease. Using a variety of modalities, such as acupuncture, cupping, bleeding techniques, electroacupuncture, and moxa, Dr.Stella helps clients deal with pain, insomnia, emotional issues, autoimmune conditions, weight control, burn injuries, and more.

The Back-Mobile in the Bowness Stampede Parade. This year's theme: "We've Got Your Back". Not only was our office in the parade, but we also opened Elan for a Mom and Babe Sanctuary, for parents to feed, nurse, change bums, or just escape the sun and crowds.  The Simon House invited their neighbours for a BBQ Lunch. Here we are with a former practice member Ravi and Associate Health Minister (and friend!) Brandy Payne.    Scarlett and I en route to the Carya Pancake Breakfast held in Montgomery. Carya provides resources and support for families and seniors in our neighbourhoods.  Yee-haw! Its been a fun Stampede and we hope you enjoy this look at a few of our local events!