Inside The Polished Apple

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Network Spinal Chiropractor at Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness/ NW Calgary, on this article on Seasons. Over the next months we will be exploring the Seasons of Discover, Transform, Awaken and Integrate. We refer to them as Sacred as they are all essential to our growth. Our personal growth is often looked at during workshops and during times of challenge in our lives. We have the potential to grow every day. Looking at these seasons as Sacred helps us to prioritize our health healing and growth so that each day we can connect to our path and take a step towards being the person we want to be. Taking 365 steps in the right direction can dramatically change our lives, so that we can live healthier lives that are congruent with our path and purpose. Both the Network Spinal care we use and the 12 Stages of Healing exercises help guide your nervous system through these seasons. Discovering the patterns in your Body help you recognize how y...

Thank you to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist with Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for these thoughts on Appreciation!  They say 10 thousand hours is the magic number to consider mastery in anything. Since the Bowness location of Elan opened in September 2014 we have hit our 10 thousand hours of serving from the NW of Calgary and more specifically... Bowness. Thank you. On behalf of Rob, Josephene, the practitioners and staff... thank you! Many have joined us over that time, some have moved on, and many we see weekly. We are grateful to continue to serve. To those joining us on June 22nd for our Appreciation Day... thanks in advance and vote for my chili during the 3rd annual Chili Cook Off during the event. With appreciations... ~ Scott

~ We'd love to see you at our PATIENT APPRECIATION DAY! Come on down for Chiropractic Entrainments*, Workshops, Food & Fun! All by donation! Enter to win raffle items featuring local Bowness businesses. All proceeds going to Redefin'd Calgary! *all are welcome to attend our workshops or drop by for food & activities; Network Spinal entrainments are for current practice members only. Saturday, June 22nd 48, 7930 Bowness Road NW, Calgary AB 10:00AM-2:00PM Please call us 403 217 5577 to book a time to visit us this day! 

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Network Spinal Practitioner at Elan Family Wellness, in Bowness, NW Calgary, for these insights from his recent Vision Quest. June is our Appreciation Month!  I recently had the honor of doing a Vision Quest, during which I got to sit for 4 days on a Beautiful parcel of land with myself, the earth and the cosmos. I received many insights over those days, one of the biggest gifts was appreciation of my journey and all the blessings I have. My health, my children, my work, my friends and family, this beautiful country and so much more. I am truly grateful for the teachings I have received throughout my life. The vision quest had less than ideal conditions, during the rain and the snow of that weekend I saw the reflections of those challenges and the challenges I have faced in my life. When things are flowing well in my life, I am grateful, when challenges come my way I work to see the lessons. It takes practice and often the wisdom gained, or the gift...

Practice Member of The Week Celebration Dinner Thank you to everyone who joined us on Thursday, May 23rd in our celebration of an array of practice members all dedicated to their chiropractic care. We enjoyed getting to know you and your guests all a bit more and look forward to seeing you again! Thank you to Phil, Barb & the team at Extreme Catering (also in Bowness/ NW Calgary!) for hosting us, another excellent dinner! This program will continue in the Fall & we will be collecting your nominations of who you think deserves the recognition of Practice Member of the Week!   

Please join us for our Annual Patient Appreciation Day on June 22 nd ! It's one of my favorite days as we get to appreciate YOU, our practice members, our North West Calgary community, and local Bowness businesses! We guarantee their will be awesome door prizes, food, and a chance for Network Spinal chiropractic entrainments and educational, inspiring talks! We will be using the day to also increase awareness and raise funds for Redefin'd - a local Bowness group helping young people redefine their life through meaningful work (and amazing food!)  As June is our month of Appreciation, we also get to take the time to share some thoughts on the topic. June is a big month for me as I will be completing my 180 day challenge stretching myself in preparation for the West Coast Trail in July, and I will be turning 45, which is the reason I'm doing so! If you join me NOW, you can finish spring out with a 21 day challenge to bring a new healthy habit in to your life. With all ...

Thank you to Margaret Kennedy, Registered Acupuncturist with Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, on this article on the benefits of Mindfulness.  Mindfulness  is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. To be  mindful  is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing. There are many ways to practice Mindfulness and even more books that can be obtained either via the internet or library to learn more on the art of mindfulness. Some ways that mindfulness can help you: It reduces overthinking which damages the spleen meridian. It alleviates stress, improves memory, the ability to focus and improves learning. It helps one to be non-reactive to others, so that in the midst of crisis you can remain calm. It allows us to think differently, so de-stressing our lives It enhances our compassion, empathy and kindness to ourselves and others so increasing our ability to be happy. This lessens our...

Thank you to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist and Professional Coach, with Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, on this article on may mindfulness. This I find to be a loaded weapon. When I sink down into a process like mindfulness... or as I know it... now-ness, I am hijacked, to some extent, by the stories I carry around.  And inevitably, I move from mindfulness/now-ness to a painful memory from the past that may pop up on me during my experience. It kinda sucks. To counter this... I have learned to simply give myself permission to come again and again into my mindfulness. Often I would beat myself up about it.  Now, I recognize that when my mind does this... it is doing so as some weird or misguided protection strategy. But giving myself the permission to have a second or two of wandering and gently move my mind back to “now”... I regain control over my mind from a higher level of optimization. Then I practice and practice. Usually ...

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Chiropractor at Elan Family Wellness in Bowness, NW Calgary, for this article on incorporating mindfulness into our daily routine.  In life it is easy to fall into routines and habits. The upside of this is we don’t have to expend a lot of our attention to get many daily tasks done. On the other hand it can become easy to let routines and habits take over too many aspects of our lives, this is where its important to bring mindfulness in our lives on a daily basis. “Take time to Smell the Flowers” Slow down, allow your senses to expand, breath deeper, in doing this we bring more mindfulness into our lives. When paying more attention to all of our senses we begin to understand that not only our sight, smell, sound, touch and taste are more sensitive, but our intuitive senses also improve. Firstly, this helps you know when your body is in a stressed ”Fight or Flight" and when it is in “Rest and Digest” this awareness informs us. Technology has ...

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Chiropractor with Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for this article related to our Mother Earth month.  With Spring here, its great to feel the warmth of the sun and see the budding of new life everywhere. It helps us soften the memory of one of the coldest February's in recent history. Yet Mother nature is wise always balancing elements. We had a milder than usual January, this woke up the Pine beetles and Ticks, so they began to wake from their winter hiding to then be faced with The February Freeze. This helps to control the destruction of our pine forests, and decreasing the tick populations, both good things that we humans could not adequately manage. So take the time to observe the flow of nature from a grander perspective and marvel in the wisdom of Mother Earth. In the same way, monitor your body and your health. Often our body responds in ways that don’t make sense to us. Being sick isn’t always a sign of poor health. In ...

Such a fun evening for our practice members and community members! We started the evening with a meditation with Margaret, our Acupuncturist at Elan. Lisa, Registered Massage Therapist, led us in stretches for Heart Openers-to help open up from our forward bending posture.  Next was Jodey Sharman, Registered Pyschologist, who spoke on the topic: People Pleasing... Is it OK to not be nice? Last up was myself, Dr Josephene Juell, speaking on 3 Myths about Women's Health that will SHOCK you!  We had beautiful gift bags with items donated by a number of local businesses. Thank you to Sage Traditions , Routine Cream , Rumina Naturals, Citrinity , Young Living/ Sandra Catania , Horse and Heart Connection , Naturally Unique and Dr Rob's chocolates! And of course, yummy food and drink and a photo booth.  Mizael from Real Organic Creations with samples of his raw cashew cheese.  Thank you for a wonderful ev...

Thank you to Margaret Kennedy, Acupuncturist at Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for this advice on Self Care. Hello Everyone, Spring is coming, the time of year to start nurturing oneself for the coming year. What Self-Care do you make for yourself? You are in charge of your life, so choose to be kind to yourself, make the time for YOU. Value yourself – your time, set limits and priorities, make the time for what is important for YOU. Where are you going with your life? Look at all aspects of your Life: Health, Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual, Relationships. Leisure time - fun, adventure, how do you like to spend  your  leisure time? Career/work related issues. Do you like what you do? List your likes, dislikes, ambivalent – then examine them, and eliminate those that are not necessary. Take one hour per day, quiet time for you and be by yourself – Go for a walk   Meditate Relax Have a bath with candles and music around you Fin...

Did you know that our office Elan Family Wellness Centre offers on site educational lunch and learn opportunities?  Here we are presenting to carya Bowmont Families Together and Bowwest  Community Resource Centre-two community groups that provide invaluable resources to many local residents. We hope to share information that our participants can take back to their workplace to support improved health and wellness for their partners and employees. A healthy and happy workplace means healthy and happy people! For this lunch and learn, we were happy to be able to work with Redefin'd Calgary , a youth empowerment centre that just happens to prepare amazing lunches in the Bowness Community Association.  Thank you to Carya and Bowwest for hosting us for this Lunch and Learn. To book a lunch and learn or health and wellness talk for your office or business, give us a call at 403 217 5577, or email us at elanctr@telus.net. 

Thank you to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist at Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for this article for March.  As I write this I am watching the last of the February snows in BC. Just in time for the March snows in BC. With luck... Alberta will be spared and we will have t-shirt and shorts weather all month long. In the sun. The warm, warm sun. The sun gets a bad wrap. Its been linked to a lot of bad things, but it is essential for human life. We must have it, but during the dregs of winter... we forget or simply skip it. With the cold and snow we have had... its hard to get out and be in the sun. Do yourself a favour, and you can even write me your experience, try and get 10-20 minutes of sun exposure to your face and eyes. (No sunglasses for this period) If you can... get 10-20 minutes on your skin if it's not super cold. See if that changes your mood, sleep and general sense of well being. After a February like we have had... anything outsid...

Thank you to Dr Robert Clarke, Network Spinal Chiropractor at Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for these words about Nourish-our theme for the month!  Nourishment comes in many forms. Of course what we eat and drink play a big role, but it's also the air we breathe, the people we socialize with, our thoughts and the information that fuels our brains altogether that nourish us. Food – there is so much information on how we should eat, recently the Canada food guide came out with its latest recommendations. It is by no means ideal, yet it does highlight a few things that are good to pay attention to. Fruits and Vegetables should be a primary cornerstone of our meals. Drink more water, it should be our drink of choice. There is nothing wrong with having a cup of tea or coffee, but make sure it doesn’t replace your water consumption. Another recommendation I endorse is, turn off your screens and eat with friends or family. Not only does this create...

Thanks to Scott Hutchison, Registered Massage Therapist at Elan in  Bowness/ NW Calgary, for these words to celebrate what our amazing practice members and community have contributed towards!  Wow... just... wow.  Last year, with your help, Elan Family Wellness raise and purchased over $900  in cash that we turned into food for the little free pantry here in Bowness.  Plus we lugged (and I do mean lugged) well over 200lbs of food from our location over to the pantry. That is massive.  If you averaged that to say... $9 a meal plus the food donated, we easily fed over 120 meals between Dec and Feb.  Thank you.  That is outstanding work and I am so proud to have you a members of our practice here at Elan.  We would like to celebrate you!!! This December, we are going to do it again.  This time, we will are going to smash last years numbers.  So please... when you can... chip in.  You can win stuff by helping! Thank ...

Its one of our favourite times of the year!! We have 12 days of Celebration planned for you-yummy treats in the office, a craft to make, and prizes to win.  We will also be collecting food for the Bownesian Free Little Pantry now through the end of December. Donations earn you an entry into our Grand Prize-a Christmas basket from Bownesian Grocer . To wrap up the 12 Days, we will finish with a holiday wrap up party at the end of our Thursday work day. Come for appies, refreshments and holiday cheer! Looking forward to seeing you this December at Elan! You can schedule or drop in to see us at #48, 7930 Bowness Rd NW, Calgary. 

Thank you to Marguerette, Registered Acupuncturist with Elan Family Wellness Centre in Bowness, NW Calgary, for this information on how Autumn effects our body.  AUTUMN: ELEMENT – METAL, Emotion – Grief. Autumn is the end of the growing season(summer), now is the time to clean out Old Negativity. As Nature lets go and everything goes bare, so with our life cycle, it’s time to eliminate, turns inward, rest, release what we no longer need and look at what is important in our lives.   Failure to let go, hanging onto the past and things that no longer serve us, how we can be open to a healthy future with a new vision of who we are. Grief, the emotion of the Metal element, is healthy and cleanses us of our losses. Inappropriate grieving or not grieving(holding on) results in a blocked metal energy and imbalances. Organs: COLON – Letting Go Eliminates all waste from the physical body, the mind and spiritual garbage. It releases toxicity, constipation, allowing us to see the...

Thanks to Scott, Registered Massage Therapist and Allergy Practitioner at our office Elan Family Wellness Centre, located in NW Calgary in Bowness! Here's some words to inspire you to your greatness in 2018!  It's 2018 when you are reading this, but at the time of writing I will be in the past. Think of this little article as a time capsule to you from about a week ago. I'm going to fill it with useful knowledge, a few tidbits of awesomeness from 2017 to take into the new year and make life extraordinary. The first is changing the word "goal" to "result." Having a goal can be just a bit nebulas in our modern vernacular. Having a result you want is just enough of a change in language to stimulate a jump in novelty. Also, that hard T sound pulls in a sense of finality. Now say “I get results!“ out loud. Sounds good, right? Next, forget about results. Focus your energy on the emotional WHY or purpose of your result. What do I mean? Say in 2018 you w...

A new calendar and planner, a huge full moon, and weather that finally let's us get outdoors-yay!-without freezing our noses and toes off, welcome to this Fresh New Year! I always like to start January off new and clean-whether that means cleaning out my inbox at home or work, new goals and projects,or just feeling rested and renewed after the holiday. However, I find this year I'm slowly dipping my toes into realizing its a new year. Perhaps some resistance to the transition? Partly, as its January 1 st and I just came back from the Bownesian to fill the Little Free Pantry (FreePantryYYC) after it was once again empty, I'm realizing that we're still completing some of our December and 2017 goals. Thank you for so much support and we have definitely surpassed our goal to add 250 items to the panty (considering we had just under $1000 donated PLUS many, many food items-wow!!) It's amazing that we can help to contribute in such a large way to our community, e...