Inside The Polished Apple

Thank you to Margaret Kennedy, Registered Acupuncturist and Reflexologist with Elan Family Wellness Centre, for these words about Mother Earth.  Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail. – Lao Tzu   Growth               Vision               Purpose               Anger/Benevolence The season of the Wood element is spring, when our Mother the Earth wakes from winter’s slumber and is reborn. Thus, Wood is the season of rebirth and new growth. The energy rises up and out of the ground with strong, creative force, exemplified in th...

Thank you to Margarette Kennedy for this information on Reflexology. She is a Registered Acupuncturist and is also offering Reflexology at Elan Family Wellness Centre.  Reflexology is an ancient art used in Asia for over 5000 years. Reflexology is a natural and drug-free way of stimulating the internal organs and increasing circulation to all organs. It works to relax the entire body and restore its functions to normal. In the feet are mirrored all of the organs of the body. Reflexology performs the following functions:- Removes waste deposits from the feet, allowing the energy to be grounded. Removes congestion and blockages from the energy pathways, allowing unobstructed flow of energy through the organism Balances polarity Improves blood circulation Normalizes organ and gland function, activating or inhibiting their performances, so improving the cooperation and coordination of organs. Relaxes the whole system, including the mind. Stress, tension and st...

Beautiful pregnant bellies and a mix of birth support professionals-so perfect for a Friday night! We were excited to host a Birthing in Bowness night at our office to support our community of birthing moms in our little town in the city.  Look how lovely the evening turned out! It was largely in part due to support from local businesses and individuals. We had both gift bag and door prize donations, with contributions from local businesses Rumina Naturals , Routine natural deodorant , Peaceful Slumber Paediatric Sleep Solutions (Ali) , Ryder and Reece, Ellie Ears , Tuscany Hot Mama Fitness , and Young Living Essential Oils (Sandra Catania) , local doulas Emilie Sanmartin , Kate Hunter and Amanda Ernewein, and Elan 's own practitioners Lisa Chepil (Registered Massage Therapist), Sandra Catania (Holistic Reflexologist), Margaret Kennedy (Registered Acupuncturist) and myself for Prenatal and Paediatric Chiropractic care. (Links included for those with websit...

BIRTHING IN BOWNESS Our community of Bowness has such amazing families and local supports for the pregnant mom and growing family. We would like to bring many of you together - let's make this a chance for moms to meet other moms who are pregnant (or want to be), for us to meet our local birth support workers (whether doulas, sleep consultants, health professionals, etc.) and have a fun and social evening while doing so. We will coordinate a mini “meet-your-neighbour” event, have three short (5-10 minute) presentations on helping your birthing process, and save time to eat and mingle. For more info, click  here .  Our presentations will be from Sandra Catania, Holistic Reflexologist, Amanda Ernewein, Doula and Midwifery Student, and Ali from Peaceful Slumber Paediatric Sleep Solutions.  Friday , April 20 at  7:00pm

Elan's March Theme is Nourish and Nature. Here's a yummy recipe from our Holistic Reflexologist Sandra Catania-enjoy!   I thought I'd share a recipe this month... in the name of "really quick" nourishment when you are on the go, or before attempting to make dinner on an empty tank. All measurements are approximate. Mix together: 3/4 cup coconut oil 3/4 cup nut butter 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1 1/2 cups oatmeal 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds 1/2 cup hemp hearts 1/2 cup shredded coconut Form into balls (between a walnut and a golf ball size) and keep in the freezer for a wonderfully nourishing snack or dessert. Feel free to substitute any other nuts/seeds/dry fruit you have on hand. Makes about 2 dozen. ~ Sandra

Throughout the month of March we will be focusing the spotlight on a few of our amazing practitioners. They'll be set up in the waiting room to answer your questions, and we'd love for you to come in and find out more about what they do! Take advantage of this opportunity to bring your health questions and learn more about our practitioners.  Our Massage Therapist & Craniosacral Therapis t Lisa   will be here on Wednesday, March 8th 3:30-5:30pm Our Reflexologist,  Sandra , will be here on Wednesday March 15 from 3pm to 6pm Our Homeopath,  Ally , will be here on Wednesday March 22 from 2pm to 5pm Our Herbalist,  Melanie , will be here on Thursday March 30 from 9am to 2pm  

Elan's Theme for October is Perception. I'm happy to share this article from our Holistic Reflexologist Sandra on how to practice gratitude.  When I heard the theme this month was gratitude I was really glad, because it has been on my mind a lot lately. It all started a few weeks ago when someone challenged me to a gratitude challenge on social media. I was to post three things a day that I felt grateful about. So this got my mind focusing on looking for my daily things. I realized that the more things I thought about, the more things came to mind. Putting the practice of gratitude into every day equaled an increase in the amount of things I was feeling grateful about. But of course! When you align your thoughts with the positive, the Universe has no choice but to answer with more! Over the past month as my “attitude of gratitude” has been growing, so has my list. Whether the list comes out on paper in a journal, spoken out loud to a loved one or shared as a post on the inter...

As part of Elan Family Wellness Centre's July theme of Community, here are Sandra Catania's thoughts.  (Sandra offers Holistic Reflexology sessions at Elan) I am writing this piece on my laptop, perched out on my front step. One of the things that I think of when I think of community is our immediate neighbourhood. The folks all around us. But when I think about it, we only know our immediate neighbours by name and only see some of the others occasionally on our bike trips around the block and on Halloween when we make the rounds. In this day of communicating by computers, I believe our online communities to be much more active. We spend so much of our lives connected to our screens, exchanging information and support. And while I do miss some of the real life contact (and do still see the need for it), I have seen and experienced first hand how our great need to find a community or “tribe” to belong to can be fulfilled quickly and with ease electronically. The w...

As part of our Switching Gears month, here is a post from our Holistic Reflexologist Sandra Catania: I was excited for this month's topic and was planning my portion when disaster struck. So very quickly, "switching gears" became not about having some time off to have a holiday or a trip but to actually go from a normal existence to one hanging by a thread. I actually left Calgary on Monday last week and have been staying in Fairmont, BC with my two children for the past seven nights. The original plan was to stay three nights and return on Thursday but as the weather and road reports worsened, we decided to stay put. Friday was quite surreal here in the Valley (Radium, Invermere, Windermere and Fairmont), when talks of the gas stations being low on fuel began to circulate. I left the kids with my friend who had joined us with her two children, and set off to "get supplies". I wasn't sure just how long we would need to prepare for and to be truthf...

As part of Elan Family Wellness Centre's Brain Month, we're happy to have this guest blog post from our Reflexologist Sandra Catania. This fun read was previously published in our May Newsletter. When I first heard the topic for this month, I had to laugh. After spending the past five years either pregnant and/or caring for babies (read: not getting much sleep), I definitely subscribe to the idea that "pregnancy brain" can last a very long time. This condition is described with words like "brain fog", "absentmindedness", "forgetful", "short term memory loss". New moms and moms-to-be may even experience spelling and grammatical errors. After consulting with my friend google, it would appear that there are just as many articles disproving the fact that "Momnesia" exists as there are proving it. And what does it matter? I say if you are experiencing any of these symptoms, pregnant or not, it probably means that you...

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Guy Kawasaki, David Wolfe, Theoren Fleury and more! What a treat to have them in one place in one day; an even bigger treat to be a part of that day. The SEED event brought together many inspirational speakers- from the subjects of nutrition to personal development to spiritual enlightenment. The day included a marketplace that supported personal and community growth and included us-our very own Elan Family Wellness Centre! We were honored to be part of this day and help to educate participants on Reorganizational Healing and how our forms of care can help our health and wellness. Dr Adrienne at the Elan Family Wellness booth at the SEED Marketplace Sandra and Scott hard at work-Reflexology & Muscle Testing As part of the day, I did manage to hear some of the speakers-I was able to hear both Guy Kawasaki and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar speak. Following are some of the seeds of change that found themselves in my brain... Guy Kawasaki spoke on the ...

It's Mother Earth Month at Elan Family Wellness Centre.  Here's a guest post from our Reflexologist Sandra to help you through pregnancy!   Top 10 pregnancy tips 1. Get comfy clothes (think pants with the big band on top, yes those). Invest in some supportive bras in larger sizes, some sports bras work well too. 2. Get a support team together (doula, post partum doula if you need extra help other than family & friends). 3. Get educated on what kind of birth you would like (water birth, birthing centre, midwives). Read both Ina May books. 4. Think about nutrition and source some places for healthy foods. Plan some easy meal prep and high protein snacks and have them on hand, you WILL get hungry fast! 5. Use your benefits, check out acupuncture, chiro, massage etc. and treat your growing body to some relaxation and re-aligning. 6. Move! Walking, swimming, prenatal yoga... It'll do you and baby good. 7. Be gentle with yourself. This us a time...

It's Appreciation Month at Elan Family Wellness.  I'm happy to have Sandra Catania with us today as a guest blogger.  Sandra works with us at Elan Family Wellness Centre as a Reflexologist and a Flower Essence Student in Training.  She is also Owner of Goddess Mommies and mom to two littles.   This was previously published in our March newsletter . It is said that the more you appreciate things, the more good things come into your life to appreciate. I believe in this wholeheartedly, and in the whole concept of Gratitude. It took me quite a long time, and quite a few years of struggling, before I finally came to embrace this way of thinking.  As a moody teenager, my mother used to have me write lists of "things to be happy about" in order to cultivate my attitude of gratitude. Something must have sunk in somewhere along the way as now I would definitely describe myself as a glass half full type of person. Thinking positively and feeling appreciation for al...