So now what?

"Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see life with a clearer view again."  Alex Tan

I have to share with you, that I have a very keen interest in where are heading for the new year. What is your focus? What is your theme? What are you working on? What are your interests? So often the entrainment is such a powerful process, that we don't necessarily take the time to discuss what some of your other needs or concerns are. We often stick to health or your inner well-being and the transformation of that, but I am also gaining curiosity into your other goals, dreams, and ambitions to see how Veressent Life can hold a space to have you achieve what you are looking for.

Instead of your ego picking the goals or dreams, let me ask you a different question. What have your rhythms been telling you? What has the energy around you been telling you that you need to refine or transform? Any areas of life that keep showing up that beckon your attention? What have you been meeting against, that needs further inquiry or strategies to make change? So often we pick things or goals that we think we want, yet life is leading us, right under our noses, to pay attention to something else.

So let's bypass the "lose 10-20 lbs, or start a regular fitness program or start eating better" resolution, and look deeper. We are Veressent Lifer's and we look deeper into our core nature and what life is trying to tell us. Look deeper into what is life presenting to you right now, that you need to dive in to.
What is it? What has your soul been calling you to wake up to? What clues is life leaving you that you must face now, with courage? Stop kidding yourself with the superficial goals that you think will make you happy, and extend yourself into what you KNOW needs to be looked after.

Please email me back over the next couple of days and share with me, what your life is showing you, that you need to be paying attention to. I can hardly wait!!

Thank you for an amazing year, so much gratitude and love to you all,

In deep well-being,


Dr. Steve

Gratitude "R" Us

Gratitude. How do we get it, experience it, and feel it?

It's one of those things that you remember that you forgot to do. It sometimes feels like one of those reflective traits that is so elusive in the moment, but then somehow you get reminded hours, days or months later. You may have been on a trip, in a park, at work or resting under a tree, and just forgot to truly smell the roses and be grateful for the moment. It's the mind that wanders away from the present and into the past or future. And once you are in the past or future, there is no gratitude to access for what you are experiencing in the moment because you are busy daydreaming about other things.

How do we be more grateful in the moment then? How can we improve upon the gratitude for the day, the people we interact with, or the events that are going on? Moment by moment? I have still not found a faster or more readily available way to access gratitude and presence in my day other than asking the question, "if this is the last time I am with this person, who would I be and how would I act?" or "if this is my last time experiencing this (ie. shower, car ride, walk etc.) let me fully experience it for all it has to offer." It is questions or statements like this that allow me to access a refined level of presence and therefore gratitude for what I am experiencing whether it be will people or just the "ongoings" of the day.  I remember one of my mentors saying that the quality of your life is dependent on the quality of questions you ask yourself. We become mindless, presentless, gratitudeless (made up words), when not focused on the moment, so we require a tool or a question that pulls us out from where are minds are wandering, and yank us quickly into the present moment. These questions or statements are tools to help us do just that.

if this is the last time...

So grateful to have my fingers tapping on the keyboard at this moment,

Dr. Steve

3 things I suck at

Who wants to play?

Since this month is about clarity, let me "clear the air" as to what I suck at and why this is a benefit to you
Ego aside, here are the three things I suck at:

I SUCK AT DIAGNOSING. I can give you an impression but I am pretty sure I cheated on my diagnostic tests or copied off of my roommate. Naming conditions couldn't be more of a yawner for me. The question of "what's wrong with me," puts a flash in my head of "here we go Stevie! Time to rock someones world!"  I would much prefer to have you self inquire and use that little resource called a brain, so you can actually discover and connect with what you are disconnected from. I will be the questions guy and hold the space for you to discover how you are judging and disconnecting from yourself, so you can actually FEEL MORE EMPOWERED TO TAKE YOUR HEALTH IN YOUR OWN HANDS as opposed to me naming something for you. If you want a label to identify with, my sincere apologies. My most common diagnosis and treatment plan;
"You are a crazy "nut bar", now let's create transformation!"  (At least that is the diagnosis I circled on my board exams)

I SUCK AT FIXING THINGS. Ask my wife, I don't do it well around the house, nor do I do it well in my office. Fixing things to me, which I had done for a few years after graduating, is for inanimate objects. Cars, walls, toys, shovels, etc. You are a human being with many fields of influence affecting your well-being and life. You are a constant changing and adapting species. Honouring this principle and knowing this, leaves me no other option to challenge the idea that a human being can be fixed. And if you feel as though you were fixed by someone, it really is only a temporary state of feeling certain, when you were feeling uncertain(temporarily pacified). And since there is so much healing beyond this, you will not see me jump for joy when someone says, "you fixed me doc!". Those words to me, mean, we got a lot of work still ahead!  You are not a car, and plus there is life beyond a fix it mentality. So much more! Ask a caterpillar to fix himself back to a caterpillar while he is transforming into a butterfly...Goofy thought isn't it. Take what you think you want fixed, AND USE THAT FRUSTRATION AND ANGER TO TRANSFORM YOUR HEALTH AND LIFE AND TO SET NEW STANDARDS FOR YOURSELF

I SUCK AT KEEPING PEOPLE THE SAME. My path in life has been to expand my awareness for continued growth and transformation. This, I pass on to you. One of the 6 needs of a human being is for growth and this is where my service comes in best. If you ready to MOVE BEYOND WHERE YOU ARE, then I'm your guy. If you want me to just be agreeable, go with what your story is, pacify you with an "I understand, let me help get rid of your problem so you can go back to life as usual", then you will be disappointed. People hire me consciously, or unconsciously, for CHANGE ON ALL PLANES OF EXISTENCE. I know that people don't enter into my life so they can be comfy and stay the same. Not my gig. But my gig is to NUDGE YOU TOWARD A MORE VITAL, HEALTHY, CLARITY AND A FULFILLED LIFE.

In summary

 What I suck at                                     
1) diagnosing                                          
2) fixing things                                         
3) keeping people the same                                                                         

What I am good at:
1) assessing/asking key questions/reframing perspectives
2) creating strategies in your body/brain for a better life
3) facilitating transformation

Hope this blog adds clarity to what I do, what I don't do well, and how I may be of service.

Anyone want to play?

With love,

Dr. Steve
P.S. I gladly accept the prize of worst marketing blog of all time.
P.S.S Pass this along please to those who ask you "what does he do there?"

Big or small vision?

Creating a large, flexible vision...not a small, rigid one.

The mind loves rules. That's its job. To set the boundaries for your life. And oh, how limited it can be.
Let me explain.
Since I am a practising chiropractor I see many types of people, with all sorts of 'conditions'. But having a conversation yesterday sparked my desire to share the idea of tapping into a new potential for yourself.
I was called to ask this woman why she was coming in for her visits. She hadn't been under care for long, maybe around 12 visits or so, but I wanted to see what she was valuing, what her intentions were, and what her motive for laying on my table was. Through her eyes, I was curious as to what was she hiring me to do? So she said that she would like to have her low back pain go away, and then keep it away, but there was definitely a lack of clarity as to what she was really doing there.

I was intrigued that she was going to limit herself to what she could accomplish for herself, so I asked a few questions as to what she had noticed to this point. She said she had noticed that her breathing was improving and that she was connecting to areas that were painful.

So I then asked if she was breathing more fully on a regular basis does she think she would manage stress better? She of course said yes. I said, if you are more connected to your body, learning how to move and breath with it, could you manage stress more effectively, and release more tension? Yes. If you could breath better, release more tension, you will be more flexible. If you were more flexible could you perform better at sports and heal faster and recover from injuries better? She said yes. I said, if you were to continue to master just those two, do you think you would manage work stress better? Yes. If you could breathe more fully and stay connected to you, do you think you could manage your stresses when your kids are crazy and their is chaos in the house? Yes. And so on.

So here is the craziness of healing. If she was to come in to my office right off the bat, and say, "I want to be a better mom, I want to maximize my athletic performance, I want to be a master at managing my stress, and I want to feel great and be excited about life."With this intention, she would start to have things align for that to happen. Her focus would be different, what she watched for would be different, her energy would move differently, and her experience of care in my office would be different. Even if we did exactly the same thing...how she received care would be different. If she set a bar low, she will eventually hit that bar. If she set the bar high, she will eventually hit that as well. Either way, she will eventually hit the bar. One approach will have her stay the same, minus her pain (which we call Restorative Therapeutics), and the other way is that she uses low back pain as a way to transform herself, her health and her life (Reorganizational Healing). The choice is ultimately hers. But first is to recognize that pain is not there to inconvenience her life. It is there to wake her up so she can make a change!
Now the timing will be unique for each individual, based on their history, their life, their utilization of their energy and mind, and their stage of healing they are in. But my job, in part, is to hold you to a bigger picture and larger vision for what is possible for you; to help you see what you currently cannot.
And then take action steps to begin the process of movement toward an upgraded version of you.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Where have standards for you been way too low?
Where have you minimized your efforts just to squeek by?
Where are you settling?
Where are you continuing to make excuses?
What would life look like in 3 years if I stayed this course and kept playing small?
How much pain would I feel by not stepping up to another level?

These are some questions in Stage 4 of the healing process...associating our past pain with inaction.
If you want to learn more about healing...I invite you to our next workshop called:
The Power to Heal.
Check our website for details
www.veressentlife.com

Happy Healing!
Dr. Steve

Don't pick your scabs!

A simple scab on my daughters face allowed me to reflect on what true healing is all about.

We've all done it. Ripped that frickin' scab off early because we just want it gone. And what happens every time we take a scab off before the time is right...more pain, more sensitivity, often more bloodshed and longer healing time.
Then we have to wait for the body to re-scab because of our impatience and judgements that we don't want it to be there. Maybe its ugly, maybe its itchy, maybe its annoying. But we just want it gone.

But under this scab, tremendous healing is taking place. Cellular repair, cleanup, immune responses, and new cell formation is taking place every second. It seems like the scab is so static, but yet, underneath, is an entire world of healing. And the key; when the healing is done, the scab falls off. As humans we might call this, "letting go." You can't force the healing, it just happens. You can't force the change, it just happens. You can't force the letting go, it just happens. If you force the scab off early, more pain and longer healing. The same goes for everything else.

There is a magnificent timing to all that is going on in our life.

Where are the scabs in your life that you are trying to rip off, or get rid of? Where are you trying to force things to happen instead of letting it flow? (Been there, done that..a million times : ))Where, in fact, do you require more patience, time and healing? Think of the new cells, immune system and clean up crew with the scab, as new people, circumstances, or places that you need to come across and experience in order for the scab of life to change or fall away. There is a timing and rhythm to life and healing, and the people you meet and the places you go each day can all be part of the process of healing the scabs of life. You won't be able to see the healing happening all the time. Sometimes, it's just below your awareness. But know, that under your scabs of life, lies an organizing field of intelligence that is working for you, not against you. Patience, time and healing. Pay close attention to who you meet, names that are mentioned, people you talk to. They may just be an integral part of your healing process.

As I have paid attention, people on average hear about me well over a year before they ever come to seek out my services. Then, when they do, they say, "wow this was easy, I wish I would have listened and come when I first heard about you." And I reply, "the timing was perfect. You weren't supposed to be here earlier."(usually they had to pull off their scabs a few more times before taking action)

Ultimately, the key to healing is to be with your experiences and place yourself in an environment that supports your healing. When you do that, you give yourself the best opportunity for most natural healing. Make the time. Maybe its with family or certain friends, here at Veressent Life, in a yoga studio, sitting with a great cup of tea...Find your place and space to explore healing, patience, rhythms and your transformation! Your entire being will be happy you chose to nurture yourself and your healing.

If your tired  of picking your scab over and over, and want some assistance in your healing, give me a call and we will see if we are good fit. 1-807-628-0718

Exceptionally yours,

Dr. Steve

Finally! I Heard the Magic Words!

I have to say I had a huge smile on my face Wednesday. A practice member of mine, who has been under care for six months and most recently threw out her antidepressant medication and has been transforming her life, made a statement that got me glowing inside. (if what was happening with her wasn't exciting enough!)

She began with the statement I so often hear, "I have a friend who is suffering with fibromyalgia, can you..." Now the typical knee jerk question would be if I could help her friend with her condition.

But then something magical took place. Before she said the word "help", she stopped herself, and said, "well, I guess it doesn't matter what she is experiencing, you can help her."

Instantly, I was elated! Not because she said I could help, but that she had the instant awareness that her friend was not separate from her condition; and because this practice member was experiencing more wholeness for herself, she had the awareness of wholeness!!
She knew the fibromyalgia changing was dependent on her friend choosing to heal on the inside, not healing the condition. And if her friend on some level can heal, than than the fibromyalgia would take care of itself.
And she put together that what we do here in reorganizational healing is not treat conditions, but help the person to heal on the inside.  SHE GETS IT and it was exciting to hear!!

Healing is healing. It doesn't matter what conditions or crisis or circumstance someone is in, anxiety, depression, pain, sciatica, headaches, fibromyalgia, etc. It is the person that requires further healing, not the condition.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, society does not support this thinking. We have a system in medicine that is similar to that of an automobile factory. You come in. Get your part diagnosed. Go see the specialist for that part. Wait a hell of a long time to see the "specialist", get your part fixed and on with life.

There is little recognition for healing the person, and having the whole person addressed. People still feel they need to be labelled, and aren't recognizing that THEY need healing, NOT the part. But I guess that is reserved for us to share!  :)))

So here is a healing tip;

If you have a part of you that seems like it is doing its own thing, off in "la-la land" or just not cooperating, invite it to come back in to the rest of you. Don't condemn it, judge it, ridicule it, or tell it to go away like everyone else does. Invite that part to play with the whole.
Some good questions are;
How can I better accept the part for what it is doing?
How can I breathe with the part, move with the part, so as to invite it to join the rest of me?
How can I dance with that which is uncomfortable or painful?
How can I stay with the pain or circumstance and just be with it without the need to change it?
How can I just let a part of me have a temper tantrum without judging it or getting obsessed about it?

It's not the part that needs to change, but your relationship with yourself, and your healing that requires change.

If you are a long-time member continuing to have difficulties healing, please talk with me, so we can gain greater perspective on what is going on.
Or if you know anyone who needs to hear this message, please forward it on to them, hopefully broadening their perspective on what healing is.Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

P.S. Healing is always an inside job, only to be fascilitated by someone else. No one can heal you, but you.

The Flu: Victim or Opportunity

I had written a blog in the summer about building our resources and not waiting to be in reactive mode come winter. As a summary of that blog, summer and fall are times to work hard at our health, be extremely active, eat "as always" nourishing foods, get plenty of rest when needed, and basically build our "bank account" full of health.  To create healthy internal states and tissues. Then, when winter hits, as less sunny days are there, as the cold sets in, as we begin to get into a more sluggish and contemplative mode, we can draw upon what we built from the summer and fall months....

So if you "got" the flu, or shall we say, if your body showed signs of not being so powerful, it is an opportunity to discover how you were being, thinking, behaving, managing stresses, eating, time managing, etc. during the summer and fall months.

So you still think that germs and viruses "get you?" You know, " I got the flu"

French scientist and "father" of the germ theory said, "the microbe in nothing..the terrain is everything." You are the terrain, meaning that it is your internal state that either supports or defends these critters. This coming from a guy who said germs cause disease.  This outdated model of health still dominates our medical systems school of thought, and this dogma continues to be supported culturally which we have all been indoctrinated to believe. (Dr. Steve rant). Anyways,   he went on also to say, "If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat - unhealthy tissue - rather than being the CAUSE of unhealthy tissue." This is huge! This means that by treating our body like a temple and creating the most optimal and internal state possible, we live symbiotically with bacteria and viruses, which we have done for billions of years, without them overwhelming and dominating our terrain.  This is empowered health.

In my practice, with the people under regular Network Chiropractic Care, 85-90% of them lived symbiotically and harmoniously with the flu. (Notice how I am wording this : )). 15% of those that did allow the flu virus to dominate, recovered within 24 hours. Those 2-3% that took longer, have been under major stresses within the last 4-6 months, mostly involved directly with immediate family member concerns and worries. Less healthy tissue, longer recovery...it is that simple.

So if you did express the flu, use it as a learning experience, a time to discover how you used or abused your energy being over the last 6 months, and what you will discover will surely awaken you to the next exceptional version of you!

5 tips to change things for right now and next season:

1. Discover your internal stresses over the last 6 months
2. Discover your toxic behaviours, thoughts and state of being over the last 6 months
3.  Discover what aspects of life you have disempowered yourself
4. Transform one area of life that has seemed challenged or weighing you down
5.  Focus your energy on the transformation of this one area to fuel your energy and inspired   bodymind

Happy trailblazing!

Dr. Steve