Cultivating Serendipity

Cultivating Serendipity

As of lately I have been having more and more serendipitous occurrences. Thinking of someone and seeing them in person, humming a song then hearing it on the radio, expressing a thought and having someone say “that is exactly what I was thinking of .”What exactly is this and can it be cultivated as a common experience?.

Carl Jung a famous psychiatrist, coined the word, synchronicity, to describe what he called “temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events.” Jung variously described synchronicity as an “acausal connecting principle”, “meaningful coincidence” and “acausal parallelism.” Well, this was just a fancy way of saying that the experience of serendipity or synchronicity is the appearance of two unrelated events connecting in a meaningful way.

Have you ever had someones name pop into your thoughts and minutes later have them call you on the phone? Or call someone and have
them say they were just thinking about you. One of the strangest experience of Serendipity I have ever experienced was walking on a beach in the Caribbean thinking about the concept of “Bringing more Joy into my Life” and moments later finding an unopened bottle of liquid joy dish detergent sitting there in the water!!.

Following that I realized two important things. Number one God has a sense of humor and number 2 joy is on the inside and not inside of some bottle!!

These experiences of what we call Serendipity or Synchronicity often give us a glimpse of the meaningfulness of our lives and the interconnectedness of how we are related to our universe and everyone else. Serendipity is defined as a “happy accident or pleasant surprise “. “Finding something good or useful without necessarily looking for it “. I am not so sure this is accidental as it is so often described in a dictionary.

The question I have been pondering lately is whether or not we can cultivate these experiences and how to do it.
When I am in the flow of life these occurrences seem to occur closer together and more frequently so I have come to the conclusion that there are ways we can enhance the possibility of this happening by doing various activities. I also have come to believe that when you start to have these experiences it is an indication that you are on the right path in your life and should follow the so-called leads to explore where they are leading because they might very well be signposts to a direction that could be taken to enhance your life.

So what are my recommendations to Cultivate Serendipity in your Life:

1)Get excited about something that inspires you . This naturally raises your energy or chi level which often draws these experiences to you . When we are passionate about our mission here and excited about getting out of bed in the morning our energy level naturally goesup and serendipity can flow in. If you are not excited about what you are doing then take a moment and use your imagination to think of what
it could be and cultivate it.

2)Exercise/Move/:Movement gets our vital energy in motion. Much like a river flowing this movement of energy is jump started with motion. Movement is not only good for the body but for the spirit as well. If you are out of shape start easy and build up. Move around the house, go walking, walk in place. Any movement
gets energy going.

3)Breath:Breathing is life and is something we do about 16 times/minute but often the breathing is shallow, labored and tight. Take a few moments every minute to take a few deep breaths and follow your breathing with your mind to calm the mind. Remember breathing is life and the more the breath is deepened and developed the more life there is.

4)Get the creative energy going with activities that express who you are. Writing , drawing, making things, crafts etc. help to get the juices flowing in the body because the natural creative energy inside wants to express itself. The more expression there is the better the chi can flow and thus attract to you more creative energy. Much like a river flowing it stays healthier when there is flow rather than stagnation.

5)Admire Beauty.There is beauty all around us particularly in the natural environment of Maine. The Chi of nature is a powerful remedy to enliven and cultivate the connectedness of all things. You can learn to tap into it by breathing in the beauty that surrounds you and filling yourself up with it. This can function as a food for the soul and often when we feed the soul we are not as hungry with our appetite to continue consuming large amounts of food because we are taking in the food of life. There are specific methods for feeding on beauty and I will be discussing them in future blogs. For now if you see something you admire
take a few moments and ” breath it in.”

6)Give thanx:I find this can one of the most powerful energy and serendipity cultivators that there is. When we/I give thanx for all of the experiences and things that I have imore flows in. The flip side is feeling like there is just never enough and feeling resentment for that which only serves to attract more of the same.

Serendipity can sometimes be like a train to jump on . A seemingly strange coincidence can be an opportunity that can be life changing or possibly offering a contact that will be important to your unfoldment.

Years ago when I was starting out in practice looking for my first office I remember sitting at my kitchen table pondering what I wanted out of practice. I thought of being in a busy location, near a mall, lots of traffic going by etc. Finally what I decided upon was that what I really was looking for was a place with “a view”. What I wanted in my heart was to look out the window while I was working and see something beautiful. Moments later after having this thought the phone rang . There was a real estate agent on the other end and she said “I found an office with a view”. I immediately said I would take it because I knew that this was not just a random event but was meant to be. And of course it turned out to be a beautiful location.

An Exceptional Day

An Exceptional Day:
Started off today with the concept of having an “Exceptional day” and what a day it was. Began with a fresh vegetable juice and visalus protein drink and then over to do acupuncture on Molly the Dog. Molly was totally paralyzed in her rear legs 1 month ago and was about to meet her maker and is now walking. God bless molly.After that off for a run in the cold for about 2 miles which I did easily aside from my ears turning blue. After that a meeting to help my friends achieve a higher level of health, another meeting with a fellow who is approaching the 30 lb. wt.loss level and another trip to the ymca where I ran another 2 miles. Now it is time to write my blog on the Thinning of america and give thanx for another Exceptional day. “Live like it is your last and you will become truly alive.”->dr.mike

Setting Goals and Creating Magic

About 25 years ago I was on vacation, riding a motorcycle up in the bar harbor region. I had a practice out in the foot hills of Western Mass and for some reason I was being drawn back to the ocean. After spending the day on my bike I came upon a beautiful scene that struck me in a deep way.

I was by a cove and there in the middle of the water was a sailboat at anchor sitting peacefully at rest. As I gazed upon this scene something deep inside told me that I could be part of that scene and I wanted it to be me on the water sitting in that boat, relaxing and enjoying the maine coast.

I took a picture and went back home to my practice. In my office I placed that picture on my desk and every day I imagined that it was me in that picture sitting on the boat enjoying the peace and quiet.

Fast forward years later I was anchored off of castine at Holbrook Island on my boat and I took a picture of the scene as I was rowing away . Later as I looked at the picture it occurred to me that it was almost the exact scene and picture of the one I had taken years ago when I was in my longing state of mind.

I have often used what I would call magic pictures to help me move towards a goal, state of mind or direction. The old saying of a picture being worth a thousand words is certainly true and there is a magic that can also take place if you put yourself in the picture and gaze at it often.

To do this find a picture of a worthy goal that you would like to achieve and put it up somewhere where you can look at everyday. It helps if you cut or paste a picture of yourself in it. When you look at it imagine that you are there and try to experience what that would feel like. Accept that it is happening right now and be grateful for that experience. What we can accept, believe and work towards can become our reality if we are open to the magic of the universe. It takes Faith, Confidence and belief mixed together with a direction. Because if you do not know where you are going any road will take you there.

p.s. the picture on top is the picture I took!!
mike housman d.c. dipl.ac.

Molly update 12/13/11

Today myself and my faithful assistant Ivy visited molly again . Just to back up a little bit molly is a australian shepard mix that somehow hurt herself about a month previous and lost the use of her rear legs to the point that she was only only able to drag herself by her front legs.

We have been working on her for about 3 weeks now utilizing chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture and for the first time today molly was able to stand on her own. The past 2 times I adjusted her I got a load pop at her second lumbar and along with needling along her bladder meridian it appears she is getting the use of her tail and legs back. Molly is a great study the perseverance, the will to live and the possibility of miracles in our everyday life.

She was going to be put to sleep but now she is still with us.

Remember no matter how difficult things may be never give up . You never know when an effort may produce results . It could be something as small as listening to a friend in need, giving someone some encouragement or sticking a small needle in a loving friend called a dog.

Video of update

http://youtu.be/gJc8XNmqcUw

Do You Have FDD

We have all heard of ADD. Attention deficit disorder is a common diagnosis that is used to describe those children and adults that have difficulty sitting still, display overactive behavior and have difficulty focusing on a specific task without getting easily distracted.

Well I have a new disorder for you that I have coined FDD. It stands for Fulfillment deficit disorder and it is of epidemic proportions in our society. It displays many symptoms which may include.

1)Apathy
2)Desire to stay in bed for long periods of time even though not especially tired.
3)Loss of excitement
4)Spending long hours in front of the tv watching nothing of any content or use.
5)Looking towards the promise of retirement as the only hope
6)Desire to go away on vacation for at least 6 yrs.

There are many more symptoms of this disorder but it is simply caused by a lack of fulfillment in ones life. I guess fulfillment can be defined as feeling a sense of purpose in giving service to ones fellow human beings.

That sense of service does not have be something so called important or special like doing brain surgery, though it could simply be a sense that you were put here to help others.

When you do that with heart the feeling of fulfillment comes thru and it is like a food. If you are starving for this food you may compensate by eating too much or smoking or engaging in some other activities to mask the unhappiness that is brewing inside.

Like any food when we are starving for fulfillment we will try to fill ourselves up with something else to “fill the void” to to speak when in fact fulfillment which essentially means to fill onself up is really what is needed.

So if you find yourself suffering from this dis-ease what is the remedy.

The first step is to ask yourself a few key key questions and to try to answer them as truthfully as you can. Take your time with these and it helps to write them down so you can think deeply about them.

1)If I knew I had One Year Left to Live how would I think, act and feel and what would I do??

2)If money were no longer an issue in my life how would I think, act and feel and what would i being doing today, tommorrow and the day after that.

3)How to I give service to others and what is my attitude when I am doing it.
Do I love what I am doing, Is my heart in it, Do others feel that??

These are very deep and probing questions. We all have loved ones and friends that have suddenly died and we wonder if they had accomplished all that they had wanted to do in their lives. Ultimately life is a fragile balance and the time could be now for change.

If you would like to participate in the Last Year Project please visit:

Dr.Housman’s last year Project and Web page

Molly Update 12/06/2011

For those of you that have been following this story and for those of you who are just reading this for the first time. Molly is a 2 year old Austrilian Sheppard mix that hurt herself about 3 wks. ago and was completely paralyzed in both of her hind legs. I, along with my assistant Ivy Heiser have been working on her with Chiropractic activator adjustments and acupuncture for 2 weeks now and I wanted to update everyone on her progress today 12/06/2011.

When we arrived today the Vet Assistant Jessica who has been caring for molly showed us how she can now stand with some support from a sling on her rear end. She is still very weak but can now use her legs to stand. Jessica also purchased a dog wheel chair that hooks up to her rear that will help molly to get some exercise to strengthen her muscles which have atrophied considerably. She can now actively wag her tail and has some movement in her rear legs.

She was glad to see us and we gave her some neurotrophin tablets which are a standard process product to help the nervous system restore itself. I took this opportunity to video tape our visit today to show others how animals are adjusted and treated with acupuncture and the link to the video on youtube is below for those that would like to watch.

All in all molly is doing better. Initially, to be honest, I was a somewhat skeptical of how much I would be able to do with complete paralysis present in the beginning but it seems that molly has some angels watching over her . I do believe that dogs can truly be divine beings and molly is a special one with a very open heart as you will be able to see from the videos. If you would like to help with the purchase of her wheel chair in any small or not small way please get in touch with me since Jessica has been donating her time and energy out of the goodness of her heart. For those of you that are following this story I will be treating molly again towards the end of the week . This is a great story about hope and the will to never give up even in what appears to be difficult terms.

cbase@roadrunner.com
207-323-0737

Molly Update 12/06/2011

For those of you that have been following this story and for those of you that are just reading this for the first time. Molly is a 2 year old Austrilian Sheppard mix that hurt herself about 3 wks. ago and was completely paralyzed in both of her hind legs. I along with my assistant Ivy Heiser have been working on her with Chiropractic activator adjustments and acupuncture for 2 weeks now and I wanted to update everyone on her progress today 12/06/2011.

The Epidemic of Weight in the USA

33% of adults in the US are classified as obese. 60% are considered to be overweight and 17% of the children are considered to be obese. This is a staggering statistic considering the fact that the costs associated with this condition are estimated to be 150 billion annually according to the CDC. The World Health Bank, looking at the economics of obesity estimate that 12% of the total US healthcare budget is spent treating obesity related diseases namely, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and the associated joint and spinal problems that result from having too much weight on the human frame. From a TCM perspective(Traditional Chinese Medicine) extra weight is stored ChiI in the body that has stagnanted. Much like a lake where the water is now longer replenishing itself this stagnant Chi serves as a breeding ground for disease and lowers the overall energy of the body for its maintainence. There has been a 76% increase in type 2 diabetes in adults 30-40 years old since 1990 according to the National Institute for Health. The NIH and CDC both agree that being overweight is the second leading cause of preventable death in the US with cigarette smoking being number 1. This epidemic in weight gain around the world is found to be increasing in industrial countries where the emphasis has shifted from native foods to fast processed refined foods. 80% of type 2 diabetes is related to obesity. 70% of cardiovasular disease is related to being overweight. 42% of breast and colon cancer is diagnosed amoung obese individuals. 30% of gall bladder surgery and 26% of blood pressure are directly related to weight.

How to you know if you are overweight or are obese.

For many people assessing their weight has become a very negative experience. The scale serves as a negative feedback device and eventually avoidance becomes the rule. When finally the individual gets on the scale they are shocked to find their weight has reached a level that seems too difficult to even get started on…Don’t give up . There are solutions but it does involve taking it one step (literally) at a time

BMI
The best way to assess how you stand re:your weight is to use the BMI or body mass index. This is an index that has been standarized looking at norms in the population and cab estimate the best average weight for a persons utilizing their height and current weight.

I also take into account skeletal structure and body type to give some leeway. Below is a link to my BMI page on my website. Also note that there is a BMI calculator on my home page on the lf.side at the bottom.

Oceanside Chiropractic BMI Webpage

Luckily for most of us our weight is something we can do something about . In the following Blogs I will discuss both my clinical and personal approach to weight management utilizing both a Western and a TCM approach. Changing your weight and health does require a committment and we are now setting 90 day Challenge goals for our friends/patients to help them achieve better health as they get older.
Dr.Mike

 

 

Molly

2 weeks ago a patient of mine with tears in her eyes told me this sad story. Her dog Molly, a 2 year old, australian shepard mix was outside and she heard the dog scream. When she went to find the dog she was immobilized in her rear end and could only move her front. Panic stricken she somehow,  with help got molly into a car and brought her to the vet. She had been at the vet for a week now and even though molly had tested positive for lyme and had a week of treatment the dog was still paralyzed in both of her rear legs . She was going to have to put the dog down really soon. Please could I come and look at her she asked. Over my 31 years in practice I have worked on dogs, and horses. Mostly horses though dogs run a close second . Never worked on a bird but probably would if someone asked me to. I guess I just love animals and if I can help I usually do. So I went over to the vet and looked at an xray that appeared to show a lumbar lower back vertebrae out of place and compressed.

Molly has the sweetest eyes and a wonderful disposition. She loves people and even at the vets she was dragging herself around by her front legs so she could be around the people that were going in and out of the clinic. My heart broke to see her unable to use her hind quarters and sure enough she was completely paralyzed in her hind end,no movement,nothing!!.  I adjusted her using my adjusting gun and also did acupuncture on her. She was very complient as a patient and even helpful lying on her side when I asked her to, but it did not look  good due to the extent of the paralysis  .She had no control over her bowels and bladder and  her muscles in her hind end were already beginning to wither due to lack of exercise and loss of nerve function. I did not think this was due to lyme but probably a spinal type injury.

I called in a few days and asked if molly was still alive wondering if they had decided to put her down. They said she was still there and could I come over again today. I went over again and this time I could see the slightest movement in her tail when I showed up but she was still dragging herself by her front end . Again I did an adjustment and acupuncture. She complied easily almost knowing that I was trying to help. Again I wondered if she would be around in a few days since the owner had mentioned they were going to decide before thanxgiving if they were going to put her asleep or not. I prayed as I left.

Following thanxgiving molly was still with us and I went over for the third time. This time her tail was wagging more and I adjusted her this time by doing tail traction to open up the disc spaces. I felt a loud pop. My assistant, Ivy was helping me and she heard it to. Molly let out a sigh as if to say ,gee what took you so long, and I wondered if this would be a turning point. Again we did acupuncture on her legs and back and hoped and prayed..

I went over to the vet today and molly had been taken home by one of the vet assistants . The nice lady who had taken her home was there and  had a big smile on her face and said that molly is starting to move her legs a little bit and wagging her tail more and she thinks she is responding.

I don’t know if molly will recover completely but it struck me how even in what seems difficult or insurmountable circumstances we should still try to help because you never know when a miracle may occur.

This made my day along with all of the other people that I helped today.->Dr.Mike