The following is a guest post by Dr. Amy Spoelstra from Coeur d’Alene, ID.
There’s a ton of stress right now. We can acknowledge it – we don’t want to just ignore it.
It’s just like feelings in our brain-based parenting.
We’re like, “Hey, you’ve got to have the feeling. You’ve got to feel the feels, and you’ve got to acknowledge them, and you’ve got to connect with them.”
Then you ask, “What can we do about it?”
That’s what we’re doing. We’re admitting there’s a lot of stress right now. There’s a lot of unknown; a lot of “Ooh, what do I do?”
The fact is, we can control the controllable. That’s all we can do. We talk about this a lot in our office.
What can we control?
One: We’re doing absolutely everything we can to support ourselves, our families, our practice members, and all the people in our community that we love.
Two: We’re supporting our community on a broader scale.
That’s why we’re doing a lot of giving, and we know a lot of you guys are, too. We love you for that.
There are a lot of families that are in a lot of need right now. We know that, so we’ve got some things going on for that – and we’re keeping our office open, just like we’ve done this whole time.
We are opening up tabs with our local small businesses because we want to support them, spread some joy by giving our amazing community free stuff, AND make a positive impact on our community during a uniquely challenging time.
The holidays can be stressful, so we thought some self-care would be perfect. We worked with the owner of Earthly Beauty Bar in downtown Coeur d’Alene to purchase beauty masks for the whole community.
We also helped Coeur d’Alene warm up with some hot tea after some fun in the snow when we opened up a tab at The Spice & Tea Exchange in Riverstone. All they had to say was, “Put it on the chiro’s tab!”
Three: We are taking care of our bodies and helping others take care of theirs. There are things that you can do for you and your family’s bodies to help adapt to stress, and to help build resilience to whatever stressors are out there. Taking care of yourself now is so important because we have a lot of stress.
You may be thinking,” I’m doing okay,” but the reality is that stress can have a big impact on what’s going on in your body. Ultimately, we want to be able to get through this and not have challenges in the future.
It’s so important to take care of yourself now – concentrating on what you can do, controlling those controllable, and having these action steps.
It’s actually not a choice right now. We’re not just talking about physical stress – we’re talking about physical, chemical, and emotional stress. The emotional stress in the last eight months – and even now – has been one of the most harmful things.
All of what we do is about building resilience and adaptability, resilience, and adaptability. It’s not just about being in stress, and it’s not just about right now- it’s about the future.
We support our physical, chemical, and emotional well-being, reduce stressors, and improve resilience and adaptability by having our nervous system balanced.
The reality is, we’re living in this world right now, and there are stressors. There’s always the question of what we’re putting into our bodies.
That’s what we are here to support you with. We’re happy to help our community in every way we can.
