Now What?

Please tell me that I’m not the only one; I know I can’t be. Have you ever committed to something that required training or isn’t going to happen for a while?  In the past I’ve signed up for many running races that were beyond my fitness ability when I signed up. When I was signing up, I thought I had plenty of time to train only to realize a few days later that I was crazy!  There was no way, I was going to go from only being comfortable enough to run a 5K to running a team 200 mile race in 8 weeks.  What was I thinking? At that moment, I had a choice to get serious about training or bail.  Well, it’s not in my DNA to bail, so I needed to get serious about my training, mainly so I didn’t hurt myself or worse die! So naturally I researched the best training approaches to these types of races only to find out that most recommended double the training time.  I didn’t have that kind of time, so I did what I needed to do and started training. I knew that with the limited time that I had consistency was key. Whether I was home, traveling to see family, or at a chiropractic training I made sure I got my miles in 6-7 days a week.  Slowly but surely, I noticed improvements, my ability to run for more than 3 miles became 6 and eventually 8 then 10 and ultimately my longest run was 16 miles.  After 6 weeks of training with consistency I had zero doubts about my ability to run and I was beginning to get excited about this challenge that I had gotten myself into;I couldn’t wait for race day! As the day was approaching and all the arrangements were being finalized I went from thinking I might die to thinking that our team could realistically do really well in this race. Well, we didn’t die, we had a blast, and finished the race without anything more than some annoying blisters. But now what?? Everything that I had been training for had come and gone all in the matter of 24 hours or did it?  When I think back about this experience, it reminds me about many patients’ journeys with chiropractic.  For many, when you first come to the office you don’t really know what you got yourself into.  You might be a little apprehensive (some terrified), not really sure how long it’s going to take or maybe even doubt that it’s going to work. However, with consistency, you start to realize that you’re gaining confidence in chiropractic and as a matter of fact you start to get excited about your adjustments.  You might even forget what brought you to the office in the first place and start to set new goals and challenge your health and fitness in new ways! As you are getting to the end of your initial care plan you’re thinking what am I going to do once it’s over, Now what?  That’s a very common question and honestly, just like my running adventure, when my race was over I could have quit and when your care plan is over so can you.  However, I realized that I actually enjoyed running although I didn’t have a race to train for, I continued to run on a regular basis and I eventually found another race, and another.  The same can be said for chiropractic, you shouldn’t just walk away if you find it beneficial, rather you should have a discussion with the docs about what interval of adjustments is appropriate for you based on your habits and goals. The moments of Now what’s happen all the time in life, whether it’s the big vacation you’ve planned for is over, you dropped your child off at school for the first time, you just drove away from leaving your oldest at college or that race you’ve trained so hard is over, it’s not the end, rather its the beginning of a new and different journey! It also doesn’t mean what you were doing needs to stop, maybe it requires more of something, less of something, or the addition of something.  The same is true to your “wellness” journey in Chiropractic; once the main thing is addressed, you may need more, less, or the addition of other things based on your “Now What” goals!