Reach Physio Solutions

Your mind and body need to align for change to occur

Monday, December 29th, 2008 | 30 Day Challenge | No Comments

Those dreaded words- New Year’s resolutions- don’t need to be so fear provoking. I recently read a book that profoundly changed my view of making resolutions from hopeless to deeply self-revealing. It’s called “How the Way we Talk can Change the Way we Work” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. They describe the mind having it’s own immune system, like the body, that prevents (perceived) chaos from breaking out by strictly enforcing the status quo. The mind might see the change as “threatening” so we act in ways that definitely won’t result in the goals we’ve set. Does this sound familiar? But why such sabotage?Good question. FEAR!

The book suggests that perhaps our minds are actually protecting us from an underlying fear that has a much stronger pull (than our so called resolutions) and that fear leads us to choose to eat more/ exercise less/ smoke/drink too much etc etc and completely contradicts our valiant January 1st vows, all for self-preservation! While I am simplifying a 4 step process that the book obviously handles with much more finesse, expertise and detail, I guess what I’m saying is we are complicated creatures and we often need help making lasting changes, in the form of group support, “accountability partners” and even a little neural rewiring of our brains sometimes.

My intention for doing a 30 Day Challenge came from trying to come up with a way of changing behaviors in clients, whom I felt would excel and find new levels of comfort in their bodies if they would just commit to doing their physiotherapy exercises every day. At first I thought people just needed incentives- like great prizes. I’ve learned that people seem to need a combination of motivation (ie. a challenge), the right tools (the exercises themselves or some resources) and someone peaking over their shoulder once in a while with a nudge or two (or in the form of a daily log or journal).

If there’s something you’d like to manifest in your life then join this Challenge and focus on it for 30 Days. See yourself differently, act differently and maybe next year you won’t cringe when people talk about New Year’s resolutions- you’ll say BRING IT ON!!!

Yours in peace and good health in 2009,

Sue Shalanski

Protected: Welcome to 30 Day Exercise Challenge Members

Monday, December 29th, 2008 | 30 Day Challenge | Enter your password to view comments

A chance to win an amazing Prize Pack & help a local family!

Sunday, December 28th, 2008 | General | No Comments

Local dad Neil Winn is no stranger to battling with cancer, it’s been over 4 years now since the initial diagnosis… This fall when he’d finished a bout of radiation it looked like things were going to go on a hiatus and life would resume a certain kind of normal but when his neck pain just wouldn’t go away, doctors confirmed the worse, the cancer had moved.
Just before Christmas, Neil underwent fairly dramatic surgery while his wife Heidi Voelker and 2 year old daughter Reece hoped for a positive outcome. Heidi, who works on Whistler Blackcomb in the winter making the slopes safe and helping the injured, has been taking time off to take care of their daughter and Neil.
I’d like to help out and I hope you’ll join me in a raffle I have planned. Tickets are $5 and available through my online store to be purchased via credit card through a secure server. The GRAND Prize is an ultimate New Years Health & Fitness Makeover which includes:

• an entry to the 30 Day Challenge ($30)
• a pedometer ($10)
• a 90 minute head to toe physiotherapy assessment ($150)
• a post-challenge assessment for 45 minutes with a physiotherapist ($75)
• a BOSU ball (a physio ball cut in half mounted on a base for FUN exercises) ($135)
• TOTAL= $400!

Use this link to go directly to the online store and get your tickets!
Draw takes place on January 4th, 2009.

It takes a community to raise a table…

Friday, December 5th, 2008 | General | No Comments

On December 2nd, I ran into a major glitch while expanding my physiotherapy practice….a key piece of equipment for my new space arrived damaged and unusable. It’s pretty hard to treat patients without a treatment table!

The following day, when the responsible parties involved in delivering the product were not feeling the need to reply to my concerns and inquiries from their head offices in far off places, I decided to take matters into my own hands and placed a few local calls….

First, I contacted Jones & Co. to get some advice from Shawn Jones on how to proceed. I thought maybe I’d leave a message but ten minutes later, he arrived on the scene to check out the damaged goods and make some recommendations. Wow!

A wonderful therapist in North Vancouver offered to rent me her table for as long as I needed so I thought I’d work out transportation. I asked Newport Auto’s owner, Noel Koehn, how I would load a 220lb+ treatment table into the back of a pick-up truck…he offered his own shop truck and some manpower for lifting! Another wow! 

I thought I’d also look into having the table welded back together. Kelly Jian of Kelly Jian Contracting arrived 15 minutes after I placed the call to his office and offered me some great solutions, on the spot. My excitement about opening the new space was back because I could now see how I could be operational, very quickly with Kelly’s help!

 The night before, I had been a very disappointed small business owner, wondering how best to approach the big business world when they don’t seem particularly interested in a small businesses “problem”. Tonight I’m completely floored by the level of service and sense of community that exists in Squamish. 

I’d like to say a heartfelt and gracious thank-you to the great leaders of the businesses mentioned above.  I’d also like to acknowledge my two colleagues, Angela Newton and Karen Ogilvie for their ability to “go with the flow” so well and last but not least thank-you to the dozens of understanding patients whose appointments had to be moved, I am extremely grateful.