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Chiropractic Care Can Relieve Stress

The eye twitch was driving me crazy. Not only was it driving me crazy, I looked crazy with the eye twitch. I’d been dealing with it for over two weeks and no amount of deep breathing or “relaxation” made it stop. The only time it came in handy was when I asked the kids to clean. “Go clean your playroom…or else,” *insert creepy and threatening eye twitch*. Regardless of the power that the twitch might have held, it needed to go and so I headed to the chiropractor.

I tend to hold a lot of my stress in my neck and shoulders. Having a chiropractor that is trained in adjusting the atlas has made a big difference for me! She can tell if my atlas is out just by looking at my legs and feet. There have been a few times that one leg was shorter than the other, up to a quarter of an inch! Just imagine all the extra pressure that was being put on the other side of my body to try and support the shortened leg!

Breathing some fresh air while looking at the pasture.

At my initial appointment, before my first adjustment, they took pictures of my stance. I was leaning to one side and also forward in my natural and relaxed stance. Yikes! I was also suffering from extreme vertigo. The world felt like it was spinning, even when I was sitting or lying down. When I would go run errands I was always nervous that I would accidentally fall over! That stress also made it feel like someone was pushing down on my shoulders. Remember how I mentioned that I tend to store stress in my neck and shoulders? All the added worry was a cycle that I couldn’t break on my own. It turned in to a physical ailment.

Allopathic doctors probably would have recommended a pill for the vertigo. The goal being to reduce inflammation or any fluid build up. As you know, there are always side effects for long term usage of any medication. The more I can do through diet choices and chiropractic care, the better chance my body has at maintaining great health. I have upped my intake of minerals, omega 3s, vitamins, and have also begun taking probiotics. All of those things will assist my body in it’s daily functions. One of those functions being handling stress and we have all experienced some stress in our lives!

I have had immense benefit to my overall health from chiropractic care! If you want to locate a doctor who is trained in atlas adjustments, check out this helpful website. You can also make it a point to ask your chiropractor if they have studied atlas adjustments and if they use them in their practice. I’m so thankful for my chiropractor, all the years of study that she has gone through and her consistent attention to detail. She has blessed me greatly!

-Erin (Coffee Mama Bear)

P.S. Don’t forget to check out Part 1 of our Farmhouse Renovation! It has all our flooring, kitchen countertop, and the interior brick installation details!

Freedom can be found in Home-Schooling

I was nervous to start our first day of home school. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was tense. Could I teach kids at different learning levels at the same time? How would that not be distracting? Could I cover a variety of subjects all by myself? A good amount of freedom can be found in home-schooling and yet, I still put myself in a box. A box of other people’s unmentioned standards. The pressure from these imaginary home-school rule makers left me feeling ill-equipped. Then it hit me one afternoon, the only person putting unrealistic pressure on our home-school journey was me. No one was yelling at me to get it all perfect. It was my own thoughts that were skewing the view.

Reading time during home-school - Canva Image
Reading time during home-school – Canva Image

Honestly, my kids were so ready to absorb this time together. We were in need of connection after a crazy summer. In those first weeks of schooling we had some bumps in learning style, but I allowed us to pivot to a better method. We were using our new found home-school freedom! I started to see them thrive and we all found a groove in our Monday through Friday schedule. They have different motivators and I began making sure to use what I was learning from them. I had to make room for their voices in this process too.

My kids are blossoming now. I keep reminding myself that this is a special year for us all. That the freedom and time we have to dive into subjects might not always be available to us. We go head strong into the topics that they love and we work through the ones that challenge them. When my oldest sighs and gets discouraged at having to erase a wrong answer I usually reply, “They have an eraser at the end of every pencil for a reason, we all make mistakes. No one is perfect”.

We’ve had conversations about grace and how important it is to give grace to ourselves too. We have talked about failure and how it’s usually through our mistakes that we tend to learn the most. I have touted my amazing skills with erasers…and it’s only because I’ve had a lot of practice with them. Our breaks in the school day include jumping jacks, outside time, a snack, silly songs, learning games on the tablet, and free play. We have time for them to build forts, set up their own grocery store, play with play-doh, enjoy kinetic sand, and explore water coloring. We use a lot of these toys on this list during our play times!

I know that I’m not going to regret this one-on-one time with my kids. Other bumps in our home-school journey will come our way, I’m sure of it. The days are not perfect, but we get to do them together. And if I told you that doubts didn’t still come my way, I’d be lying. They do, but I know what I’ve been called to do and I will not back down from this task.

I try to remind myself that they won’t always be little. They won’t always want to jump in my lap every time I sit down to catch my breath before we tackle the next part of our day. This time is precious, tough, a challenge, a blessing, and a wild ride. To all who are in the home-school journey as well, I pray that God would continue to fill your cup. That you would find encouragement when you need it and that His unending grace and love would cover your family this season.

Sincerely,
Erin aka Coffee Mama Bear