•The journey is everything.
2
Living And Leading A Vital Life
Dr. Janice Hughes
I no longer have the privilege every day of adjusting people. My own search for vitalism and living a life of vitality is the reason this occurred.
I now realize the messages about vitalism I’ve received along my path were delivered to teach and encourage me to stand up and be me. I’m a strong and driven woman, in roles and positions in my profession that – to date – have not had many women involved. In challenging the status quo and trying new things, I began to create opportunities to truly define vitalism for myself. My path is to get the message out to other women that you can be more. By embracing vitalism, you can be incredibly powerful.
Vitalism in action has shown me:
♦Balance is an illusion, but being in the flow is not.
♦We can succeed in spite of ourselves.
♦Discipline determines our destiny.
♦Wisdom is recognizing that any adversity has incredible benefits.
♦Life is all vibration, at a deep cellular level, and expressing our unique vibration creates a life of authenticity.
♦Life is good!
What Is Vitalism?
Vitalism is the doctrine that life involves immaterial and incorporeal ‘vital forces,’ and cannot be explained scientifically. This subtle essence is what we – as Chiropractors – come close to touching every day with every adjustment. Vitalism is not unique and specific to Chiropractic. Chiropractors did not create this word and its use is certainly not exclusive to us. Although, because it is such a critical part of practicing Chiropractic, it is one of our guiding Principles.
The challenge for so many of us in the profession is that some days we forget about this magic and connection to vitalism. We get caught in the business reality of running a practice, raising a family, or daily to-do lists. Yet, all it takes is adjusting an infant and seeing almost instant changes to remind us that we have influence on that subtle substance, that vital life force within people.
More than ever before, there is currently a focus on what is vitalistic versus mechanistic. Philosophically, mechanism is the theory that Laws of Nature can explain all natural phenomena. In opposition, vitalism postulates that organisms have ‘vital forces’ that are not physical. In our current day there is greater awareness of the concept of vitalism as it pertains to health care, food, and life in general.
In the world of a healer, vitalism is expressed and revealed to each of us in unique ways. There are so many phenomenal women writing in this book about their lives and connection to vitalism. Since many of them are currently still in practice, I know and trust they will be sharing healing examples of vitalism truly at play. For this reason I chose to focus on the consistent vitalism in my life. Vitalism was distinctly full force in my practice, yet in hindsight I have come to realize how it was vitalism at work in my life that has created my entire path in life.
Three Acts Of Life
Several years ago I read an amazing interview with Jane Fonda speaking about the stages of her life, similar to acts in a play. She referenced three distinct acts, and in looking back saw a thread of connection. She said while living through those days, it felt like three distinct and separate lives, with a different focus in each. This is so similar to a stage play, where often the second act is so distinctly different than the first act. The third act is often where all the details and pieces from the earlier acts are linked and connected.
At this point in my own life – what I would call the middle of my second act – I can honor and see the role vitalism has played in every aspect. Vitalism attracted me to Chiropractic, basically before I really even knew anything about it. It was just a sense I had as I first experienced Chiropractic myself. Without knowing anything about Chiropractic school or education, I applied based on the experience of my own first adjustments.
I had traveled a much more traditional educational route. My first degree was in Microbiology at a university where I thought I would likely apply to Veterinarian school. Really having no idea what I truly wanted to pursue, I then moved on to another university for a post-graduate degree, specializing in Somatic Cell Genetics. Obviously this was moving me closer in the direction of traditional medicine, particularly choosing a university with a phenomenal medical school.
During my years in university, I was really focused on the pursuit of knowledge. I can’t say I was choosing things consciously, or really thinking about the influence my choices would have on the rest of my life. The unique part of my education was my involvement with research of eukaryotic cells, and the impact of various environmental stimuli on their growth rates. The overall research was in the area of cancer research, and if anything, I was really learning more what I didn’t want to do with the rest of my life.
My research work was almost too many years ago now to count. Yet even at that time, some very bright minds in this field were already aware that the genetic make up of a cell is inducible. This means that you aren’t only a product of your DNA, as several environmental parameters and factors impact DNA synthesis. Little did I realize this essentially addresses Vitalism!
All of the reading and reference work I was required to do (thanks to a very meticulous and excellent advisor, although I didn’t always think so at the time) was also teaching me a lot about research design. This background distinctly influences my learning to this day. I realize so many articles and much of research are based on a design to make the numbers represent or illustrate what we want them to show. I also learned to cross through conventional subject and topic lines. There are often papers, research, and insights from a totally different field playing a large role in the work of a researcher. Rather than sticking to an assigned discipline, being creative with the approach of research sparks flares of genius.
Throughout my research experience I was truly more fascinated with the really creative personalities of the researchers and people I met than the actual work. Realizing I didn’t want to be a researcher, yet so far down the traditional medical path, I felt a bit trapped.
With my infinite wisdom at the time, I decided to take some time off to travel; in other words, ran away. I had no illusion that I would find myself, or my answers, in travel. I just knew I needed a break. Backpacking in Europe didn’t strike me with insight; yet I do know that stepping away was a critical piece in being open to change for moving forward.
Months later I was back in the same routine. Interestingly, within weeks of being back, I was injured. All of my traditional medical connections and buddies were talking about bed rest and the long- term repercussions of my injury. I called my dad, who had been seeing a Chiropractor for many years. I went to visit his Chiropractor, and within three adjustments I was 70-75 percent improved. Now it wasn’t so much the improvement that made me stop in my tracks. It was that casually the Chiropractor mentioned that with all my school and training I’d make a great Chiropractor. “Hhhmmmm.”
The Act Of Becoming A Chiropractor
It was as if the seed was planted. Knowing very little about Chiropractic, my investigation told me there was one college in Canada at that time. I discovered I was within the deadline of applying for the following September, and began to complete my application. I reinvested in my research with a new zeal and target: I needed to be done so I could head to Chiropractic school. Now remember, this was all basically without knowing much at all about this thing called Chiropractic. It just gave me a newfound target and direction.
Little did I know, it was very difficult to be accepted into this one school in Canada, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC). I was granted an interview, and my interview was basically welcoming me to the college. Only upon starting that fall did I realize I was ‘accepted’ because of my multiple degrees. This was a phase and time in Chiropractic when it very much focused on validity and credibility within the medical profession. There were