This is my personal story to becoming a Chiropractor specializing in healing and support healthy lifestyles in kids and family. Starting the Balancing Holistic Mamas Podcast is just one way I’m trying to reach more families to help support and encourage a balanced livelihood.
Growing up I’ve always loved kids and loved helping them figure stuff out. I have over 20 years of teaching dance and some of my favorite moments were when I was able to get over 20 3-years-olds to all stand on a line and face the same direction for picture day – a win!
I loved seeing littles grow, learn, observing how they tick, and how they all tick differently. Becoming a teacher seemed like the obvious career path, but during my Junior year of undergraduate studies, I realized that healing, helping, fixing, and the calm that comes from helping someone figure out how to fix their systems would be better utilized in healthcare.
Additionally, as a dancer, pole vaulter, and golfer – I understand firsthand how being an athlete can beat up your back. I saw a chiropractor often and they offered me to shadow his practice.
I was fascinated with how chiropractors dig deep to get to know their patients and personalized conversations about the patient’s life. The relationship of the doctor-patient was mesmerizing. I was also blown away that babies got adjustments and I learned the reasons why littles showed up in their practice. That’s when I knew – my career path would be chiropractic. Helping kids feel better, helping, and teaching parents the ins and outs of health and wellness. This merger of health, healing, observing, treating, and creating healthy lifestyles in kids and families lights me up from the inside out.
In my personal life, when school was over and my career began, self-doubt pushed hard. My solution was to work harder, do more. Saturday was my sacred day with no interruptions and full workdays, where I kept going and going and going. But my worry and stress grew about my career, how many more people could I help, how could I reach more, I could grow my business, – everything revolved around “more, more, more”. Then I noticed my nails were thin (I was a nail biter), my hair was falling out, I was always tired, I had bags under my eyes, I was gaining stress weight in my stomach and legs, I didn’t have time to eat real food – I wasn’t doing what I was telling my patients to do, I was taking the easy way out. I pretended like I was fine and living the healthy habits I was telling my patients. I knew I needed to make a change.
I had the incredible opportunity to go overseas and I had my wake-up call. I sold my practice and spent 6-months in Germany. I used this time to figure out what was next in my life. I promised myself I was going to change and figure out how to make a healthy life for myself.
I started small with simple daily tasks of reading, walking, and meditating. How do I start again without going back to where I was before?
Grace. I gave myself permission to do my best and it’s ok to not be perfect. I gave myself permission to have good and bad days and that health and wellness is a journey. Through time and grace and a lot of deep breaths – I got my health back, my hair grew back, my nails were strong, and I was feeling confident and happy again.
I want to share this journey with other women and mamas, and that there are super simple ways to focus and balance the health and the well-being of your family. Hopefully, through the Balancing Holistic Mamas podcast, I can help you answer the questions you have by bringing my expertise, experiences, and have other experts to help answer the questions you have to bring happiness, balance, and health to you, your kids, and your family.
Transcript
Dr. Elyssa 0:05
Hello Mamas. This is Dr. Elyssa Wright. And I am so excited to be here with you again this week. So this week, I thought we’d get a little personal and tell you guys a little bit about why I decided to start Balancing Holistic Mama’s and a little bit about me, and how I got to where I am. So let’s get to it.
Dr. Elyssa 0:34
I always knew growing up, I loved being around kids, I loved helping them figure stuff out. I taught dance for almost 20 years. And my favorite moments of teaching dance is when I managed to get 20 three year olds to all stand on a line and face the same direction. So for me, that was my win on Saturday mornings, if I could get just one of my classes to do that for just one second. It was usually picture day when all the parents wanted the picture of the whole dance class. But I just loved seeing littles grow, seeing littles learn and figuring out how they ticked, which I’ve learned is impossible, because every single one takes a different way. So, at first, I thought I wanted to be a teacher. And then I realized that I loved healing and helping and fixing and the calm that comes with when you’re trying to help somebody figure out what’s going on in their systems. So off I went, thinking that I had it figured out, and I landed in undergrad and realized that all I had figured out is that I wanted to do something in health. And that was it. So it took quite a few years. In fact, it took until my junior year for me to realize what piece of health I wanted to do. During high school, I was a pole vaulter and a golfer and I had made my way into a chiropractic office once or twice, because those sports really do beat up your back. And while I was there, my chiropractor was like, “Well, why don’t you do some shadowing? You know, you can shadow me, you can shadow another Doc. Just so you can see what chiropractic is all about.” And what I realized during those experiences is chiropractors get to know their patients. There is conversation about your grandkids, and about your littles and about your kitchen renovations and your vacations. And there’s a conversation and a relationship that I thought was really cool, because I had never seen that type of relationship in a doctor patient setting. And then I walked into another chiropractor’s office, and there were signs hanging everywhere that just said baby’s first adjustment, and I went to hold up. Chiropractors adjust kids? Why? What happened to a child? Why would a chiropractor need to adjust a kid, I am completely blown away.
Dr. Elyssa 3:46
And having that experience of seeing that and seeing him adjust kids and him telling me about labor and delivery and all of the reasons why littles showed up in his practice. That sealed the deal for me that I wanted to go into chiropractic, knowing that I would be able to help kids work through their different developmental phases. help parents understand those phases. And it turns out being a teacher after all, not in a traditional sense, but teaching my patients the ins and outs of health and wellness and having questions about what am I supposed to do when my little one won’t sleep? What am I supposed to do is this growth milestone, right? Is this the right timing? Is everything okay? And to be part of that journey with the families in my practice is an honor and a privilege that lights me up from the inside out. So knowing that I realized that there’s probably more parents than just in my office that have the same questions. And that was the big reason for me starting this podcast is hopefully it can help you answer questions that you might have about how to raise your family, if things are right, if things are normal, and bring in a lot of other experts to help fill in the gaps. So that’s a little bit about how I got here. And how I decided that this podcast was the right fit for me. And hopefully, for you too.
Dr. Elyssa 5:42
A little bit about me personally. So I wasn’t always sure that I wanted to, you know, do the type of work that I do. I wasn’t sure I had it in me. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough. And I don’t know how many of you but experienced this, but the self doubt wheel starts to come in. And my solution for that self doubt wheel was to just keep working harder. Just keep pushing harder, just keep doing more. And that’s what I did in my first practice, I would wake up super early. So that way I could get to work before anybody else was there. And then I would stay late. My personal favorite day of the week was Saturdays, because nobody was in my office except for me. So I could sneak away and get 12 hours of work in with no interruptions. And I kept going and going and going. How many more people can I could help? How many more connections Could I make more more more. And all of a sudden, I looked in the mirror one day and my hair was falling out my nails were thin. I’m a nail biter. That is my stress relief. And I can tell you during that moment in my life, I barely had nails. And I was tired. Bags under my eyes, gaining stress weight, which was all in my stomach and my legs, and I didn’t have time to eat real food. So I was telling all of my patients about how to grocery shop and how to get real food and I was going through the drive thru as at the end of my night, because it was just easy. It was fast, it was easy. And I would just get by my goal would be to get home right before my husband got home. So that way I could pretend like I hadn’t been working all day. And pretend like I got a workout in at home. And just pretend like I was living these healthy habits that I was telling my patients to live, when in all reality, I was doing 100% the opposite because it was quick. It was easy. And I didn’t have time or energy to do any of it. I don’t know if any of you can relate to that. I don’t have time, I don’t have energy, I just can’t today.
Dr. Elyssa 8:32
And at that point, I realized that something was going to need to change. And my husband and I had an opportunity to move overseas for a few months. And for me, that was my wake up call. So I sold my practice, we packed everything up into storage and left. And during those six months where we were over in Germany, I really took that time to go, “Hey, I thought I knew all of the right things to stay healthy. And it turns out, I knew them in my head, but I didn’t know how to actually implement them in to my life.” And at that moment, I made a pact with myself that I was going to change and I was gonna start to figure it out. Because if I could figure it out for me, I could share it with other people. So I started small and just started walking and reading and meditating and walking and reading and meditating and going over the same habits every day of just how can I do this in a sustainable way. So that way when I am back in the States and I am back to working, I don’t land in the same place that I landed before. During that time, I started to find little tips and little tricks and grace, I found a lot of grace. Because as women especially and as mamas, we hold the weight of the world on our shoulders. And I gave myself permission to go, Hey, you did your best today, and your best doesn’t have to be perfect. And by starting to give myself permission, to have good days, and to have bad days, and to be 100% of the way on and to be 5% on and to realize that health and wellness is a journey, and there’s different pieces of the puzzle that maybe one day, you are spot on with your exercise. And that’s it. And that’s okay. And through time, and grace, and a lot of deep breaths, I found my way out of the hole, and got my health back. My hair started growing, it was the first time in my life I was pumped about all of the frizzy fresh hair growth, because humidity and my hair is something special. And I started to come back and realize like, Oh my gosh, I want to share this with other women. And I want to share this with my patients and share those with Mamas and get the news out there that there are super simple things you can do to focus on the health and well being of yourself and your family. And here I am. So I just wanted to let you all know that I hear we have good days and I hear we have bad days and share the tips and the tricks and all the little things I’ve done over the past decade that have really helped me open up to how easy holistic living can be. So there’s a little bit about me, Mamas and my story from the beginning to the end. I am super excited for the weeks to come. We have some good speakers lined up some good topics lined up. And as always, if there’s something that you really want to hear about, make sure you reach out so I can get it covered. All right, mamas. We will chat next week. Bye.
