Life’s Genuine Connection With Sophie

 

Sophie had no idea how connected she could really be in her life. After years of struggle, she has found her true purpose. She credits her newfound healing to getting adjusted with Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic, and in this episode, she shares her experience on how she discovered life’s genuine connections through it. Having gone through a lot of trauma throughout her life, she has unknowingly and unwillingly spread the pain she’s accumulated towards the people around her. Sophie learns how her timely visits with Well Connected Chiropractic have resulted in improving her overall quality of life. She talks about the drastic changes she’s observed in herself and her surroundings as she puts in the effort, not only physically but emotionally as well. Listen as she recounts her journey back to health.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Life’s Genuine Connection With Sophie

Discovering True Meaning Through Healing At Well Connected

I’m excited about my guest, Sophie. She’s going to tell us about her journey with Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic. Without further ado, Sophie, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. I want all of the readers to understand the power of Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic. You have an incredible story. I want to start with how did you even find out about Blair? How did you even find Well Connected?

I was a patient over at Magnolia Wellness in Costa Mesa. I had been going there treating a hip problem, pelvic injury, and they recommended it to me. I got a facial and they recommended you to me. That changed my life ever since then.

I know exactly who you’re talking about. She is amazing with her facials. I’ve had her Gua Sha stone facial. One of these days, I’m going to get Angela on here from Magnolia Wellness to talk about her incredible institution. For now, we can say that it was a professional referral from somebody that I have an incredible network with and you came to see me. What was going on besides your hip and low back pain that you were looking to get help with?

Prior to talking with you, I had a dislocated pelvis from snowboarding that I had been walking on for two years. I had been taking care of my grandfather for eight years. That included carrying a 150-pound man in and out of his wheelchair, in and out of the bathtub, and sometimes up the stairs pushing a wheelchair. After speaking with you, I was aware that all the trauma in my life that I had not dealt with such as shoulder injuries from water polo, swimming in high school, broken sternum in my chest and other issues in my body, were creating a lot of pain.

Had you tried other modalities besides upper cervical because you hadn’t even experienced that before? Had you been to a chiropractor before?

If you’re a giver and always leaning forward, taking care of yourself sometimes becomes the last thing. Click To Tweet

I had been to nothing. While taking care of a man for eight years, I ignored myself. I ignored the pain that I was in. I pushed it deep down, I drank and I self-medicated. I ignored the issues. I thought they would go away. I wasn’t even aware of how much pain I was in.

Something so common that I hear is that people don’t know how bad they were hurting until they don’t. Give me a little glimpse of what you experienced with your first correction and how you experienced that new patient visit. You nailed it when you said I connected the dots for you, but what were you feeling when you were like, “I didn’t even think about my water polo or my previous shoulder stuff. I didn’t even think that that was connected.”

Throughout my life, I never felt well. I love my parents but both from my parents and previous doctors got the feeling like I was a hypochondriac. The reason I wasn’t feeling well was all in my head because no one could pinpoint why I wasn’t feeling good. It wasn’t until I came to that first patient visit. I was asked about all the traumas that I have been through in my life both physical and emotional. I was in a fire when I was 21. I had gone through my parents’ divorce, multiple breakups, bad, abusive relationships, and caring for my grandpa. All those things I was holding in my body and I had never released them both emotionally. I was a very tight-wound person. I held a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders. It wasn’t until speaking to them and hearing that those issues are held in your body that I even realized the pain that I was in.

Once I got adjusted, I started to be like peeling off an onion. Every time I came in, I would almost like go do my homework for a week, realize all the things that I had been through, release them, and let go. I felt freer every week. I’ve been seeing you and every week. I’ve constantly been freer and I see it in my face. I see the pain-relieving and in my relationships. Every ounce of my life has improved.

It’s so fun to catch up with you each week to see what has happened in between. There will be times where you go off and you go do your thing where you travel, snowboarding, or go on this fun little adventure. I get to see what you’ve been through, what you’ve experienced, and how much healing you’ve had in between each of those visits. Were you surprised by the emotional healing?

That was something that I did not know I was signing up for. I can’t remember exactly what I used to say. I think, “Someone who’s been through the things that I’ve been would be dealing with it so much worse. I’m so grateful. Little did I know, I wasn’t dealing with it well.” I was holding it all in. I was angry and shut down. Right before I started seeing you, I met the love of my life and it was that relationship that made me realize like, I wasn’t talking about my emotions and sharing who I was. Through seeing you, I was able to open up. As I said, I broke my sternum and I’m into yoga and chakras. I believe that my heart chakra was closed and having my chest open up. I feel all those emotions come out. I’m physically feeling in my body and I was numb. I was completely numb to life.

We could talk for six hours on that last statement. It’s so incredible how connected the physical, the emotional and the spiritual are. It was the last time that you came in for your regular spinal check. You said something like, “I can see my family healing because of the work that I’ve done.”

 

That’s the reward because I’m a giver. I’m almost always leaning forward and giving to others. Taking care of myself was always the last thing. When my grandfather passed, I was finally able to put my needs and my health at the forefront. We want to start a family and that’s a necessity that my body being in healthy. I don’t think I ever would continue doing what I’ve been doing and seeing you so religiously if I wasn’t seeing the results in the people that I love. The ease that comes with my relationships now because of the work that I’ve done is the greatest reward. I will continue doing it because I’m feeling phenomenal, but because I’m seeing the gift I’m giving to other people, and that’s amazing.

This theme keeps coming up for me in my life too. I have an incredible coach named Barbara Eaton. Every other week, I spent some time doing a deep dive in this mastermind. There’s a gentleman that’s in our coaching group. His name is Dr. David Croxford. He coined this little phrase and it’s come up several times, and you nailed it. He said, “It doesn’t take two. It takes you.” If you’re in a relationship and you want to have it be different, the only way that’s going to happen is if you, yourself, go into it differently. The fact that you have unwittingly or unknowingly observed is a testament to your healing because you’re showing up differently. You have a different mindset. Chronic pain is debilitating on so many levels, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially. It affects everything. When we gave you that initial Blair Upper Cervical Correction, and a year later, you can see the manifestation of healing in all areas of your life. That is transformative and powerful.

We’re taught that unless you have a cut, bigger bleeding or you have a broken bone that you’re fine. You persevere and keep going. It accumulates and it accumulated in my projection with all my relationships. I’m not always singularly and at fault but my pain was projected on everybody around me.

You’re taking responsibility for the part that you have to play in those relationships and you’re doing the self-care that it takes to make a difference. Giving people permission to know that if you aren’t well and you can’t show up well, nothing is going to be well. If you’re not bleeding or you’re not broken, you’re fine. I don’t know where that came into play but it has to stop.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about in my healing process I see you and then I lie on the ground for a week stretching and stuff. One of my grandfather’s big issues that started me taking care of him was back surgery. He had two strokes and lost his peripheral vision which is why I started having to drive him around. That’s why subconsciously, I sought out your care is because I refuse to have back surgery. Deep down I knew that something was off. I was always looking for a more holistic approach to everything because I wanted to avoid the pain that he had gone through. He wasn’t even healed after that back surgery. He still had chronic pain and was lying in bed every day.

It’s something that I see more often than I’d like to admit is that the people who have had 1, 2, 3 surgeries. They come in and they’re still super broken. There are phenomenal surgeons that do life-saving things. I work with great doctors in Orange County. People that I know that my patients have got to a point where they no longer can benefit from the work that I do, I have to involve a surgeon because it’s so unstable. There are limitations to matter. The thing that I notice when I take care of people who I have to refer for surgery is that they go in aligned, they come out, we check them as soon as humanly possible, and they get corrected if they need it. Most of the time, they hold their adjustment even through surgery, they heal well, and then they don’t have to have repeat surgery.

The other side of that is I meet people who’ve had 1, 2, 3, 5 surgeries, and they’re not any better because they’ve been chasing the symptom and never fixing the root issue, which is the neurology between the brain and the body. Knowing your intuition is on it. I am so excited to be a part of your journey and knowing that one correction made such a big difference. You’re on this healing path and you had mentioned that you found the love of your life. Talk to me about that and where you’re going with your life at this time.

Put yourself as a priority. Take care of your health and wellness. Click To Tweet

I’m a big traveler. I put that on the back burner for a moment. I’m staying with my mom and fully putting all my energy into my body like eating well, exercising, getting my pelvis and body aligned because I want to have a natural birth, and I don’t want to go into it being in pain. I want to have a beautiful experience and be pain-free going into it. Taking care of my health and my wellness. For the first time in my life, I’m putting myself as a priority because I know it will be one of the last times I do it if I want to have children.

It’s so fun to meet people who are very intentional about how they’re preparing their bodies to give life. I know that’s going to translate into intentional parenthood and partnership relationship with the father of your future children. The work you’re doing now is laying the foundation to create health for those babies that are coming, the way that you’re going to treat them, and tell them how to honor themselves. If we don’t show up well, it’s never going to be well.

The knowledge I’ve gained through working with you which has increased my intuition, I’m giving that gift to my children. That’s the most amazing gift. They’re already going to start life being well, healthy, and drug-free from pregnancy and birth. That’s the greatest gift for children.

When are you going to start your life coaching? You’ve found a new career. Unfortunately, your traveling habit has been a little sidelined because of COVID, but it’s interesting. Nothing happens without purpose. Even in the fact that you couldn’t do as much as you wanted to do, that did give you the time to slow down and think, “How can I invest in myself?”

My boyfriend is Australian and saying where you go and wondering, you work on yourself and you get past all these hurdles. I’m still dealing with the physical aspect but it’s also the emotional, the mental, the healing from childhood, and all the dramas that we think are insignificant because somebody has it worse. We’re so lucky. We’re first-world problems but they are problems. They are problems that manifest into bigger problems. I took this time on small scale travel at least through America and the national parks, work through those things, and let them go so that they do not become issues. I don’t pass them on to my children.

Comparative suffering is something that is often not talked about. As you said, because you’re suffering looks different from somebody else, it’s still totally relevant to you. I was given some good advice that said comparative suffering is a useless exercise because you can’t compare what somebody else is going through. It isn’t affecting you the way that it affects them and your situation isn’t their situation. It’s all unique. I’m so proud of you. What kind of advice would you give to anybody looking for a chiropractor? What recommendations would you give for somebody who might be afraid? I also get a lot of people who have said, “I’ve been to eighteen different chiropractors. None of them helped me. How are you any different?”

The treatment you do is so different. It’s not painful in the least bit and it’s so minimal. Every single time I’ve left your office, I felt relief like 100 times better than when I walked in. It’s always a good experience. Everyone there that’s friendly but complete energy left the body that’s where it was tight. As I said earlier, it’s this onion and peeling the layers. You have to get to the issue. It’s like taking off jackets. Every time I leave there, I feel completely better. It’s not a painful experience at all. It’s almost like pregnancy. They meant they scare you with the chiropractor. It’s not like that at all. The first time you did my neck but ever since then, I don’t think you ever have.

 

You’ve only had one upper cervical correction and you’ve been holding for almost a year. It’s amazing.

There’s a lot of fear with everything. I don’t know why there is but it’s amazing to experience.

Another thing that I want to give you kudos to is that you’ve embraced. I call it the Well Connected way because we have massage therapy that’s designed to support the correction. We have a pulsed electromagnetic frequency that helps to energize the cells and to do the healing that they need to do. You take the supplements that help reduce inflammation and you do the homework that I give you if I ever give you anything. You’re like the poster child for Well Connected Chiropractic. It’s amazing.

Every single thing you give me makes me feel better. I’m only hurting myself by not doing it. Through COVID, having a massage was like gold.

That was a blessing. In California where I practice, we were considered essential. A short period of time, they were shut down because the Massage Board said, “No.” Once the Massage Board realized that massage is really important, the people that were considered essential providers that had employees were allowed to keep that open. That has been a gift to my practice and the people that get to have the massages to support their correction. I’m proud of you. I’m excited about your journey. It is such a pleasure to be part of your healthcare team. I look forward to seeing you very soon.

Thank you so much. You’ve saved and changed my life, every part of it.

Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for reading. If anybody has any questions, comments or concerns, please get ahold of me at WellConnectedChiro.com. I will be happy to address anything you’ve got. If you want to read a certain topic or you want to know more about somebody that’s a guest on the show, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’ll look forward to talking to you the next time.

Important Links:

• Magnolia Wellness
• Barbara Eaton

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

Join the Get Your Head On Straight movement today:

• WellConnectedChiro.com
• Dr. Liz Hoefer Facebook
• Dr. Liz Hoefer LinkedIn
• Well Connected Chiropractic Facebook