An onlooker sees three masons hard at work.
He walks over to the first mason and says, "Excuse me, sir, what are you doing?"
The mason glares at him, takes his cigar out of his mouth and says, "What am I doing? I'm stacking bricks. What does it look like I'm doing?"
He thanks the man for his time and moves on to the second mason. "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?"
The second mason puts down his tools and with a sigh says, "What am I doing? What I'm doing is supporting my family."
He thanks the man and moves on to the third mason. "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?"
The third mason looks at his questioner, looks at his handiwork, and then looks toward the sky. "What am I doing? I'm building a cathedral."
The parallels with chiropractic practice (or with any line of work, really) are powerful. What are you doing? Which mason are you?
Are you like the first mason, mechanically working and doing nothing more? Are you just moving bones, or "cracking backs," just mechanically doing the same things over and over?
Are you like the second mason, laboring to support your family and lifestyle, so caught up in day-to-day reality that you can't see anything else?
Or are you like the third mason, in touch with the higher ideals your work is based upon? Are you seeing your adjustments as getting rid of the static on the line between your patient's mind/body and their inner or innate wisdom? Are you helping people better attune to the perfection within them and be more sensitive to others and the world around them, so that they may become the best they can be? Are you removing interference so your patient may better communicate to their innate intelligence?
One final note. Discoveries in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) are revealing that the doctor's intent may have a powerful influence upon the patient's response. What we doctors see or visualize will be closer to manifesting itself.
That means that if you see yourself helping people better attune to their innate wisdom, to their perfection, it will be closer to manifesting. If you see yourself giving the perfect adjustment, it will also be closer to manifesting.
But there's more to it than that. As an old saying goes, "What we appreciate, we to some degree appropriate." In other words, what you see for others will rub off on you as well. You will be better attuned to your inner wisdom; you will be in more harmony with your perfection; and you will be a better chiropractor.
So which mason are you the most like?
Tedd Koren, DC
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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