Why I Write my Blog – Part 2
I was diagnosed with Cancer in December of 2008 and while it’s usually not a life-threatening form of the disease, Squamous Cell Carcinoma was enough of a wake-up call for me.
I began to take a good, long, look, at all areas of my life and what I needed to change as I endeavored to get my health back on track. First on my list was to leave the practice I was currently working in. This was not an easy decision as I had been there for many years and it was comfortable and safe. However, I had changed personally and spiritually a great deal over the previous few years and sadly I knew that it was time for me to leave.
I spent the next two months doing very little but taking long walks in the woods, reading and journaling as I discerned what direction my life was meant to go. I really felt that I needed to have more control over the environment I would eventually work in and began to really consider opening my own business in order to have that control. I initially toyed with the idea of opening a personal training studio for baby boomer women who wanted to incorporate fitness into their lives but who did not want to do the “GYM” thing. I spent equal time with the concept of opening my own dental hygiene practice now that that was a possibility and although the expense and idea of pioneering a new concept in preventive oral health were daunting it became crystal clear which path I should choose. I was still passionate about dental hygiene and given the opportunity to have control over the elements of practicing that I needed for my health and well-being the decision was made.
Having read Dr. Mark Breiner’s book, “Whole Body Dentistry” during my sabbatical I realized that there were actually dentists that thought like I did and were incorporating holistic modalities into their practices. What I did not expect to learn were the health problems that Dr. Breiner and many other main-stream health care practitioners were attributing to generally accepted and widely performed dental procedures. How had I and so many others in oral health care missed out on such important evidence-based information? I began to read and research even more, realizing that if I truly cared about my clients’ entire health and well-being I owed it to them to educate myself more fully and at the very least be able to present this information in an un-biased manner allowing them to make their own informed decisions.
Next week I would like to share with you why you and I and many in the dental field might not have heard of this important information until now.
In the meantime, have you come to a crossroads in your health or career? How did you handle it? I would love to get your feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plugin that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.
Until next time,
Kathleen
Dear Kathleen,
Thank you for sharing this story. It’s such a hard decision to take that leap and follow your hearts dreams to what you know is your calling. You are revolutionizing dentistry and your practice teaches us that we do have a choice, that we have a right to know the whole truth and that there is not only one option.
I started out my career as a Registered Nurse and while I loved the one-on-one time with patients more than anything, I found myself so torn – never having enough time, giving medications based on someone elses prescription and half of them to counteract side effects of the ones before, listening to others talk about nature as the enemy – I felt that my spirit was being pushed into a box and I wasn’t able to truly do all that I wanted to be able to do, to be able to truly bear witness, to hear and honour the stories and expeirences of others, to support them on their healing path by looking both to the innate healing power within them and also to the incredible healing power of nature all around us. I am so grateful that I had the courage to leave a stable career, go back to school and now have the most fulfilling Naturopathic practice I could ever have imagined – doing work that I love every single day is such a blessing and my clients remind me of that over and over.
I thank you for having the courage to follow this path you are following and for sharing your story along the way. You are such an inspiration to me.
Hi Celeste,
I thank you for your kind words and likewise, the inspiration you are to me. Like you, deciding to follow this “alternative” path has been a blessing in so many ways as firstly, I am honoring my spirit . I can tell you that when I walked away from a pay cheque, my husband was not overly thrilled and even less so when I decided to put us further in to debt at this age and stage of our lives. But I knew that I needed to respect who I was and what I needed and that ultimately that conviction would point me in the right direction.
Medicine and Dentistry are finally coming together as these disciplines finally get that the mouth really is part of the body. Add to this the meeting of Eastern philosophical healing systems such as you practice and Western technological science and watch where we go! According to Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby MB ChB, MD, PhD ” Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of modern quantum physics said: the most fruitful developments in human history have come when two different lines of thought have met Such “lines” may have their roots in quite different parts of human culture, in different times, different intellectual environments and alien religions but they may nevertheless interact and produce new and exciting developments”
You too Celeste, have had the courage to take “the road less traveled” after seeing the limitations of our Western medicine mindset and within your own practice have merged these two “different lines” beautifully!
You are a humble but daring woman and I am honoured to have met you,
Kathleen