My relationship with back pain began at an early age the tender age of 9. The pain stayed with me for years. My back pain was so bad in High School, my normal posture was to bend forward all the time. I also began getting sinus infections, for which I took antibiotics. I chose to go to UCLA for the pre-med program and studied biology. If that wasn’t already keeping me busy enough, I stressed out about getting A’s, worked in a genetic research lab trying to find the gene for Autism, fed the homeless, worked with at-risk kids, joined the rowing team, had a social life and… well, you get the picture.

Unfortunately, over time, my back pain only got worse. I started regularly getting urinary tract and sinus infections, I got sick frequently, the roof of my mouth started peeling before finals, my body would break out in hives, and on top of all that, I started having menstrual cramps so severe, I couldn’t get out of bed! I reacted how most people would react I went to the doctor and got prescription medicines. I took the natural stuff too!

Then came the breaking point.

One day, after a particularly grueling crew practice, my knee locked and wouldn’t unlock. That’s when my mom took me to see a Chiropractor. After getting adjusted, I realized that in the same way I knew (as a child) I was going to be a doctor, I knew I was going to be a Chiropractor. How the body can heal itself – I had never been taught any of that information in my pre-med programs. So, after graduating from UCLA, I moved up to the San Francisco Bay area for Chiropractic School.

Even though I still had back pain, I was being managed by regular chiropractic care and massages, which led to significantly less sinus and urinary tract infections, a disappearance of the hives, and cessation of taking prescription medications. During that time, my personal life became extremely stressful, which only added to my now tremendous back pain.

Eventually, a friend referred me to a Network Care Practitioner in the area. After my first visit, I felt amazing. The best way to describe it is, it felt like I was touched in that place that I knew about but didn’t know could be contacted. That is when I decided I would dedicate my career and life to being a Network Care practitioner.

So here is a summary of what I have gotten from my Network Care:

• It’s all about connecting and a new depth of understanding; I create new life possibilities; symptoms are a means towards change
• When something is disturbing the way I am feeling or living, the disturbance suggests that a change in perception (feeling), behavior (action), and/or structure, is necessary in some aspect of my life; although uncomfortable and disruptive of the life I am living, the symptom is instructive and not the enemy!
• The purpose of the symptom is to interrupt my current life and existing behavior patterns, because they don’t work for my current life (imagine if I had same clothing and eating habits and relationship methods as I did when I was 5 years old)
• Success is creating a new energy efficient, emergent state which is at a higher level of organization within the body, consciousness and life!
• Change, adaptability, new meaning, new actions, new consciousness states or new understanding is needed to promote or produce greater health or wellness

So, instead of my Network Care doctor trying to get rid of my back pain, he helped me using my nerve system. He helped me to connect and feel and to find new ways of existing because of what I felt. Because I was taking new actions, introducing new behaviors and digesting old undigested events and stressors, my back ceased to hurt. I now have a completely different relationship with my body and life and am really aware of how they are really one and the same. My body is the equivalent of my dashboard in my car – it tells me if I am going too fast or slow, if I need to stop and fill up, or if I am doing something that isn’t working. Now, when I occasionally get symptoms, I know what it is about, what my body is telling me, and what kinds of shifts I have to make.
I really feel that I am truly living my life the way I was meant to live it! That is my wish for you!