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The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
TEDM – Dr. Don MacDonald - Chiropractic Visionary (Episode 204)
01:14:37
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- [00:04]
Patrick Franci
Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Franci and I am your host. And I want to begin by saying thank you for listening. On this show, I am having conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved some amazing and extraordinary results in both their life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow by having my guests share their journey of how they face and overcome their challenges, but also how they celebrate their many wins. And now, let's get on with this show and have a conversation with today's guest. Dr. Don McDonald is a good friend of mine. He is a chiropractic visionary who has been transforming lives in his practice since graduating from Palmer College in 1997. Alongside his wife Brandy, they've created the Vitality Shift, a revolutionary program that changes the game for chiropractors everywhere. Dr. Dawn's journey began with a struggle to find the right team and build a thriving practice. But alongside and with his wife Brandy's innovative strategies, they not only turned that business around, but they tripled their business in just 18 months. Now they're on a mission to share their powerful system combining chiropractic care with cutting edge neurological insights with other chiropractic doctors and the public as a whole. Today, Don and I dive deep into how he and Brandy's passion for growth and transformation is not only changing people's lives, but reshaping the future of chiropractic care. Listen in as Dr. Don shares his journey to being his greatest self and living his best life by design. Let's get on with this show. Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. Polyvagal. I don't know what that word actually means. We're about to find out. But what I do know is that has something to do with how we handle stress and fight or flight. Dr. Don McDonald joins me today to talk about at least those three things. What the heck this all means, how we bring it together. Dr. Don, my old friend, Good to see you again. Thanks for joining me.
- [02:37]
Dr. Don McDonald
Thank you very much. And thanks for having me back on the show.
- [02:41]
Patrick Franci
So listen, Don, and we'll call you Dr. Don. I'll kind of flip back and forth. I mean, let's face it, Dr. Dawn is kind of cool. Has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?
- [02:51]
Dr. Don McDonald
Just don't call me late for dinner.
- [02:54]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so listen, the reasons I reached out, I've known you for many years and I have followed you and your journey in business and as a doctor, a chiropractic doctor, you and your Wife Brandy, are doing some amazing work. And of course, I love to bring it in and fold the work that you're doing into this conversation for our listener. Because at the end of the day, what you're talking about is health. So as much as the everyday millionaire is about seemingly ordinary individuals achieving extraordinary results and creating wealth, we both know that at the end of the day, without your health, the wealth could matter less. So having said all of that, I think the first thing I want to do, you know, fight or flight. That's an interesting point of entry. Stress. That's a point of entry. But I need to know about this polyvagal thing that you have talked about and that I see you talking about you and Brandy when you're educating other doctors. So let's start there. What is that? What does it mean? What does it mean to us?
- [03:59]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, when we. When I went to school, and actually still being taught in school, because this is relatively new. And as we were just talking about before, innovation usually comes from individuals. It doesn't necessarily come from institutions. So often if someone has a really cool innovation, it has to be, like, around for a long time before it actually gets into those. And so when I. When I was in school, I was basically taught that the sympathetic fight or flight part to your nervous system only happens when you're, like, being attacked and it's bad. And the good part of your nervous system was called parasympathetic, which the nickname for that is rest and repair, or rest and digest, or rest and reproduce, was the good part. So it's kind of like one or two. One was bad, one was good. And again, it's still. It helped us very much to understand a little bit more about our body. But this guy, Dr. Stephen Porges, created this thing called the polyvagal theory through basically studying neonates. And a lot of times when babies were born and they died of infant sudden infant death syndrome, he was talking about the same thing. Synthetic was good, parasympathetic was bad. And one of the doctors sent him a message and said, you know what's interesting? I found this baby had died, but it was parasympathetic dominant. And is there anything to having too much of a good thing being a bad thing? Like, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And for Dr. Stephen Porters, that really kind of didn't resonate in his mind. So he really started studying a lot deeper, and he actually found out that the vagus nerve, which is the probably 80% of what the parasympathetic nervous system is it's a cranial nerve that kind of comes down from behind that like. It's called the jugular foramen, goes all the way down the cervical spine, all throughout your thoracic lung cage right down into your Vischera. It has two branches, and so the one branch is called the ventral vagal, and that's the one that's more at the front of the brain stem. And that's the one that we typically thought was the good parasympathetic. Then there's the dorsal vagal, which is kind of the primitive reflex, which is more of like freeze and collapse. And so when amphibians were the first things to develop, they only had like that dorsal freeze. So they didn't have a very big brain. So they could actually play dead as protection when they detected danger. Right. And then the next evolution was the sympathetics. And so that was like bony fish. So then bony fish could freeze and dart and freeze and dart. And that was their. Their technique to deal with danger. And then when mammals came along, we developed this ventral vagal, which is actually. It allows us to socially connect with other people because as humans, we don't have big scary nails and big teeth, and so we can't really survive in the wild solo. And we were designed to be, you know, connected beings. And so in order to be connected, our ventral vagal nervous system has to allow us to drop our defenses so that we can connect with other people. And that's also that healing state of ease. And basically, so it's. It's your neurological safety. It allows you to connect with others. Neurological danger will either get you into the sympathetic fight or flight or the dorsal shutdown freeze. And so that's why I said polyvagal, because it's the two branches of the vagus nerve.
- [07:12]
Patrick Franci
So when you started talking about that, I was thinking about my recent interview with Dr. Chris Honey, who's a neurosurgeon surgeon out of Vancouver. And I'm thinking about what he talked about, how your brain, you know, the brainstem, connects to your spine and goes through and does all the things that it does. Anyways, I'm not going to profess to understand a lot of it other than I do, at least conceptually get the whole thing. So why is it important for people to start to have an awareness or understand this at some level? What do we need to be, I don't know, watching for? What do we need to be thinking about? Where does this support us in knowing more about ourselves, knowing more about our bodies? Maybe how we show up or things that are pushing our buttons, where that fear comes in, you know, perhaps that's part of it. So where does this matter to us? As we're listening to you talk about this, what's important for us to know? What should we be paying attention to?
- [08:06]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, there's. There's three main components to the polyvagal theory. And the first one is the hierarchy of the nervous system, which we just talked about, right? The ventral vagal, sympathetic fight or flight and dorsal vagal. The second one is going to be what's called neuroception. And so neuroception is a term that is, that means the nervous system is always detecting the environment for danger because the number one thing priorities to stay alive. And so our neuroception is below our cognitive awareness. So that's why some people, like, they say, hey, how come your shoulders are up by your ears? And they're like, oh, I didn't even know that. Because it's just happening subconsciously under the surface, right? So the interesting thing is neuroceptin, neuroception will give off cues that our nervous system is not comfortable in the environment. The next thing that's going to happen is our physiology is going to respond to that, right? So it's going to respond with tension or ease. And that tells you right now if it's. If it's feeling dangerous or safe. The next thing is called interception. Now, interception is the ability of a person to feel inside their body. So, like, I know, have you done Joe Dispenza's work a bit too?
- [09:16]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [09:17]
Dr. Don McDonald
So he talks about the feeling, right? So it's about knowing what the feelings are in our body. And so the better we are interception, the quicker we can determine if we are becoming dysregulated. Because the term regulation is a term for our nervous system when we're in a state of protection and we're good. No, not protection. We're in a state of safety. And when we're dysregulated, that means we are in a state of danger, neurological danger, whether it's in our mind, in our body, in our. In our environment. And so that's the whole thing is our goal, especially as chiropractors. That's why I'm really focusing on helping all of our practice members and helping other chiropractors do this as well, is get people more connected to their body so they can determine if whatever they're doing is firing danger or safety so that we can become more aware of it. So we can create more ease in the body over time. And so that's the whole thing, is that some people are so disconnected to their body. You know, when I'm doing an exam on someone, we'll say, can you feel this or this? And they're like, nope. Or where does it hurt? And they're like, just hurts everywhere. Like they have no direct awareness of their body. And when you have no direct awareness, it's really hard to get regulated because you're not connected. We know the ins and outs of insurance can be frustrating.
- [10:33]
Patrick Franci
We'll help you get the coverage that.
- [10:34]
Dr. Don McDonald
Works for you and fits your budget. Visit oregonhealthcare.gov to get started today, if that makes sense.
- [10:46]
Patrick Franci
Well, it does. You know, number one, as you know, I'm a big chiropractic fan. Even when as much time as I spend in British Columbia outside of Alberta these days, of course, living out here as much as we do, I've got a chiro that I rely on, and Dr. Wanda is who that is. And these are conversations that she has with me. That's what I've always liked about chiropractic care is, you know, good chiro, seems to be able to relate to people in general and have these kinds of conversations, which I think is amazing. And I'm a huge fan of Cairo. I use it all. I go to my Cairo on a regular basis, even on a maintenance point of view. But I want to go back to something that you said and a little bit about Joe Dispenza, Dr. Joe Dispenza, which is the disconnect from that people have from their body, yet it's their body that's driving a lot of what's happening with them, even mentally. Right. He talks a lot about, you think it's, you know, willpower or it's in our head that's driving habits, when really it's our bodies that's driving those habits. It's one aspect of it, and I don't want to oversimplify it or minimize the work that he does around that, but I'm just trying to put it for this context, which is all to say this is goes back to what you said is the breakdown of awareness overall of many people and the disconnect from their body. And you're talking even to the degree of pain, understanding that there's pain, but not even able to identify it specifically or what it might be causing. So am I hearing what you're saying correctly, Don?
- [12:15]
Dr. Don McDonald
Hundred percent. And the other thing I just didn't mention was the vagus nerve, which again, that basically controls your whole autonomic nervous system. It's 80% sensory. So it's a lot of that bottom up. Like you said, if we experience trauma or have stress, often it gets stored in our body. And what happens is sometimes as a protective mechanism, we actually dissociate from our body. Right. This is a good thing to know, like just personality styles that when I always ask my patients, I said, if you get under stress or you determine there's some kind of danger, do you have a default to elevate, like to elevate up and like, let's get going or kind of get rocking, or do you actually shut down and collapse? Because a lot of people, we learn this as growing up. Like, say if you're a child and you're growing up and you learn that it didn't matter what you did or how much you fought back, nothing's going to make a difference. Sometimes people will default into the dorsal state. And so if you can, like this is about self mastery, is if you know that, then you know that if you're in a stressful situation and like I have a tendency, you already are there. Like you actually. We actually need some sympathetics. Because the sympathetics are good. Because sympathetics gives us energy, excitement. When you're with people, especially in a state of connection and safety, that's like basketball. When I play basketball, it's playing hockey, it's playing sports. It's like being connected, like playing wrestling. Like those things are all sympathetic dominant, but in a state of safety. Dorsal again is shut down. But dorsal is also not necessarily bad. Because if it's in a state of safety, that's like connection. Cuddling with a loved one on the couch, watching tv, it's being intimate. It's like, like breastfeeding with mom, like mom and child. It's like it's just hanging out with some good friends, having a beer. Like those are dorsal in a state of safety. But if we understand kind of what that's why these things are, it's kind of like the algorithm of the, of the, of the human body. And if we can understand that, we can actually have better tools to help us to get back to that regulated state.
- [14:13]
Patrick Franci
You know, it's interesting, you bring that awareness part of it up. I know that when I walk in or come in to step into, or chaos erupts in front of me, something chaotic happens, something, maybe even some version of an emergency, my I automatically, this is what I know. My heartbeat speeds up. But everything else Slows down. And that comes from training to say, do not go into panic mode, go into slow things down so you can see what's happening mode. And that was really came from many, many years ago. The one quality that my dad had was there was never any panic. He moved quite quickly when he needed to in certain situations. And he trained life saving and all sorts of things that he did back in those days. But it was taught to me early on is that don't go into panic. And I have noticed that of myself over the years. And it's not like I'm in those situations a lot, but I just know that when things are chaotic or is there is some state of emergency, I've come across an accident, whatever those rare occasions are. But the point is I feel my heart rate elevate, but the rest of me slows down. And that's an interesting component of the awareness that you kind of just described in that scenario. So whereas you also see people that just lose their shit. You know, they get into panic mode, they're like, they lose their minds and it's like, okay, now I gotta calm that person down so they don't make the situation worse or hurt themselves. It's like that kind of thing. I think some of it, as I rant on here a little bit, as I'm thinking because of over the years of working and training horses is of course horses are, they're either fight or flight. And man, oh man, when they move, they move fast and when they react, they react fast. And you know, as a trainer, you can't buy into that. In other words, when they go into fight or flight mode, we have to actually turn our energy down. So is this the way I'm hearing it? Is that would be along the lines of what you're describing. Is that accurate, Don?
- [16:18]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, and I think that would be a little bit more of self mastery because you actually, because your default might be going like, like going into sympathetics, but you're actually, you're actually bringing yourself back down.
- [16:28]
Patrick Franci
And actually the body is like. I guess my point of that would be is that, is that goes back to that awareness of body, awareness of state, even. So that is, I guess some mastery around that. But is, is to say that what you've discovered as a doctor is that that's not a normal thing for people in general.
- [16:47]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah. And I think that, and that's the thing is that you should be. I think of these all like gears like, think of them like gears like ventral vagal, stress, dorsal in safety, not and if. If you are in a. If you've been a pretty healthy state, you're able to change gears pretty quick because you're aware like, you. Like you. You will be consciously like, oop, my heart's going, let's breathe. Like in your suit. And you're doing that instantly, right? Some of these are just default. Like, some people who have not really been aware of themselves just run off default settings. And so if they're gonna. They're gonna run off the rail sympathetic, they're gonna lose their mind, run around like a chicken with their head cut off. If they're. If they're default dorsal without self awareness, they'll just freeze. And they're just like. They won't do nothing. They won't even answer you. There's like. You see that sometimes in, like, trauma movies, right, where people freak out and they just don't. Like, you're like, run. And they're just. They just stay there.
- [17:37]
Patrick Franci
Those are good movie hooks.
- [17:39]
Dr. Don McDonald
So.
- [17:40]
Patrick Franci
Okay, so let's talk about you and the work that you and your wife, Brandy are doing. And because part of this is that it's unique enough that you're actually taking it out into the world of other chiropractic doctors, and you're teaching this, you're traveling the world. You and Brandy are doing some really, really cool stuff. It's fun to watch and watch you grow over the years knowing the many conversations that we had early on in both our businesses and what we were doing. So give me a little bit of insight into the uniqueness of this and then your thought process around getting out and teaching it and sharing it with other chiropractors. So let's talk about that from just even a business model, perhaps, or what it is that the messages that you're trying to. Or wanting to get out there.
- [18:28]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, I. I think I. I was. I was just coming up with a good idea to describe it. And I call it like the Ghostbusters of chiropractic. And so the Ghostbusters has four Ghostbusters, and they all have that little machine that would, like, shoot to the ghost, and then it'd catch the ghost and put it away in that little. In that little thing, right?
- [18:43]
Patrick Franci
Yeah.
- [18:43]
Dr. Don McDonald
And so. So there's four main streams in chiropractic that we can really help with. One is being very good at chiropractic adjusting, like understanding how to analyze the spine and nervous system. And because the chiropractic adjustment is very similar to, like, playing a sport, skating, playing hockey, shooting baskets, like, it's a physical sport sport. And again, most pro basketball players, they shoot practice all the time. So being very good at detecting verbal subluxation and being very good at adjusting, like, that's the first stream, which is super important. The second stream is understanding the hierarchy, which we just talked about. Like, we want to know about those three states. The third one is going to be about neuroception, which we just talked about. And the key thing about neuroception is that not only that, just us detecting our environment, that's us detecting other humans. And so if you are not only a chiropractor, but if you're a business owner and you have staff or you have family members and you're giving off bad vibes, literally. Like if you're just. If you're dysregulated, you're actually giving off danger signals to other people around you, which will actually trigger them without you even saying anything. That's why when someone walks in a.
- [19:47]
Patrick Franci
Room, maybe not even recognize it either. They just get a bad vibe. Is that a fair statement?
- [19:51]
Dr. Don McDonald
100%. They just be like, well, some people, I say you just meet them and you just like, now I'm in a bad mood. I have no idea even why you just walk by. You. It's like they're.
- [19:59]
Patrick Franci
Their.
- [19:59]
Dr. Don McDonald
Their energy just got on you. But. But it's like the nervous system has a language that is below our awareness. And it's just. That's why we're connecting with other people. And so that's why we're really talking how important it is for chiropractors or business owners or family members or anybody in life to work on staying regulated. Because you just become a nicer human and people have a better experience in your presence, period. Doesn't even matter what you're doing, but it just amplifies or it detracts anything that you're doing. So as a chiropractor, it will amplify your adjustment. Or if you're. If you're distracted and frustrated, it actually takes away from your adjustment. So it actually will maximize or minimize anything that you're doing or talking with staff.
- [20:38]
Patrick Franci
Yeah. So this makes total sense. But if I'm okay, so got it. And that's cool. Now if I'm a patient and I'm coming in and I got something going on for me, I'm not even sure what it is. Maybe I'm in pain. Maybe I'm just feeling discomfort. Maybe I've had some chiropractic care in the past and walked away feeling better. And Now I want to go back to that. If I'm coming in and you're assessing me or I'm doing a self assessment, that's saying I got to get in and get an adjustment, what am I feeling? What am I sensing? What is it that I'm walking in the door and saying to you? Or what are you, as a doctor who maybe I don't have that awareness, are looking at it and assessing, going, okay, I got to make a couple of adjustments here. What's. You follow what I'm asking there?
- [21:22]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, yeah, because, because a lot of times they don't know because they just come in with whatever they think that, you know, I have a shoulder pain and that it just floats inside their body. And so what our job is, is actually just to kind of like just link a few things up. So we'll, we'll. The first thing we always link is posture, because posture is a great global sign if you're in a chronic state of protection or growth. Because it's just, it's just the end result are we, are we open? And that affects all different parts of our body. The second thing is there's something really cool. It's called the social engagement system. And the social engagement system is made up of five cranial nerves that control facial expression, eye movement, smell your voice, your hearing, your head movements, and then that whole vagus nerve that controls your whole autonomic nervous system. Now the interesting thing about it is if your body is mostly in a state of protection or detecting danger, it turns down your social engagement system. So some people will call it the rbf. Rbf Resting bitch face. You know, like when some people have that non expression on their face. And so often, by the way, I'm.
- [22:28]
Patrick Franci
Often accused of that and my team teases me about it. When I'm in a meeting, somebody will deliver some good news and then they'll look over me and they'll go, oh, that's Patrick's happy look, by the way. You know, I guess anyways, they joke about it, but anyways, we digress, go ahead.
- [22:42]
Dr. Don McDonald
But, but, and, and so often what we do is we just actually take. And when they come in, not only we're, we're like doing posture evaluation. Might send them for X rays, but we're also taking pictures of their face. Because, because automatically when we're regulated in our nervous system, we actually become more social like. And you can actually see it in their eyes. Like you could actually have them picture side by side and actually multiple people when they're under Care their family members notice that they're more enjoyable to be around. And, and so, and they might have just. I've had lots of patients too, once we've explained this, they go, geez, yeah, because you get bad kickback. Like if you have, if you have, if you're giving off those danger cues on your face or your energy and you're trying to get stuff done with your business or with your family and they're, they get turned off because they're detecting danger, then your response back is bad neuroception from them. And it's almost like a cascade. Like it just, it goes downhill. And the opposite happens too. If you see someone, you go, hey, how's it going? And then they're like, I'm great, how are you? And then you're like, oh no, that's kind of nice. I'm doing pretty good. And then, and then all of a sudden you start go cascading up. And so it's about kind of like evolving collaboration rather than devolving. Because devolving is when you're like bad social cue. Bad social cue. More, More of a jerk. More of a jerk. And it kind of, it kind of goes down, down the hill. So I think our job as chiropractors is built to link that and, and find out what's important to them in their lives. Like there's lots of people, whether it's their business, they like to play sports, their moms, they're looking after their kids, they all want to be better. Like, I don't know anybody who wants to be worse at whatever they love to do. But when they realize that if you're regulated, you can, you can, you can more have control over your emotions, you can have better connections with others. Like they're like that. That's what I want.
- [24:33]
Patrick Franci
Well, so there's lots to talk about in what you just shared. You know, number one, you know, my mom turned 96 and she's in extended care, which just means she's got a condo. She goes down for breakfast or lunch and you know, she basically, they look after, there's a, you know, so. But she's pretty self sustaining. The point of that is, is that the social drive that, that's where senior citizens. Back to your point around, we need to be social. It's a very, very important part of what we do and how we operate. So that's something that we got to be aware of, I think, in what I heard and what you said. But having said all of that, there's another part of it which is that sense of well being and, you know, going in, getting adjustments, that becomes also a maintenance thing because that's what I'm not great at with chiropractic. I, you know, we often wait for something to be wrong as opposed to being preventative and going in for an adjustment once a month or whatever it might be. So I want to say that out loud. Although I do pretty good, I'm way better than I was and it makes such a huge freaking difference. That's the point. I'm not going in because I got something wrong with me. I'm actually going in because I want to make sure that everything stays aligned and that everything runs down your spine and that everything, all that nervous system is happening. And then I want to touch on something that we kind of let in a little bit with dawn, which was stress. Now I have a phrase that I use often that says it's not the weight we carry that breaks us down, it's the way we carry the weight. Now that's to say that we can carry stress heavy and we can be bummed out about it and. Or we can say, okay, well, got it. I have that, but I'm not going to carry it. I'm not going to let it weigh me down. Having said that, stress will eventually break us down. And is this part of. I'll share my own kind of story. When I go to my Cairo and I get my adjustments and stuff, things just seem better. You know, my mood gets better. I feel a little bit more energetic. I feel in a better mood. And I don't carry stress really heavy anyways. But tell me a little bit about the impact of stress on all of this.
- [26:47]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, that's great because that was the fourth thing from the Ghostbuster thing, which was. It's called CO regulation. It's perfect. And then that's why I said, I like the analogy when they had that big, the big monster and Ghostbusters and they said don't cross the streams because when they cost the streams, like, it's super powerful. So if you cross all four of these streams, it's super powerful. Anyway, that was just my image. I always think in pictures. So. But the thing is that is that we need other people to help co regulate because, you know, even if we're stressed and we don't have regulated CO regulators in our life, like that's the thing is if the more CO regulators we have in our life that are regulated, that that helps us to dial it back down because there are lots of self Regulation activities we can do like exercise, meditation, hot baths, like write stuff down, you know, do all that kind of stuff. But nothing beats just connecting with another person that you trust, that you feel safe with. And that's one of the biggest powerful things I think about chiropractic is that a patient comes in, you as a chiropractor are their safe regulator. Like I actually, I have and especially as a male chiropractor like just less because I've only experienced being a male one. But the power of being a safe male co regulator especially for females, like there's some females, like I've had patients come and say you are the only safe male in my life. Which is, is huge because the power, that's, that's actually what helps to just get you more regulated because it's not like you're regulated, not regulated, but it's like more of a scale. So like you said, you look after yourself pretty good. So maybe, maybe you're only like 20% dysregulated when you go in but you get that adjustment, you co regulate it just helps you just to get boom. Reconnected. Your social engagement system comes back up online. Like your blood pressure goes down, like it regulates your breathing, your digestion go like that. That is just, it's like a reset. And so that's why I always tell people it's super important who you hang out with because you need to have self safe co regulators to be able. Because we all need someone to lean on at some point like that. That's, that's the thing. Stress is never going to end. And that' that's why I think like you said some, it's not how you get the stress or how you carry the stress. Multiple people can have a lot of stress. But some people like if one person has a nice safe co regular and this, this can be your wife too, your wife or your husband or your partner and they can help you reset right away. Then you just move on. But those people who unfortunately stayed at home maybe during, even during COVID and they're still staying at home, they become more neurotic because they have no connections when they get stressed they, they don't have any way, they have a, they have hard like limited ways to get re regulated and that's why it ends up lasting longer and longer to recover.
- [29:39]
Patrick Franci
So you know, when we think about what's going on in the world today where I don't know what the actual number is, I don't know that anybody really knows. But they throw it out there where 30% of the population didn't go back to an office environment, they're working from home, that might be bigger challenge than people are even realizing in that if you're not in that environment, you may not have that co regulator, the term that you use. I want to unpack that a little bit more. But that could in fact be what's causing some of the increase in depression and the increase in stress and the health issues that come along with that. Because you and I both know that our physical health, our physiology and our physical health is a reflection of what's going on, often mentally and how we're handling stress overall. And would that be, do you think, of an accurate statement, Don?
- [30:28]
Dr. Don McDonald
Oh, yeah, it's huge. Like, I, like I, I even say like in my practice, for example, people who got negatively impacted from COVID like health wise was like, some of them got sick for a day or two, but like it was very little. Like, none of my, even my whole practice, none went in a hospital. Out of thousands of patients, nobody went in the hospital and nobody died. But 100% of them got affected from being isolated. Like, and I don't think actually anybody did not get affected. Even, even some of my like, introverts that like, don't like people, they're like, don't get me wrong, I loved it the first couple weeks, but even for me that was a little bit too much.
- [31:10]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so let's talk about. I've not, I've actually not heard the term co regulator, so. Or you know, what that even means. So. And, but it's something that you said, which is very interesting, which is if I have, you know, as a coach and as somebody who's been in the space of coaching for many years, and I have heard, you know, people have said to me before, you know, hanging out with you is, I just love it because I feel so much more grounded. So I, and I hold that because, and especially women, and I'm fortunate that way. And a lot of that has to do with my wife Stephanie, and what she's shared with me in terms of my own insights and being aware in it. But if you were to say to somebody, you know, be a good co regulator, like, be intentional about it, be that space for people, is it as simple as being able there to listen? It's the classic case of the husband that wants to fix everything instead of just listening, you know, like, we joke about that, but, you know, is that an example of being a good co regulator? Like, how would we Describe that. If you're going to give somebody some guidance, if you want to be that, what would you be saying to them?
- [32:22]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yes. So good, because even when you work with chiropractors, everybody's like, what do I do? What do I do? And again, this, this is the. Actually what do I be? And this is 100% what do I be? And so the interesting thing is understanding how CO regulation starts is because as humans we cannot survive as a baby. Like, we cannot survive on our. And so babies require safe CO regulators in order to grow and mature, ideally. Right. And so, you know, if, if someone has gone through their whole childhood and they've never really had a safe CO regulator, often they don't know what it feels like to feel regulated, which is going to make them harder. It's going to make it harder for them to be a strong CO regulator. So if we make sure that we look after our regulation and becomes super intentful about keeping ourselves, self, ourselves regulated, then we automatically become a better CO regulator because it just, it spreads, right? So that's that neuroception. If I'm dysregulated, I spread dysregulation. If I'm regulated, I spread regulation. And so for us it's, it's just important to be able to, like you said, go back to the Joe Dispenza stuff is get the feeling like we got to know what, what the feeling is. And even, it's funny, after a first visit when I, when I, when I, and I ask people, like, we do this postural tension tests, I put them up against the wall, standing in purple, in perfect posture and have them feel different areas of their body and they just feel tension all the way through. And after their first adjustment, some people actually even feel emotional because they're like, like I don't even, I've never felt that before. Like, I've never, I've never even felt whatever that they can't even say, like you even said, I just feel different. And some of them are even emotional because it's actually overwhelming sometimes because they've actually been dysregulated their whole life and they don't even know what it feels like to be regulated. And so that's the cool thing. You can't give away what you don't have. And so that's why it's important for us to make sure we work on doing what we can. And then if we find other people, like how you said, people feel comfortable around you. And again, that's why I loved hanging out with you and mastermind with you too. Because if you find people who you can hang out with and then you feel better afterwards, you want to hang out more with them because that will help you be more regulated, which will help you be a big better CO regulator. So it just kind of like passes it down the road, if it makes sense.
- [34:44]
Patrick Franci
Well, it's interesting something that you're talking about here, Don, and you mentioned babies, for example. So we've probably most have had that experience where a new baby and it's all cool and cuddly and then somebody picks it up and it breaks out screaming and then they pass it on and the next thing you know it all settles down again. Is that, you know, to your point, it's, it's, it's, it's really energy, isn't it? It's some version of energy. And if you, like you said, if you grew up in an environment where that CO regulation wasn't there, you don't even know what it is, you're going to be taking that kind of, that's what you know, that's how you show up. That's how you cur. And of course, a baby who's looking for that CO regulation, who's looking for that safety and wants to be, is going to feel that energy right away. And I think that probably happens with pets as well, you know.
- [35:36]
Dr. Don McDonald
Oh, 100.
- [35:37]
Patrick Franci
Yeah. Because energy. Right.
- [35:40]
Dr. Don McDonald
And I forgot to say too, like, pets are great co regulators as well because another being like another, another being that's calm and with you. So again, a lot. That's why too, a lot of seniors, even if they get animals, like, their life expectancy goes up, their health improves because again, we're designed to connect with another being. It's just that if you don't have a human that's safe, often your, your pet would be, would be safe. That's so good because when you just mentioned the passing the baby, because it's funny when you do like stuff like Joe Dispenza's work or when we're working stuff, even with chiropractors, we're trying to get them to, to label their feelings or determine what their feelings are and because we've learned to not listen to those because we follow the rules, people don't even, they can't even like mention or describe what their feelings are. While babies, they only have feelings and, and when they're growing up, we've had this tons of times. Like, especially with women. For example, if you have a girl, like a young girl who says Go hug your uncle. And they don't feel comfortable hugging their uncle, and they force them to do it anyway. In their mind, they kind of learn that what I feel isn't worth it or isn't important. And so. And then throughout the, as you get older, then you have to, like, learn to unpack that and reverse it because what you, what you feel is important.
- [37:00]
Patrick Franci
Right.
- [37:01]
Dr. Don McDonald
But it might have been taught out of us when we're younger.
- [37:05]
Patrick Franci
You know, as I'm, as I'm thinking through this because I automatically go into coach mode. And Stephanie and I do a workshop called Clarity equals Velocity. And sometimes it's hard for people to identify. You know, when we talk about clarity equals velocity, it's a kind of a cool, catchy phrase, but what does that even mean? And then when you start to understand where clarity or lack of clarity lives, it is actually in a scenario like this, when you've got individuals who are not feeling okay, there's something underlying. They're not connected to their body. Like you say, there's even a conversation around clarity in that physicalness of all of this, that co regulation or lack thereof. And I'm going, wow, I'm going to have to get you out and speak at one of our events because I think it's a cool conversation. I think it's so important because when I play into this and really work in this space of personal and professional development, elevating and being your greatest self, living your best life, this is all part of these really big conversations. And I think they're really important conversations because we go back to what we said earlier is health doesn't necessarily need to show up as I'm so sick that I'm in bed. Health is also mental health. It's a sense of well being. And that sense of well being is really kind of permeates your whole life. Are you feeling joy? Are you feeling some happiness? How many times have you had conversations with people go, I just kind of bummed out. I don't know why. I don't even know. It's not even that, you know, it's life's pretty good, but it's like, I'm just bummed out. And when you start to maybe unpack that a little bit, this could be an exact conversation that people need to have or the kind of treatment that somebody might want. I don't know. What's your thoughts on that, Don?
- [38:52]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, it's funny. Well, Brandy again, Brandy, my wife explains this way better than I do. And we just uploaded a couple videos on our YouTube channel called the Informed Chiropractor. And so if anyone wants to listen, there's some co reg. She has like three different co regulation videos which are really cool. They just, they help to explain a little bit better. But we just had like a reevaluation from one of our prax members and we just said, have you noticed anything different after being under care? And they said, well, it's just weird since I've been under care, like I, I knew I should stop, but I never did in the past. But I stopped vaping and I, and I just started exercising because it's funny, when you become connected to your body, often you'll just start doing things to look after it better because it's easy to neglect your body when you're out floating outside your body when you're like dissociated. But once you get connected, it's kind of like in your house. Like if you're renting someplace, it's easier to kind of trash the walls and not look after it, keep it dirty. But when you bought your first house, like you're like doing the yard, you're like cleaning all the rooms. Same thing. It's like if we're like in our body, it's like we want to look after it because it feels like our body. But if we're disconnected, like you just kind of haphazardly go through your life.
- [40:00]
Patrick Franci
Well, I think that's such a, you know, it's interesting that you bring that up. So of course we, you and I have both, you know, spent years training and looking after our bodies pretty good. Now. I came off the rails a little bit over Covid and what I've done recently is got back into my training regimen and got my weight back down to where I'm comfortable and feeling good about it and, and you know, really set some goals, you know, at. As a 65 year old male, I kind of want to really up the bar and keep it high and all the rest of it. But one of the things that I did was I quit drinking. And it's not like I had a drinking problem. I don't, I just said no, you know, so why am I drinking? And it's been months since I've had maybe a half a glass of wine along the way. But really I don't remember the last time I had a drink of anything. I don't even think about it anymore. And when I go to social events, it's like people who know me just know that I don't drink it's like, really interesting. My point of all of that is, is that that's had some pretty interesting and profound effects now. I've done so many different things and terms of cleaning up, diet and exercising and all the rest of it, I can't put my. I can't say, well, I quit drinking and all of a sudden this is this. But all I know is that all of those things, to your point, have really played into my own mental wellbeing, my own general mood, my state, because nothing else has changed. I mean, I have all the worries or concerns of any business owner and all the rest that goes with it. But how I carry the weight has changed because I carry it totally differently now because I'm again looking after the house, if you will. I think that's the way it is, and it affects my mental state. Any, any comments on that?
- [41:39]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, it's chiropractic used to always call the three T's or the toxins as thoughts, toxins and traumas. And so any of those go in your body would, we call, would create subluxation. And so it was a very simplistic model to explain, and then it was actually very easy to defend because people would not understand it. But now if we say safety cues or danger cues, which are emotional, physical, or chemical into the body are going to either help you become more regulated or help you become more dysregulated. And so anytime you take toxin into your body, it's automatically going to get you to be more dysregulated. And the really interesting thing about this is all those cranial nerves that make up the social engagement system all are basically, they attach right in the brainstem. And the brainstem is the opening door, the trap door to your prefrontal cortex. And your prefrontal cortex is where you have all your great ideas and is your personality. And when you're creative and all those kind of things. And also impulse control, too, like, even impulse control, like all that stuff is all through the prefrontal cortex. If we're detecting danger, whether it's the physical, chemical, emotional, it turns that off. And so we have less capacity to tap into our prefrontal cortex. And so high performers will notice this quite a bit, that if they do drink, they lose their capacity for a couple days and they're just not as good. And so you just be like an athlete if you just want to kind of keep raising the bar. Often some people will end up doing that or really decreasing the amount of even bad food, too. Like bad food, drugs, alcohol, like all that kind of stuff are all danger cues going to nervous system, which is taking us offline, which is taking us further away from our human imperative, which is to be creative and innovate and collaborate.
- [43:33]
Patrick Franci
Dude, I love this conversation so much, Don. I mean, you're reminding me of a few things that I think I take it for granted that I know that I often don't share in the environments in. I have a men's group that I work with called shift. Men's group. My point of that is that when you think about toxins. So for example, in spite of the research that says a glass of red wine is good for you, it doesn't mean like six glasses of red wine are good for you. It doesn't necessarily. Not necessarily better. Right. But the point is that when what I've noticed is this. So number one, the drinking part of it for me is like, okay, I'm done with it and I'll maybe pick it up again at another time, I don't know. But right now, when I want to.
- [44:17]
Dr. Don McDonald
Be less productive, I'll pick it.
- [44:20]
Patrick Franci
Productive being a bitchy mood, I don't know. But there's something else is that my diet is also really cleaned up. Now. I don't generally go too far off the rails, diet wise anyways, but I had started to. And here's the thing now is that when you get into those social situations where, I mean, there's some good food on the table, but it doesn't mean it's good for you necessarily. Now I experience, when I go off the rails in those scenarios, I actually experience a food hangover. Like I wake up the next day and I go, holy cow, do I ever feel like crap. And I wasn't drinking. And I know that it was the food, whether it be a little bit overeating, too much sugar, you know, just the wrong food because of the environment I was in and without a breakdown of whatever willpower you might want to use. My point is that as well to something else you said earlier, which is being so careful about who you surround yourself with or even what you're listening to, certainly since pandemic and given what's going on on a global macro scale, in my world, I'm doing economic research all the time. And I got to tell you, dude, there's nothing good about that research because when I look at economically what's going on, it's mostly okay. That light you see at the end of the tunnel, it is a train down the track, right? So my point is that it can really bum you out and go, how do I, you know, number one, I do the analysis, I do the research, and then I got to share it. But I don't want a doom and gloom world is coming to the end, you know, because it's not. We will deal with all of this. How do we best deal with it? Is the question. But my point around all of it is that it's so important, I think, to consider what we are handling mentally, emotionally toxic, whether it be alcohol or drugs or shitty food and. Or who are we feeding our soul with in terms of the people that we hang around with? Are those people there to light you up, to inspire you to pump your tires? It's interesting, the psychology around things, and I want to share because I know you've. I'm sure you've experienced this. You know, maybe something's happening. It's. You're feeling the stress, you got pressure on you, and somebody looks at you that loves you and cares about you and says, you got this. You know, it's just them pumping your tires. But psychologically it goes. That felt good. Okay, I got this, right? Is it. It is interesting, don't you think?
- [46:56]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, well, and it's there. And then also you could have someone who says, you got this, and they're throwing off danger cues and it's like, actually makes it worse. Like, it's like when you get that false. You know, the false. It's like, well, the old Carl's car salesman thing where it's like they give you compliments, but they're totally not coming from a state of safety, like a neurological safety point of view. But yeah, 100. Like that, that is huge.
- [47:18]
Patrick Franci
So these are. These are all things that I think the awareness in. In our own kind of health, when we look at our mental health, our physical health, they kind of go together. Now, do you, in your world as a doctor, being a Cairo understanding nervous system and all those things, does one supersede the other? In other words, is looking after your mental health more important than looking after your physical health? Vice versa, because, you know, we both. And you. I've had these conversations, is that mentally, when you start to break down, it shows up physically, and physically, when you start to break down, it shows up mentally. Is there a priority? What should we focus on?
- [47:59]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, as a chiropractor, like, we're not counselors, right? So we're not gonna. We're not gonna roll down the road of counseling. And the interest, if someone's had trauma, whether it's physical, emotional, Chemical trauma, like any trauma in their body. The interesting thing is that when we have this approach, we don't necessarily need to dive into what the trauma was, but because that whole autonomic nervous system and that vagus nerve is 80% sensory, like it's body up. And so if we can work at creating, putting safety cues into the body, release, releasing tension, creating ease in the body, that opens up the trap door to our prefrontal cortex. And often when we open up the trap door to our prefrontal cortex, now we can actually process things better. Like, now we can actually. Because there's sometimes where people just kind of, they can. They can kind of make better decisions, like, hang out on their own. Like I said, I've never been trained, like, besides, like, you know, personal development stuff where you're trying to change mindset to challenges. I find like, the chiropractic approach is really. Is the bottom up. Up is the bottom up approach. And probably the adjustment from the above. The atlas that we always talk about is just. He's just giving the possibility, like, opening up the possibility, saying that the way that things have been going for you doesn't have to keep going. Like, we have no idea what the potential of your body is in your nervous system and your life. Like, nobody knows. But right now, you're like a dirty IO skull set. You're a dirty light bulb. You're just a dirty light bulb. The light is in you. Like, the light's still there. We just got to start cleaning off all the crud that's on top of it so that it can kind of, it can shine. And so, so that, that's kind of how. How we. We can work through it. Because it's. It's almost like you get a trauma, it stores in your body and then you dissociate, and then it just stays there. It's like a hoarder in a house where they just took a bunch of junk and put it in a room and just left in there. And until we start to unpack it, like, it just stays the same.
- [49:55]
Patrick Franci
So when I ask the question, when I, you know, when I go back physical, mental, it's more a case don of, you know, first off, I think everybody should go in and get assessed and do some chiro. I think it's just, I. I believe in it that strongly in terms of what it can do with the right chiropractor. Not all chiropractor like any doctor, I guess, like, not all chiros are created equal. You know, they're. They're certainly not Dr. Don's and Dr. Wanda's.
- [50:20]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, and as a caveat, this is brand new information. And so I'm teaching this to chiropractors. And like, again, we haven't even heard of this before. So like, don't expect this to be all that to everybody you go to. And actually sometimes some chiropractors might even think this is crazy what we're talking about. So just so you know.
- [50:37]
Patrick Franci
Really. No, that's a really, really good point. But I'm thinking that from a, from a self assessment, you know, if somebody's listening to this and what would, what would be a message in terms of self assessment? There's a, there's a couple things I want to touch on next, but I want to. If somebody's looking and thinking about their general health, I mean, there is a place where they may physically not be feeling well, but underlying all that is just environment. It could be what you're eating, it could be the people you're hanging around with. We often talk about, you know, the naysayers, the energy hogs, the dream killers, you know, there's those individuals that walk into a room and light it up, and there's those individuals that walk into a room and suck the energy out of it, you know, and, you know, a lot of that comes with. I mean, I think from my perspective, one of the big signs around all of that, we don't realize sometimes that we're in an environment of individuals, people or that are coming in, that they're victims to everything, that victim attitude, that something's always happening to me. There's always a source outside of myself of what's happening and we can be immersed in that. And the next thing you know, physically, we're at the effect of that. I don't know if you have any comments on that, but that's my own observation, is that it's easy to find and be drawn into that world of everybody's doing something to me and maybe it's the government's fault and the government needs to fix it. And my coworker is this. And my job is that there's a lot of this victimness that can happen that actually manifests itself physically. Any, any comments, any experience around that, that your observations, Don, I always like.
- [52:19]
Dr. Don McDonald
To get people starting with movement because the thing. What can we do? Because again, the whole key to get this whole thing started is to get you connected with yourself. Like that has, that has to be the awareness before anything can start. And so one of the easiest things that we can do is just start going walking. A lot of people in their life, if they're in this environment, they actually numb themselves with social media or eating or drinking or like all those kind of things. But those are numbing activities to help keep you dissociated. And so if you just go and go for a 20 minute walk or you just start with just going moving your body because again this nervous system 80% sensory. So we need to have some input. Like if there's no movement, there's no information and then you're just all lost in your thoughts. If we can start with moving our body and doing that over consistent time, like I think walking 30 minutes a day is funny. One of my mentors that said if you were to put all the benefits with like basically known no negative side effects, you'd be like the world dream drug of the world. Like it'd be the top selling drug. Helps decrease chances of dementia, arthritis, diabetes, cancer. Basically all those things is just by starting to move your body. Plus you're also starting to connect with your body which also is helping to you to become more regulated. And it also gives you time to think and not be just because you can't be connected and think about your life and think about what your goals are if you're just distracted all the time.
- [53:45]
Patrick Franci
You know, I'll share with you is that in my gym, in my home, I just a few years ago I got it, I got a really high end, kick ass rebounder and I am hooked on rebounding because there's no excuses for getting my body moving. And, and I gotta tell you, I don't like going for walks in the rain. So then of course I come up with all sorts of excuses. But with my rebounder I can actually just walk. I can go and I can do 10 minutes on the rebounder or I can do 30 depending on what's going on in my day. And if I crank the tunes I can go even longer. But it really is an interesting activity and I find it as impactful for me as walking. Now I want to just get your read on this because there's something about walking that you said that brings it back. So my mom, 96 years old, totally sound mind. Her body's breaking down a little bit, but ultimately she's good health. One thing my mom always did was walked. She would walk a lot and right. You know, when she was 95 or 93 years old, she was still walking a kilometer a day kind of thing. My point is that there's a difference that people don't understand. And that is the difference between wellness and fitness walking. To me, when I. And I've talked to different docs about it, including Dr. Chris Honey, who I was sharing with you earlier on. Yeah, it's. It is really magic, is that wellness lives in walking. Fitness doesn't mean you're well, you can be very fit and not well.
- [55:22]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yep, 100.
- [55:23]
Patrick Franci
But you can be well and not fit in the context of you're not going to go run a half marathon or a marathon. And I think that's important for people to understand is that we sometimes measure ourselves against, you know, whatever TikTok or YouTube or Instagram, you know, abs and blah, blah, blah and all the rest of it. No, just get out and walk. It's huge.
- [55:47]
Dr. Don McDonald
I totally agree. Because you'll see those guys that live to deal, like, again, like, we just had, like, O.J. simpson just died. Like, you hear about all these athletes and they all die in their 60s and 70s. And then you might have someone who might not be the picture of fitness, but they walk, like you said, every day and they're like 100 years old or whatever. Like, you just. I totally agree. Like, it's, it's definitely balanced. Or people will say, oh, I can't believe that person had a heart attack. They run all the time. And I'm like, but you can't, you can't judge your book by its cover. Like, that's. And then. But they use that as an excuse. See, doesn't even work. Exercise doesn't even work. So he even had a heart attack and he exercised.
- [56:22]
Patrick Franci
Yeah. And the thing about wellness, too, is that when we talk about walking as wellness, there's a physical wellness to it. But back to your point, what you said earlier is actually taking time out of your day where you can actually think. And even if you're listening to a podcast or maybe playing some tunes while you're going for a walk, that also is. There is a mental wellness that goes along with all of that. And so I wanted to shine a light on it because I think it's an important conversation, a good reminder for anybody listening still that. But these are things that really matter.
- [56:52]
Dr. Don McDonald
They are. They are.
- [56:54]
Patrick Franci
Now, tell me something. Is that you mentioned earlier, Don, around trauma, and I just want to touch base on the trauma thing, is that physical trauma is, you know, there's the apparent. Okay, I, I don't know. I was in a car accident and I got whiplash and I was, you know, months getting fixed. And, you know, you can Relate to that. Then eventually it goes away. But your body may still hold on to that trauma. Or maybe you're out having fun on a weekend. I don't know, you're water skiing and you take a tumble and you really crash across the water and there's some trauma in that, in your body that you may not even be aware of. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you got a cracked rib or anything. But your body in that moment of tension or in that moment of crashing and bashing around and it carry. It can carry that trauma for quite some time. Is that. Would that be an accurate statement?
- [57:51]
Dr. Don McDonald
100. Because I always talk about global traumas, like the whole. The whole system and then segmental trauma. And so often you can have just segments of the body that are. That are. That are in a state of protection. And often because the rest of our body is moving around, like it just stays frozen in that. In that time. And over time that definitely can. Can develop chronic stuff. Like I've had lots of people who've like been like in a whiplash accident or something. And then they said then it wasn't too bad. And then all of a sudden, five or six years later, they start getting all those problems and we get sent in for X rays. They have degeneration all through, like, because it basically it set it in motion. And if things aren't addressed right away, it's just like all problems they kind of left in the back, they just kind of fester away and get. Get worse and worse over time.
- [58:32]
Patrick Franci
Yeah. Interesting. So you and Brandy have been literally traveling the world, dude. Like, I follow you guys along your way on, on Facebook, et cetera, as you do your posts and talk about your. Your trips. I don't even know how you run your practice given that you're traveling. I'm just joking about that. But you're traveling a lot. You're sharing these educational kind of insights with other Cairos around the world. Is. Do you feel like you're having. Here's what I'm getting in all of this, right, Is that you and Brandy are wired to be a contribution to make a difference. I mean, you know, that's what lights you up. And as you travel around the world, do you feel like you're having an impact? Do you think you're making a difference in our. Cairo's receptive to this because like you say it's. This is kind of. We'll call it a little bit of cutting edge thought process. And how are, how. How is the reception to it?
- [59:24]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, like, like I said, the, the cool thing is when you try something innovative in your own practice and then you get some really cool results. And people are like, I had a patient called Snap Magic the other day. Whatever you do, it's Snap Magic. And I'm like, well, that's, that's kind.
- [59:39]
Patrick Franci
Of, that's kind of interesting.
- [59:41]
Dr. Don McDonald
But, but there's one thing to, to just get some really great results with your own people. But it's also, it's also amazing to be able to share that message with another chiropractor, have them increase their confidence in what they're doing and have them get these great testimonials back of how they're, how, how they're responding with their, with their patients as well. And, and like I said, we're just starting because we don't, we don't have a, like, we have a pretty good tribe. Like, I think we've got chiropractors in our group from about like 10 different countries and we're just heading to Australia here in a month. But like, yeah, we're getting, but we just got started because I only, we only started doing these technique seminars about a year ago. And so I think I've only only had about 100 chiropractors go through the process so far, out of a hundred thousand in the whole world. So the ones have gone through it. They really like it, though. So far we've got some really good feedback.
- [60:31]
Patrick Franci
That's cool. So when you look down the road, you can see this as something that you can have a pretty big impact. I mean, I look at it and I go, you know, the exponential impact that you have, even with the hundred Cairos that are maybe in your tribe or however you want to describe that. I mean, it has a pretty, in pretty strong impact, you know, in terms of what it will mean to others, you know, because it spreads from that really quite, I guess, in a really epic kind of way when people are starting to feel better and there's, there's just never a, there's never enough of that to go around, I guess, in all of it, when you say that way.
- [61:10]
Dr. Don McDonald
Well, and I think too, like, because you said if, if not only people feel better, but then their social engagement system comes online, so they actually become nicer humans. And so the cool thing is we are helping to seed the Earth with less hunchbacks and more nice humans. So that's, that's, those are, those are, those are kind of inspiring to me because people under chiropractic care that are Regulated more often in general just regulated more socially connected are just nicer people to be around. And I can't remember, I was interviewing one chiropractor and I can't remember he was just mentioning the stat is that when you're really nice to somebody because you're. You authentically feel good and you've. You kind of what you do when you meet with somebody and they feel in a better mood when they leave you, that positive footprint goes on something like six or seven other people. And so it spreads pretty fast. And so that's pretty cool. So it's not even the direct correlation or the impact that you have, but it's the impact on the impact on the impact. And so I think it's just in today's world where there's so much divicity and trauma in the economy and politics and wars and everything else going around, and I think it's kind of nice to be able to, you know, just be the light for, for some people in this crazy world.
- [62:22]
Patrick Franci
Well, you know, that's so I love that thought process. When you it again, it comes back to the awareness of how you show up, who you're being and you know, what is it that you. What is the mark you want to leave? You know, in business, when I often use the term, you know, mind your wake, you know, understand that as we. How we show up in business. And I use that as the analogy, you know, mind your wake, which is in the, in the world of marine. Anybody, if I say to somebody that owns a boat mind you'd wake. They know exactly what I'm talking about. So when they're leaving the marina, you know, they're leaving slowly. They're not leaving a big wake that's tossing the boats that are in the marina all over the place.
- [63:02]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yes.
- [63:03]
Patrick Franci
They're actually being responsible for the wake they leave. And I think as we show up as individuals, as business owners, as we show up as a member of the family, it's mind your wake. And some of that is taking responsibility for how you show up, the energy that you bring in. Do you want to be that individual that is the light in the room, that brings the energy into the room, or are you going to be that individual that, you know, sucks the energy out of the room and dims whatever light is in there? And I really, that is a conscious thing and that is a choice. You can actually choose to be that way. And I so I like to bring that to people's attention is like, mind your wake. How are you showing up, are you that person? And. And if you're not, then that's a good point of entry to say, okay, I gotta go and see what's going on. For me, why am I being bummed out? Why am I not feeling happy? Why can't I have more joy in my life? That's a body of work that, of course, that you do. And you've been on that journey for many, many years as well, in terms of showing up and doing the work. Now, Don, you and Brandy are, you know, that light. You're that energy. That's how you show up. You train that way. That's your intention. When I say intention, how much of that do you spend or how much time do you spend in terms of training? So, for example, I'll talk to many guests on the podcast and I'll ask them the question, you know, you're obviously a good leader. Do you train to be a good leader? Or is it kind of more nature than nurture? Or is it more nurture than nature? So when you consider the body of work that you do, how you're showing up to say, I'm going to take this on and train other Cairos in this body of work and be challenged by it and do all the things. How much study do you do? How much of it is. Because I get coached, I do training, I read voraciously. Whatever it is for you, how is that for you, Don?
- [65:00]
Dr. Don McDonald
I think it's massively amplified, like, since in the last year, for example, last year and a bit since I started doing more training because Brandy, she's. She's spoken around the world in chiropractic for like 15, 16 years. She's. She's been doing it for a long time. And she. She wanted to have me start teaching techniques. So I just started doing about a year and about a year and a half ago. And. And in that, I discovered I have dyslexia. I never even knew I had dyslexia until after. I'm like, I can't, like, just reading stuff. I always was a slow reader. But, like, just realizing I had that and my adjusting skills have gone through the roof. Like, I'm like, in two years, like. Because I have to, like, really become super aware. Like, we talk about self awareness now. When I'm adjusting people, I need to. Because before I just close my eyes and you just be like, kind of, you just do it. And then people would say, well, what did you do? And I said, I just did it. And it just was better. But then you can't teach that, right? Like, how are you supposed to teach that? And so, like, you have to break it down. And then you're always like, coming up with ideas with our group. Like, if people are having questions or don't understand it, you have to go, okay, what are better ways I can explain it? Or what kind of analogies can I use? Or, or. And then it, like, even last night, I'm just like looking up on rotator cuff stuff because I'm doing an extremities course is my level three. And I'm. And so I'm like half like watching hockey and then I'm watching like rotator cuff stuff, and then I'm watching hip rotation stuff and nervous system stuff. So I think just by kind of extending myself, putting myself like, way outside my comfort zone because, like, I never really ever wanted to teach other chiropractors how to adjust or, or give them tips on adjusting because, like, it just feels weird because they should already. Like, they already know how to do it. Like, why would they? Why would I? I don't want to tell them they're doing anything wrong, but. But I am finding that just because, like, I guess my creativity is. I've kind of like taken all the different techniques that I've learned before polybagal theory, and I've kind of created my own. I think my goal for a lot of chiropractors I teach is for them to take all. Not to be a doctor, Don, but just to take all these different things, but be, be have the permission to be creative and make it your own. And yeah, and so just. It's actually been way more study, it's way more work doing this than just being. Just doing my own thing.
- [67:12]
Patrick Franci
You know what's interesting about all of, you know, you talk about dyslexia and I can't even tell you is that I, you know, I don't know a lot about dyslexia. I have a fundamental basic understanding at best. Stephanie had dyslexia. She grew up with dyslexia. She also grew up in a time where she was actually left handed and was forced to learn to be right handed, weird as that is. But that was those days. And as many guests as I've had on the show, I'm starting to look at dyslexia. And I go, you know, some people maybe look at that as a curse. And I gotta tell you that I look at it and go, everybody I've talked to has turned out to be a blessing because it fires their brain differently. And I gotta say, you know, it's funny that the fact that. That your creativity is where it's at and then you share that, you know, you figured out that you had dyslexia. I'm going, well, that makes total sense to me based on all the other stories I've heard from so many, is that it's a blessing, not a curse. And it's just bonus when you actually figure it out. And then all of a sudden, everything has a different view. You have a totally different view of the world. So I don't know where I'm going with that. I just wanted to share that insight because I've talked to so many guests who are so creative and so accomplished, and somewhere in there they go, oh, yeah, no, I grew up dyslexia. And then I learned about that, and then this changed and I'm going, oh, isn't that fascinating? So the fact that you just shared that is kind of cracks me up a little bit.
- [68:37]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, it's funny. Just. Oh, and by the way. Yeah.
- [68:41]
Patrick Franci
So there you are. Blessed. No wonder you're so damn smart and creative. So, Don, you've been very generous with you. Tom, I appreciate it so much. I think that, you know, I love this kind of whole conversation and because it really opens up the door for people being aware and being responsible for their health and not waiting to have to go to a, you know, a GP and go into this world of drugs and pharmaceuticals. And I'm blessed at this point in my life where I got none of that stuff going on. And I think it has a lot to do with, number one, having the awareness to manage and understand where stress lives and how it actually shows up in your body, number one. Number two is being able to actually take responsibility for our health and being aware of what's going on and paying attention and listening to conversations like this. I mean, I'm blessed to have the opportunity to know individuals like you and have these kinds of conversations. What's it called again? Now I've lost the phrase already.
- [69:43]
Dr. Don McDonald
Co regulation.
- [69:44]
Patrick Franci
Co regulation. So there you go. I got great. CO regulators.
- [69:48]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yeah, totally. That's awesome.
- [69:50]
Patrick Franci
I'm going to use that one a lot. I'm going to be talking about CO regulation.
- [69:53]
Dr. Don McDonald
And I'm stealing your. Watch your wake. I'm stealing that one, too. Watch your wake. I love that one.
- [69:58]
Patrick Franci
Yes, exactly. Watch your wake. So what is the kind of message that you would want to get if there's a Cairo listening to this, you know, or anybody that wants to get a hold of you, we'll put the, Whatever links you give us, we'll put it in the description. But what's the kind of a final message, Any profound guidance that you'd want to give somebody listening to this, whether they be a Cairo and, or a. Just an individual who's trying to look after their health?
- [70:24]
Dr. Don McDonald
I find, I find that if, if, if you can make sense of what you're experiencing in your life, it just makes it so much easier. I've, I've, I've had so many conversations where people are like, it's just in my head, which is funny, it's actually in your body. But like, like it's just not connected or, or, you know, like even the dyslexia thing, I think that was part of the increased awareness because I had to teach, I had to become more internally aware. And then I, I realized that, which was nice because then I could switch my teaching style because I'm not, I'm not good at like orally reading stuff out, but I can describe a picture really good and I'll just be a lot, a lot less stressed in that. Well, and so increasing that awareness of myself and understanding myself just allows me to do the things that I want to do more. Because before I used to think like in my head, you're always trying to go like, oh, I hope someone doesn't make me read, because they're going to think I'm stupid or whatever. And so that runs in your head the whole time and then it limits everything that you do and it creates a whole bunch of stress and it shuts off your social engagement system and it dysregulates your autonomics. Like, there's like so much stuff. And so I think finding safe people to be around, like, you know, nobody's perfect. Everybody has tons of challenges. Everybody is like dealing with stuff all the time. It's not like when you get some place, everything's going to be perfect. I think it's, it's just finding a safe place to fail, basically finding a safe place to fail and, and then being encouraged by that. So then it gives you more permission to try new things because if you don't have a safe place to feel to fail, you're never going to try anything new. You're never going to, you're never going to extend yourself. You're never going to try, find out what the possibilities are because it's too dangerous to, in case you fail, fail. When I think 99 of everybody who innovates fails, like 99% of the time, they Just, yeah, it's okay. It didn't work. Try something different. Like let's do it again, move on.
- [72:13]
Patrick Franci
Another thing to do, you know, it's interesting around for me is that, you know, I'm blessed. I just, I am so blessed. I don't get sick. I, I don't even remember the last time I had a cold. I'm going to say four or five years ago. But even when something is happening where I do feel physicalness, like something, a pain, an ache, a headache, whatever, if I should get that, it's interesting, is that the first question I ask myself is what's going on for me? You know, what's going on for me? Like what's going on mentally, emotionally, I, spiritually, I always, I always internalize what's happening for me when it comes to any kind of physical ailments. That's just kind of how I've become wired over the years because I believe so strongly in that, that and have lots of evidence of it in my life outside of my life with people I know. And so have you read the book by the way? And then we're going to wrap it up or I'll be here all day talking to you. Have you read the book Extreme Ownership with Jocko by Jocko Wilnick?
- [73:11]
Dr. Don McDonald
I have not read it, but I have definitely heard of it.
- [73:13]
Patrick Franci
You got to read it, dude. You got to read it. And this all goes back to extreme ownership. And when I look at extreme ownership and you can talk about what is happening in your life, you know, I often use the phrases because I believe it is that your life and what's happening in your life is a reflection of who you're being, the choices you're making, the choices you're or the decisions you're not making, all decisions by the way, but your reflection is just a reflection of or your life is just a reflection of who you're being. So if there's some aspect of your life you don't like, don't look outside of it. Look at you go look in a mirror and go, what do I need to change? Who do I need to attract? How do I got to show up differently? I got to be a more powerful self regulator. I think that's the answer right there.
- [73:56]
Dr. Don McDonald
Yes, it is.
- [74:00]
Patrick Franci
Dr. Don, I want to say thank you my friend. So good to catch up and thanks for joining me on the show. And folks, go to the links, reach out, check out Dr. Don's site and what he's got to share. And Don, thanks for your time. Say hi to Brandy for a I will.
- [74:15]
Dr. Don McDonald
Thanks everybody. Nice talk to you.
- [74:18]
Patrick Franci
Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. If you found value in the podcast, please take the time to rate and review and share with others. Share with your friends as it is my goal to always improve and to provide the highest value for you, the listener. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions you'd like answered, please email me at CEO@raincanada.com. that's CEO@reincanada.com. i look forward to hearing from you. And until next time. Patrick O.