Random Thoughts

As you can see, it has been a month and a half since my last blog post. I think I once revealed that the reason why I couldn't be a writer by profession is because I write only when I am deeply inspired to do so. But I challenged myself lately. I was recently appointed to the Executive Advisory Board of the American Association of Integrative Medicine. One of the requirements of being on the board is to write an article for the quarterly newsletter. That pretty much forces me to sit down and write, and what I write cannot be something I wrote and published beforehand. In fact, I've been awaiting the Spring issue of the newsletter so that I can use the article I wrote as my next blog post. The article is about my "three-tiered approach" to healing that is the method of operation I take in my private practice. Whenever it appears, I will post it here. But if you want a sneak peak, you can always check out my practice's website, which I updated since writing the article a month ago.

One thing I have been doing since I last wrote is making my own educational videos. They have been playing on community TV stations throughout the southwestern metro areas of Minneapolis. You can view them also on my practice's website. The manager of St. Louis Park community TV taught me how to film and edit my own productions. He was there looking over my shoulder for the first episode. The second episode was done entirely on my own, without any help. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. I am thoroughly enjoying these news skills I am experimenting with! Now with my own miniDV camcorder and nonlinear editing programs, I think I'm getting pretty good at this. The first program is on carpal tunnel syndrome. The second is on birth trauma. I am not sure what the next episode will be about. Since April is autism awareness month, I am thinking I will make it about autism.

Since we're on the topic of autism, I am not sure if I ever mentioned the class that I put together entitled "Living With An Autism Spectrum Disorder". I've taught it in Ellsworth, Wisconsin and Hastings, Minnesota already. Other community education programs actually balked at the topic because it was too "controversial". Anyway, I feel that as both a health care provider and somebody with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, I could be educative for people who are caretakers of or known a person who is autistic. Using the book, "Unwritten Rules Of Social Relationships" co-authored by Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron, both of whom are also on the autism spectrum, I share my own experiences, and I help people to get inside the head of the autistic person so that they can relate to and understand them better. It would be great if I could travel to anywhere in the U.S. teaching this class because it is so very beneficial for people to have this information. The only part of the class I have had  trouble from other people with is when I mention that vaccinations is one of the theoretical causes of autism. Although I do use the word "theoretical," I still get some pretty lame-brained heckling. But still, this is vital information that everyone that deals with the issue of Autism Spectrum Disorders needs to hear -- right from an audie!

This past week I met with the two directors of The Uteam4U, Inc., a consortium of experts that people can call upon to consult in various health and wellness areas. I was referred to them by the general manager of the place where I work part time after he heard that my goal, as a Holistic Physician, was to expand my expertise beyond the walls of my office. But when I saw that the directors were educational experts with autistics and people with cognitive disorders, the bulk of the conversation was about me and how I could possibly get ahead despite having these problems. Although this meeting ended on a very positive vibe, it has yet to bear any fruit. I don't count my chickens before they hatch. In fact, I don't count them at all anymore. In fact, in a conversation I had just tonight with a Minnesota native at the place where I work part time, I was told, "People in Minnesota say one thing and do another." Although I have lived in many different places and found this to be a universal truth, it is PARTICULARLY true in Minnesota.

On the subject of this blog, I once said that I would write more about health and wellness topics. It seems that almost all of my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts who are professionals like me, blogging is a staple, a weekly, if not daily, event. They always seem to have something to say and know every fact in every book. I can't say that I am so gifted. But I guess my new skill of producing my own TV shows will be the way I do my educating. Now I'll stop writing because if I continue I'll just be rambling.