World class athlete, college professor and bestselling author of the classic “The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior” Dan Millman offers us twelve gateways to personal growth in his outstanding book, “Everyday Enlightenment.”

1. Discover your worth – Life is full of gifts and opportunities; you will open to receive and enjoy them to the degree that you begin to appreciate your innate worth, and offer to yourself the same compassion and respect that you would give to others.
2. Reclaim your will – Inside you is untapped strength of will, of spirit, of heart. You have only to remember your purpose — great strength of will resides within you, waiting for expression.
3. Energize your body – If you lack vitality, nothing else matters. If you have your health, anything is possible.
4. Manage your money – it can serve you or bind you, depending on how you manage it. Clarify your goals and use your gifts, and you can make good money doing what you enjoy while serving the higher calling of your soul.
5. Tame your mind – You perceive the world through your beliefs, interpretations and associations. As your mind clears, you perceive reality simply as it is.
6. Trust your intuition – Your subconscious mind holds keys to intuitive wisdom, clear sight, and untapped power. All you have to do is look, listen and trust, paying attention to dreams, feelings, and instinct.
7. Accept your emotions – emotions are like waves on the sea or weather in the skies, rising and falling on their own accord. You cannot control your feelings, so you are not responsible for your feelings, only for your response to them. Accept emotions completely, let your feelings be, just don’t let them run your life.
8. Face your fears – Fear is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Like pain, it can alert you and advise you, but may also cloud or limit your life. Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.
9. Illuminate your shadow – As an infant, you were pure potential, but in growing up you disowned parts of your being, and you became “this” but not “that.” By illuminating your shadow, you become whole again, and real.
10. Embrace your sexuality – Hungers and appetites for food, sex, and life are natural. If you suppress the power of your drives, you create obsessions, compulsions and guilty secrets. Life is not a matter of indulging or denying the energies of life, but of observing, accepting, and wisely channeling them.
11. Awaken your heart – Love is life’s great secret. Love endures not from words or feelings alone, but from actions that carry you beyond the interests of separate self. You are not here to contact your higher self; you are here to become it.
12. Serve your world – Service is both a means and an end, for in giving to others, you open yourself to love, abundance, and inner peace. You cannot serve others without uplifting yourself.

Most of us wish we could spend more time on vacation, but we forget that nature has provided for us a piece of every single day designed for our rest and rejuvenation.

If only it were that simple. Daily stresses can build up and interfere with sleep patterns, not to mention working overtime and feeling like there isn’t enough time to get everything done, much less get a good night’s sleep. That’s why it’s so important to get the most out of the sleep you do get, and here are some simple tips from helpguide.org to help you do so. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and you will have to experiment to discover your best sleeping patterns.

Tip 1: Keep a regular sleep schedule
Get back in sync with your body’s natural sleep–wake cycle. If you go to bed and get up at the same time each day, you will feel more refreshed and energized. Consistency is important, so set a regular bedtime, wake up at the same time every day, and nap to make up for lost sleep.

Tip 2: Make your bedroom more sleep friendly
You’ll sleep better when your bedroom is quiet. If you can’t avoid or eliminate noise, try masking it with a fan, recordings of soothing sounds, or white noise.  Keep your room dark and cool.

Your mattress and bedding are also important. Make sure your bed is comfortable. If you often wake up with a sore back or an aching neck, you may need to invest in a new mattress or a different pillow.  Experiment with different mattress and pillow firmness.

Tip 3: Create a relaxing bedtime routine 
A peaceful bedtime routine sends a powerful signal to your brain that it’s time to let go of the day’s stresses. Turn off your television, which actually stimulates the mind. And if you associate your bed with work or other obligations, it will be harder to wind down at night, so use your bed only for sleep and sex. That way, when you go to bed, your body gets that it’s time to nod off.

Tip 4: Eat right and get regular exercise 
Your eating and exercise habits play a role in how well you sleep. Stay away from big meals at night. Avoid alcohol before bed. Cut down on caffeine. Avoid drinking too many liquids in the evening. Quit smoking. And you’ll sleep more deeply if you exercise regularly, as little as 20-30 minutes each day.

Tip 5: Get anxiety and stress in check 
Residual stress, worry, and anger from your day can make it difficult to sleep well. When you wake up or can’t get to sleep, take note of any recurring theme, to help you figure out what you need to do to get your stress and anger under control during the day. Learn how to manage your time effectively, handle stress in a productive way, and maintain a calm, positive outlook. Try relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or simply visualizing a peaceful, restful place.

If you have questions about mattresses and pillows, ask your family chiropractor for his or her advice – doctors of chiropractic are often familiar with the various products and also with your particular needs, so make sure you have comfortable and properly supportive bedding – it will make a big difference in the quality of your sleep, and the quality of your life.

We hear a lot about wellness these days, but it seems to mean different things to different people.

For some, wellness is fitness, good muscle tone, proper posture, and being in shape. For others, wellness is eating right, avoiding processed foods, preservatives and food additives that clog their bodies, instead concentrating on fruits and vegetables and other fresh, whole foods. Others still think wellness is in the mind, and that positive mental attitude and an optimistic outlook on life is wellness. Who is right?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines wellness as “the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.”

The American Heritage Medical Dictionary says wellness is “the condition of good physical, mental and emotional health, especially when maintained by an appropriate diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications.”

Mosby’s Medical Dictionary says wellness is “a dynamic state of health in which an individual progresses toward a higher level of functioning, achieving an optimum balance between internal and external environments.”

It’s a Blend
These definitions help us to understand that all of the abovementioned people are right in pursuing wellness in their own way. No one has to be wrong for each of them to be right. And it seems like blending the different pathways to wellness can make it more personalized, more effective for each individual, and more fun as each person creates his or her own best quality of life.

Notice that each of the definitions quoted here includes an intention to be well, and a willingness to do what it takes to experience wellness. Different people use different combinations of lifestyle habits to get as well as they can, and many people have discovered that the right approach is to develop habits like good diet, sufficient sleep and rest, drinking enough water, exercising to keep fit, maintaining a positive attitude, and performing body maintenance procedures, like massage or meditation, and periodic check-ups for your eyes, your teeth, and your spine and nerve system.

Choosing Your Professional Wellness Team

Most people have a dentist, and if they have needed glasses to see better they’ve seen an optometrist, but many people have not yet learned of the importance of having a family chiropractor to take care of your spine and nerve system. Your nerve system is your body’s switchboard, connecting all the parts to the brain and to each other, and the spine protects the delicate nerves with bone. If the spine is healthy and the bones move properly, the nerve system is protected. But if anything disturbs the way the spinal bones fit together, like an injury or other stress, they don’t protect the nerves, and in fact can start to irritate them. This can cause pain and poor body function, and the way to prevent that is to get regular spine and nerve system exams, just like you get your teeth checked.

The doctor who specializes in the spine and nerve system is the doctor of chiropractic, also know as a chiropractor or DC. Most people think of the chiropractor as a back doctor, and it’s true that the doctor does examine the back to decide how to help you – that’s because the spine is in the back, and the doctor of chiropractic is interested in how your spine is working to protect or interfere with your nerve system. This doesn’t only affect back pain and neck pain, it affects all of your body’s functions that depend on nerves to carry information to and from the brain – your digestion, your breathing, your immune system and reproductive function all are influenced by nerve system control.

Chiropractors and Wellness

Chiropractors have been educating people about wellness for over a hundred years. Choosing good lifestyle habits, like good nutrition, rest, exercise, attitude and chiropractic care, has always been a part of the doctor of chiropractic’s recommendations – just remember that like all people, each doctor of chiropractic also chooses the blend of lifestyle habits that lead toward wellness. Based on that blend, your chiropractor may concentrate primarily on spinal care, leaving the remainder of the wellness habits and routines up to your discretion. Others have learned about and specialized in various other disciplines, like exercise, nutrition, sports, and many other areas of expertise.

So, when you combine these definitions of wellness, you can see that wellness is “a dynamic state of being in good physical, mental and emotional health, especially as an actively sought goal, maintained by an appropriate diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications, toward a higher level of functioning, achieving an optimum balance between internal and external environments.”

Ask your family chiropractor about which wellness habits he or she uses – it may give you some insight into how you can keep yourself healthy physically, mentally and socially, and improve the quality of your life by deciding which lifestyle habits are best for you.