Health For Life

Spinal Curves, who needs them?

Doc Donovan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:27:19 +0000

The four spinal curves cushion the effects of stress and permit greater turning and bending

When you think of your spine, do you think of a straight row of bones that go from the bottom of your brain to the bottom of your back? In reality, the spine is made up of four different curves that provide balance and flexibility to your body and help prevent injury. These curves also allow the spine to support 10 times more weight than it could if the curves were missing! You can more easily see these curves when you view a model of the spine from a side view. The four types of spinal curves are: (more…)

She was overshadowed and the subject of much attention.

Doc Donovan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:04:24 +0000

Yes, Indeed and all the more beautiful while doing some high-altitude snowshoing with a friend of mine. We reached a late point in the hike where the winds were whipping and the darkness had the upper hand and somehow we entertained frozen fingers while fumbling for zippers and buttons on our mountaineering gear. All dramatic stories that end well usually smell of gratitude and simple pleasure. we found this hidden cabin in the Mt. Rose wilderness as the eclipse was moving into half of its initial crossing. Shortly thereafter a ripping fire, warm food, and relaxation time greeted us in a spacious way.

My friend Steve left many blessings behind including quinoa, agave nectar, and Hafiz’s book of poetry entitled The Gift. What gifts will greet future travelers?

The following afternoon after a 5 mile hike that lowered us over 3,000 feet I enjoyed an afternoon of treating patients. What a phenomenal day it was.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Doc Donovan — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:08:38 +0000

This should be a nice opportunity to play witness to our phenomenal world. Perhaps organize an evening around it. I know that I am.

A River Runs Through Us- February

Doc Donovan — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:23:08 +0000

“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”

– In memory of John O’Donohue, a rare form of human possibility.

Let’s jump right in this time, headfirst. Let’s give a little love to love;

after all, it’s what you’re made of. Some of us just have to dig a little deeper to get to the truth of who we are. Give thanks for the opportunity to join into something larger than ourselves that helps us transcend the myopic confines we entertain about our lives. I’ve heard it said that with love “all boats rise to the highest tide.” When there is love around, joy is always close by and when these are your co-pilots you’ve got reason to sing and put a little joy in every heart you connect with. (more…)

Dynamic Anatomy Workshop- February 12th

Doc Donovan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:15:28 +0000

Dynamic Anatomy Workshop:
With Dr. Taylor Donovan
Open Heart Asanas: Releasing the shoulder girdle:
A workshop on the neck, chest, upper back, and shoulders

Topics include:
~ how posture and health are tied together
~ anatomy and functional movements of the neck, shoulders upper back, and scapula
~ common distortions to healthy posture ~ stretches, asanas, and muscular strengthening exercises

For massage therapists, aestheticians, computer workers and anyone else who has slumped posture, forward head carriage, or works with their arms outstretched in front of them. If you have headaches, sore back, or fingers that go to sleep this information will be priceless.

Tuesday February 12th,
7:15- 8:30 PM
Reno studio
$22

Aging Parents and Your Health

Doc Donovan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:00:52 +0000

They call it the “sandwich generation,” caring for aging parents while you still have your own young children. Add to that a full-time job, children’s extra-curricular activities, maintaining a household and you’re often left wondering, “Just how do you take care of those who used to take care of you and take care of you too?

Keep in mind that the stress of caring for aging parents while you have your own family to care for takes its toll on you and your health. What can you do to maintain your health and your sanity? Here are a few suggestions: (more…)

Tell Someone That You Love Them

Doc Donovan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:29:44 +0000

Gravity and Grace

Doc Donovan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:16:53 +0000

My office sits a stone’s throw away from Virginia Street as it nears downtown Reno. It’s an area of contrasts: of adult themed stores, tattoo shops, antique shops, ethnic food restaurants and myriad other one-of-a-kind stores. It’s an interesting place to practice yoga, chiropractic, and the healing arts. I appreciate the juxtaposition and the tension that it provides. The ever-present reminder that we are never far from heaven or hell. It’s really this simple. We work incessantly to build our lives around security but wisdom tells us that the only consistent phenomenon is that of change. These bodies, these minds, these possessions, all will be folded back into the mix in a matter of time. We live in an uncertain world, a broken realm of sorts, where all sorts of self-fulfilling agendas are colliding all at once and each with its own predetermined outcome. The sacred and the profane, gravity and grace, life and death, these are the internal polarities that our lives are hamstrung between. There’s either grace, a pull up toward the heavens, or gravity, a push down to the ground. Where are you headed?

(more…)

Happy Old Year!

Doc Donovan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:12:17 +0000

You know what’s tiring?Always focusing on the future. Seriously. There’s this pervasive way of being in the world that is always excited about the next thing that seems to steal away the value of our present moment. I offer these words as a rebuttal to this forward-focused-around-the-corner-is-better-greener-grass attitude. (more…)

Poetry

Doc Donovan — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:45:57 +0000

Can I tell you something about this life that is so elusive. It’s edges. They appear so often to the mind as fixed points, like the years printed onto a tombstone and we control the dash in between. The running travelogue between start and finish but somehow fixed into that container so conveniently. And yet, these points are mere stillshots of an animate and wild joyride with sorrows of tragedy and elations of bliss. We really never know our edges and yet our mind puts a sensibility onto what we think we are capable of or what we are and aren’t. There are so many practices that bring us into this everpresent reminder that our edges are always shifting, sometimes volcanically, seismically, and other times like lulling lakeside ripples on a quiet day. Poetry discovered in me this awe of contemplation where reason is like a bull in a bullfight. Capable of being led, misled, injured, and entertained but always in the game. Poetry is a vehicle for transformation, a bent field of insight shedding light on a mind tempted to darken the edges so that summaries can be garnered. I share the following website because it has offered me many moments where it reinvigorated the dash that is my life.

http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html