By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

We’re approaching October and coming to a time when many chiropractors take off for year end travel. Nearly every DC I know takes a break away from the office during one (or more) of these upcoming weeks: Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years. While times like these out of the office can be fun, in practice I discovered it’s important these aren’t the only vacations we take.

Vacations are important to celebrate office and life wins and to keep oneself from burning out. Dr. Fred Schofield mentioned taking vacations for better living back in 2008, and he was right. Besides chiropractic relicensing, major holidays, and family commitment events, our plan has long been to take four vacations per year.

For many years my spouse and I would make plans in December for our four vacations the following year. Our rules were simple, take four 4-day trips (ours were Thursday through Sunday), in four new locations (places we haven’t traveled to before), ideally one for each quarter of the year. Also, for us these were no-kid, adult-time trips.

Travel could be by vehicle or air. We live nearby a major international airport (LAX) so for us, either option worked. As a weekday practicing chiropractor, this setup worked well since I could see patients Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then take four days off.

The idea of going to new locations each time came after a few years of hitting the typical SoCal vacation spots. Palm Springs, Las Vegas, San Francisco, etc. After a few years of trips not being what they were, we began getting creative, and came up with what for us was a phenomenal plan.

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My wife LOVES NFL football. I’m a fan too but she’s a fanatic (like I’m a fanatic for chiropractic). Every year, at least two of those 4 day trips were centered around going to see NFL games in cities we hadn’t visited yet. We typically did Thursday morning flights out, but sometimes took Wednesday night red eyes (especially for East Coast travel).

We visited NFL stadiums throughout the USA. Baltimore, Oakland, Dallas, Miami, Denver, San Diego, Pennsylvania, Ohio, you get the picture. Every trip was unique, and even when the games were bad, the trips were good.

We didn’t stay at fancy hotels, instead we tried to stay near enough to a stadium that we could walk to the game, and take in the local vibration. The hotel bars were always packed with fans (typically for the visiting team) and that was fun too. We’d enjoy dining at places locals ate, visited many local coffee shops (preferably independently owned businesses), and got plenty of walking in.

Camping became another common four day trip we’d plan every year. I really got into finding the most desolate off grid camping locations in California that I could. I developed a method for doing so by reviewing old army maps from the 1920s to 1940s, and seeing if those places still existed. It was amazing the discoveries we made. Looking back, these became our most favorite trips.

The four trips a year mantra became a central theme in my practice. By the time a patient was with me for 90 days, they knew I was going on vacation somewhere. Internally, it set me up for success. You’re always fired up to be back in the office the week you return, and seeing an entire weeks volume in three days (the week you’re travelling) was amazingly powerful. So that’s two guaranteed high energy weeks.

Looking back, I’m in an attitude of gratitude for listening to others, and developing this approach towards a balanced life and practice.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Chiropractors see new patients that come from all sorts of backgrounds and upbringings. I’d imagine nearly every chiropractor that’s been in practice ten years or more has many times heard “My dad was a chiropractor” during a patients first visit. Our initial reaction may be to get excited, because every kid of a chiropractor has a story to tell.

Recently a new patient in their mid fifties walked into an office I was visiting and said “My Dad was a Chiropractor.” I glanced at a doc who was standing nearby and we both replied “awesome!” Excited to hear their story I naturally responded by saying, it’s great you’ve been able to get adjusted all these years. The patient-to-be replied that he hadn’t been adjusted in quite some time, as he’d been unable to find someone who could adjust like his dad.

We’re supposed to be better at adjusting than the generations of chiropractors before us. If chiropractic were like professional sports, none of us would have employment. Learn to palpate & learn to adjust. That was the mantra of many chiropractors before me.

We have so much to be thankful for with everything that’s been prepared for us. Success in practice can come easy to the chiropractor of today, but perhaps that success is measured in Likes vs getting sick people well, and keeping the well from getting sick.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Nine chiropractors come to the office with me everyday. Sometimes there’s more, but each and every day I have the joy to be surrounded by at least these nine amazing individuals. On top of that, I get to adjust all the patients, which makes this the most amazing setup. Here’s how it came to be.

My chiropractic mentors have left such an indelible impression on me that they now follow me everywhere. They’re in my sleep, they’re in my office, they’re embedded in my mindset. Before my feet even hit the floor while getting out of bed each morning, these nine chiropractors are there, ensuring my day begins as taught when I was a student.

Good morning God, good morning God, good morning God. I feel great, I feel great, I feel great.

Since the day Dr. Fred Schofield embedded that mantra in my head, it’s played daily like an alarm clock. These are my now hard wired thoughts, recited since I first heard them in 2002.

When my feet hit the floor I transition to I feel healthy, I feel happy, I feel terrific. Whether I speak it aloud (which I frequently do) or not, this one is with me until I reach the bathroom. I first heard those words spoken in a dynamic fashion by Dr. Sid Williams. I was a chiropractic student at the time, and I had no idea how they’d transform me.

Regardless of what I do before I get there, everyone’s ready to go when I head to the office. Dr. Sid reminds me Serve for the sake of Serving, Give for the sake of Giving, Love for the sake of Loving.

I get to the office and go to unlock the door. If you want to be successful in practice, don’t forget to unlock the door, says Dr. John Hofmann. He’s there to remind me every single time I go to unlock the door, and he told me this in 1997. Thanks to those words, I’ve learned to unlock much more than the door to the office.

A Universal Intelligence is in all matter and continually gives to it all its properties and actions, thus maintaining it in existence.

There’s 33 Chiropractic Principles posted on the office wall, and my eyes go to them every day. I never met Dr. Ralph W. Stephenson but he’s there in the office nonetheless. During the past ten years, Universal Intelligence has been the leading topic in my office. I’ll cover the reasons for that in detail on a later date.

I go into an adjusting room for the first adjustment of the day and Dr. James Sigafoose (pictured above) is leaning in, every time. More than twenty-five years ago, when I was just getting started in chiropractic, Sigafoose leaned in as I was adjusting someone and said… If you’re questioning the listing, you’re already blocking the process.

Sigafoose used to physically hover over me while I slept. We were often room mates during our Chiropractic Missions to Panama, I’d open my eyes and he’d be standing there. At the time I thought he was goofing around but I later learned he was teaching me a state of heightened awareness.

As soon as somebody laughs I know Dr. Sharon Gorman is in the room, she has the greatest laugh. Like a big sister, she observes me frequently to make sure I’m following through. WWSD (What Would Sharon Do) is a go to thought for any office scenario that may arise.

Anytime I’m adjusting moms, babies and kids, there’s Dr. Jeanne Ohm, smiling, dancing, and doing what she does. In never set out to include pregnancy as a specialty but I think Jeanne had other plans for me. She didn’t tell me the babies I adjusted the day or week they were born were going to grow up, come in around age 18, bring their boyfriends & girlfriends, give me hugs, and make a special visit before they go off for college, thanking me for helping them to be who they are in life.

As I’m speaking with a patient, saying love is an entry level vibration for communication without words, Dr. Stew Bittman grins from ear to ear. I think Stew enjoys being in the office just so he can say I told you so. Language that early in my career I’d be afraid to communicate now flows like aqueous light (a fluidlike light energy we’re bathed in, referred to as ether in books of old).

For more than twenty years there’s been a photo on the wall of a chiropractor sitting at his desk, and for all those years patients have asked “Is that your dad?” The photo is of Dr. B. J. Palmer. We don’t look remotely alike and when I mention that to patients they reply that we have the same look in our eyes.

I mentioned at the beginning there are others, but those are my nine chiropractors, coming to the office with me everyday. I didn’t speak about this publicly until an in office occurrence in 2017. When you’re known locally as the chiropractor who speaks of love as an entry level vibration for communication, you attract the most interesting of people.

You may perhaps be thinking this is odd behavior, but assure you, for me it’s an event of reality. As the years have passed, I’ve come across so many writings from business leaders, monks, visionaries, and Sigafoose himself telling me this is no uncommon phenomena.

If you’re interested in going further, let me know. I’ll share what Nikola Tesla, Max Planck, Steve Jobs and others have said about bringing others to work.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

If you want to be successful in chiropractic practice don’t forget to unlock the door.  Those words were spoken by one of my many mentors very early in my days as a chiropractic student. Seemingly ordinary, patients will have a difficult time getting in for adjustments if the doors are locked. Ultimately extraordinary, being open to the adventure that this life will bring you, an infinity of possibilities limited only by the locks I alone create.

Somehow I got it right. Despite everything my smaller self may have done along the way to block, lock, and keep doors closed, the vibrations of my mentors continued to resonate, guiding me on a path that today I can say has been truly magnificent.

That’s my morning view in the photo above. Miles of rolling hills and a near six kilometer drive (one way) just to get my mail. This is one of my many “there’s no way possible this could remotely be true” encounters that being unlocked has led me to. Not a lot of patients here, but then we do more than just serve patients, we are servants to all of creation.

That brings me to the words of another mentor spoken to me decades ago. If you ever chose to be master, you must be servant to all. I first heard those words in 1997, and only this week I had the realization that was 25 years ago. Perhaps meaningless to you, but to me, I’m now on the other side of 25 years in practice. Words once spoken are known. They are my being, they represent who and what I am.

I’m not done serving, far from it. As Planet Chiropractic is on her verge of also turning twenty five, previously assumed locked doors have been found open, and I’m stepping through. I do hope you’ll join me.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

If you’ve been in chiropractic practice as long as I have you may know this experience well. Suppose you’re just getting started in practice and received your chiropractors license yesterday, this applies to you. From my perspective, not only are you a unique edition to this profession, you are a multifaceted, omni-directional, expression of life on this place we call Earth.

All paths lead to the same destination, but there are as many ways to arrive as there has been, or is to be, beings in existence.

Everybody has a story, and that’s one of the many facets of practice that I love. Every chiropractor has a story too, and I have long thought those stories are to be told.

I’m sitting on the stage with two gentlemen in a large conference hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. As we walk off after our presentations, individuals approach us and three mini crowds form. The one who helped in founding the worlds most popular search engine gathers the majority. The other, a founder for a more recent competitor, also draws attention. Then there’s the folks that gravitate towards me.

Speaking about search, search engines, data science and other associated topics has been a passion of mine for nearly twenty years. I can go all day talking about big data.

But you’re not here to be talked at about me, my apologies. I’m bringing attention to the topic because I know there are volumes of stories to be told. Your stories. Who you are in the world of chiropractic and in the worlds you so precisely balance into your life.

We are children, spouses, parents, stewards of humanity. We are also ball players, real estate agents, CEOs, assistant coaches, fashion models, Olympic athletes, lottery winners, musicians, professional photographers, crypto traders, restaurant owners, and the list goes on. We’ve had, are having, and will have experiences other than our ones as a chiropractor.

At times, we may have walked the same dirt on our paths through chiropractic life, but I’d like to get back to hearing more about your other journeys. More on this topic to come.