Has the adventure been replaced with the routine? For the doctor of chiropractic the clinical experience cannot become a prison rather than one of life’s greatest adventures.
Most doctors of chiropractic begin their practices full of enthusiasm, treating their work as a fascinating adventure. Then sometimes negative things happen in life.
There are many reasons why one would drift from their life’s dream. Sometimes the doctor of chiropractic knowingly (or unknowingly) carries those negativities into their practice. They soon find their skill in the clinical art has been deadened, replacing their adventure with simply a routine. The clinical experience becomes a burden, a dreary duty to be performed, a habit, a prison rather than one of life’s greatest adventures.
Reawakening the spirit as a doctor of chiropractic
It is the spirit of love and of total commitment that protects a doctor of chiropractic against the dangers of professional routine, and constantly relights the flame of adventure. The best doctors understand that to become a person, to choose adventure and commitment, one needs encouragement in the quest for a meaningful life.
For me, the following quote sums up how and why the clinical art unites doctor and patient in their joined adventure towards a healthier life for both:
“The important thing, therefore, is the preservation or rather the re-awakening in oneself of the spirit of adventure. One must grow in adventure at the same time as one grows in knowledge. In my consulting room I am constantly aware of the danger of my work degenerating into routine. My patients are as aware of this as I am and are keen on avoiding it. If I treat them as just another job of work, they feel that they are just cases as far as I am concerned. If I retain the spirit of adventure, they feel that they are persons. The more learned a doctor is, the more he must cultivate the spirit of adventure in himself. Technical knowledge and science, repetition, and routine tend constantly to stifle the spirit of adventure. I must always be trying to retain it, to retain the indefinable freshness of outlook which makes me see my patient not as a case to be labeled, but a unique being, an opportunity for a unique experience. It is not only his life which is at stake, but my own as well. Our consultation is an adventure for me as well as for him. Then he will feel that my interest in him is not merely professional but personal. (Tournier)”
Joining together in a quest for wellness
I first read Paul Tournier, MD, “The Adventure of Living,” in 1976. This Swiss physician and author wrote to those who would welcome and be willing to expose the unexplored areas and hidden potential in their own lives. Are you one of them?
I was struck with how similar the philosophy of this medical doctor’s healing was to chiropractic philosophy and the clinical art.
Tournier believes the road to health starts when the doctor and the patient’s foundation of personal beliefs join in the quest for wellness. I have read and re-read his work many times and have applied many of his foundational “clinical anchors” to kept me from drifting into despondence in the clinical art and application as a doctor of chiropractic. Staying the course is the challenge, but the rewards of spiritual well-being and abiding happiness are within the reach of every chiropractor.
Gary Boring, DC, BCAO (Board Certified Atlas Orthogonal), LCP (HON.), FICA, graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic K.C. in 1968. His father graduated in 1934 from CCC K.C., and his brother in 1966. Boring Chiropractic has served patients for 86 years.
