bonesurfer

As the title says, this post is about my observations working for a stage orange company during this crisis. I work for a large chiropractic chain in the US. As I have worked there, it has become apparent that the company is hollow of any motive beyond profit. It's really not about empowering people. It's about sales, baby! This attitude has not changed one bit despite the challenges this crisis has brought about. There has been very little leadership by way of increased safety for the employees and customers. The president declared a state of emergency, and our "response" was to remind the doctors there to maintain sanitation procedures that were already in place. Our website posted a "ways to stay healthy amid COVID-19" advertisement that I consider to be of extremely poor taste. For those wondering, no a chiropractic adjustment will not help you overcome a coronavirus infection. As lockdowns took hold, we were told that we were essential, and that's all I heard for days. People are dying, risk is going *way up* but guess what, WE'RE OPEN!! There were several memos sent out by the company declaring that "it's all hands on deck", but they only discussed patient retention. Sales amid a major crisis. This was closely followed by a series of memos where the company washed its hands of any consequences concerning the health and welfare of its workforce. No extra protections. No extra paid sick leave. If you become infected, you do not qualify for additional healthcare through the company. Imagine being told a tidal wave is coming at you and the head of your company is wanting to talk about sales. "Guys, our key performance indicators are down. Make sure to say the customer's name 3 times during your interaction as this will improve your conversion rate." Despite the risks to it's staff (many of whom are at a high risk for a severe coronavirus infection; think, elderly and the chronically ill) there has been no attempt to provide PPE, or even simple screening equipment such as thermometers. Really, it's been a big "business as usual". Of course this represents the frustrating and dangerous aspects of stage orange thinking. Profit motive over all, abusing privilege, corporate legal risk assessment. I took on a year at this company, considering myself firmly in stage green SD, wanting to transition into stage yellow. I really want to integrate the lessons I'm learning about stage orange here. I must admit, it has given me an appreciation for the power of compassion amid this crisis. The people I work for are undoubtedly evil. They value money over health, but I don't think it's out of malice. They are simply trying to survive. So here are the positive aspects I've seen emerge amid this crisis: - strategic implementation of privilege amid a crisis. Goddam, as most other chiropractic offices have simply shutdown, these guys are still kicking. Business is down, as is true for many aspects of the economy, but this company is following through with expansion plans! ... and that's it. I fucking hate this company, and all the shenanigans it's put me through. I will be moving on swiftly once my contract has run its course. Thoughts? What else could I be getting from this experience? Does this message coincide with your experiences? Do your experiences differ? I really want to hear what's on your mind!

How's the business going amid the recession? Are you seeing any growth yet?

@Roy What kind of business are you starting? Are you working on the ground, IRL as they say, or on the internet?

You guys are doing psychedelics through this? I know I would be FREAKING. What are your insights?

Movement up the spiral is usually precipitated by a crisis. Hard times bring on strong people, as they say.

I'll put together a list of books that I have found that look promising, but full disclosure: I have never read these, thus I cannot recommend them. Sex Matters by OSHO

The Way of The Superior Man seems stage green. It operates from an archetypal perspective: masculine and feminine.

@loub I did not know that. I'm glad I reached out on this forum. I think you're right, going through the book is going to be too much for this retreat. Still, I'll be looking forward to going through it in the future. @Gneh Onebar I read Mindfulness in Plain English about 7 years ago, and have had a pretty consistent vipassana practice since then. I've been on a couple of the Goenka retreats, so I'm somewhat familiar with how my body is going to react over the course of this solo retreat. Thanks for the encouragement!

Hey all! I'm about to head out for a 7 day solo retreat I thought some of you might find interesting. I feel like I'm needing a recharge from work, as I'm in a stage of material building- in other words, my work is not my passion atm. So, I have rented an off-grid cabin in a beautiful area and will be getting fucking austere, baby! I'm wanting for this retreat to be a reset for my body and mind, thus I will be restricting my caloric intake for the first 5 days to around 850 per day. That amounts to about a small plate of food per day. Mostly vegetables and nuts. If you're at all interested in fasting, I can totally recommend Valter Longo's Fasting Mimicking Diet. It has helped me with an autoimmune disease tremendously in the past. --Consult your doctor before taking on any new diet plan.-- I will be bringing only a few things for my mind to chew on. One is meditation, simple as that. I will be meditating for at least 3 hours a day. The other is Peter Ralston's The Book of Not Knowing, which I assume will be taking much of my attention during the retreat. Finally, I will be bringing along a mushroom chocolate to eat on day 3 of the retreat- Amazonians, I'm told. I'll be bringing a journal to record my thoughts. I'll post the results when I'm done! Let me know if you have done anything like this before or if you have any ideas/ tips to make the retreat a success! Peace and Love!

@Gneh Onebar That looks exactly like what I'm up to on this trip. Leo's obviously pretty hardcore about these things.

@loub Have you read the book? It's full of exercises that supposedly help to put one in touch with Self. No doubt, without the book lots will indeed come up!

I don't miss facebook at all. Will be taking this advice and unplugging for a good while with other forms of social media.

Woah. This is high quality stuff. The prayer over the food is quite powerful. Thanks for sharing!

I've been struggling with this for the past few years after taking the LP course. There is a bit of a conflict between some of the top career authors out there: Follow your Bliss ala Joseph Campbell, or Master your Profession via Cal Newport. I struggle with this because I have just graduated from an expensive chiropractic school that has taken quite a bit of time and energy to get through. I generally dislike the career path I've found myself on, wishing instead to focus on art. Still, I understand the art field is littered with bullshit as well. So, the question I have for you all is, how important do you see medium in life purpose? Should I suck it up and plow through to master chiropractic (where I have established power and skills) or will I be wasting my time by not building skills in a more artistic medium? Thanks in advance for all the advice and opinions!

I do think that reading and self-study are the best courses of action in your case. Taking on a multiple month project before reading a few books is putting the cart before the horse. I became a chiropractor without considering whether or not I loved the work first. Fail fast. Having said that, I'm a big fan of the functional medicine movement. Some literature I can recommend includes: The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo The Neurogenesis Diet and Lifestyle by Brant Cortright The Disease Delusion by Jeffrey Bland The Autoimmune Fix by Tom O'Bryan

Hey all! So I've been doing reading about marketing for service based businesses, and have some ideas about what I need to do to get my natural healthcare business off the ground. I'll share with you my strategy and am interested in seeing what you all are putting together as well! Objective: I'm trying to make a stage yellow business that I have fun doing while also being able to remain autonomous of any specific location. I also want to attract clients to my practice and develop leverage in my work. As a healthcare provider, I think I've found an easy in to play with food. My idea is to make a series of videos surrounding healthy cooking. I also know I need to develop a website, and create content for that website that funnels traffic to my services. I know this seems pretty dispersed, but I see them as all necessary to develop a strong presence online. I have a list of websites that potential customers visit that publish content dealing with natural healthcare. I'm wanting to franchise my writing to these websites in effort to drive traffic to my page. These are pages like (mid tier) mindbodygreen.com, greenmedinfo.com, curejoy.com, among others. I'm hoping to take this collection of articles and to make a book from them at some point. I plan on joining the institute of functional medicine in addition to other state and local organizations that are involved with natural healthcare. Materials I will need include: - a kitchen set for making food videos - an office set for making lifestyle and general information videos - a website I'm wanting to write 2 website articles a week, over 2,500 words and a video every 2 weeks. I have a budget set at $300 for the month to make this happen. Sticking points: - I need more time and energy to make this happen. I am working 45 hours a week in clinic, and usually leave feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I'm basically doing this on my own. - To address this, I might hire a ghostwriter to write articles for me, hire a web developer to make my website, and outsource other tasks for which I don't have a ton of time to put in. Anyways, that's what I've got so far. Let me know what you humans think, and share your strategies here! Looking forward to hearing from you!

@Athena I probably would have been better served going your route. All through chiro school I was much more interested in doing this sort of work anyway. Will probably end up doing an internship with you guys anyway.

@Cocolove I have and am saving money to leave. I graduated from chiropractic school recently, and am working towards a form of healthcare called functional medicine, which combines diagnostic lab testing with lifestyle change to manage chronic conditions.

Hey all, I'm looking for a marketing guru to help me get my online company off the ground. I know this community has had some experience with Eben Pagan's marketing courses. I'm wondering, do you think the information there is still relevant? Is there somewhere else I can go for information like that? Anything less expensive, or are his products worth it? Thanks again, y'all!

Hey all, I've been working through the life purpose course, and am working on building a platform for holistic health focused on food and lifestyle. Looking around the marketplace, it seems the blog sphere, youtube, and facebook are totally saturated. Where are you guys going to promote your information and business? Thanks for the help!

@Garuda I'm still interested in learning about what you know about this. Do you have any resources for these shushka-vedant precedents?

@Garuda What's the precedent? If I'm being honest, the term Shushka seems to be of a political nature pointing out some sort of "heresy". What are the fruits of its practice? Who is it saying this is not the way, Advaita practitioners? The only anecdote I'm aware of is Leo's video on Zen devilry, although I'm sure there are plenty of instances where individuals have gone astray upon awakening. You may be on to something here, as he has in this thread admitted to suffering. He has also admitted to feelings of lust during and after his 30 day solo retreat. Yet, many spiritual teachers, even those today considered wise (even enlightened) have had a host of vices (in my opinion) far more heinous. I can't say I know what this dude's personal life is like. Is it possible that when he says I, that he means it in the non-dual sense? Whatever, I can believe that he really means it. I can see exploration of the topic to be very tricky. What is the ultimate form of God? How can we know for sure? Is there more Maya to unravel once one has experience of "omniscience"? And what about love? Leo is right, nuclear war does not seem loving to me. I'm wondering if it would be possible to elucidate a love that includes destruction in that way. So, if this is Shushka, what is the prognosis? Madness? Is the way further illuminated by the act that brought one there in the first place? If you have integrated into infinity, where is there to go?

Do you have any record of your transformation of consciousness? I would love to know what your experiences are like.

@Leo Gura do you consider yourself suffering as a result of these awakenings? I've had intuitions of solopsism in the past, and it can be quite freaky! I'm under the impression that since you are aware of an infinite love that there is probably a difference in experience. Any take?

Chiropractor here, hence the name. I usually tell my patients to do exercises that will help. I recommend the Stuart McGill big three, explained in detail on this site. (not mine) These exercises are specifically designed to be neuroprotective, and will help you move better throughout your life to minimize continued damage and pain. There's a great book about using these exercises to help strongman Brian Carroll to rehab after splitting his sacrum! Other than that, go see a sports chiropractor in your area. They're usually pretty legit, as they work with people who need legitimate results and fast! Good luck out there!