Episode 23: Courageous Alignment with Matthew Teusink: Alignment as a Way of Life

SPEAKER_01 0:08

What if pain is not the first sign something is wrong? Just the moment your body can no longer whisper. In a culture that teaches us to push through, numb out, and wait until discomfort becomes disruption, today's conversation is an invitation to listen earlier, move wiser, and think about healing in a completely different way. This episode is about alignment, not just of the spine, but of lifestyle, performance, prevention, and the quiet intelligence of the body itself. Welcome to Courageous Alignment, everyone. I'm your host, Cher, and today we have a special guest. Joining us is Matthew Tusink, a chiropractor and acupuncturist who has spent more than 30 years helping people understand their bodies before injury forces the issue. Through his practice in Fountain Hills, Arizona, he has built a reputation for preventative individualized care, creating step-by-step treatment plans tailored to each person rather than relying on one size fits all protocols. He's worked with everyone from everyday patients to competitive athletes, including runners, cyclists, power lifters, swimmers, and Ironman competitors with a focus on performance, recovery, and long-term well-being. He's a graduate of Life Chiropractic College. He is also board certified in physiotherapy and acupuncture. In today's conversation, we explore what the body reveals before pain arrives, why true healing requires courage and awareness, and how alignment becomes a way of life, not just a treatment plan. So let's begin with the root, the philosophy behind the work, the lessons that shape it, and what Matthew has learned from decades of helping people come back into balance. Matthew, welcome to Courageous Alignment. I'm so grateful you're here. Your work sits at the intersection of healing, awareness, and prevention. So let's start with the story behind the work. What first led you into this field?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Well, I started in chemical engineering, of all things. And within a year, I figured I wasn't going to be doing that at all. So I started looking for other things. I remembered when I was about 11 years old, I was riding my bicycle out on the trails and was going down a steep hill into a bunch of trees, and somebody had strung a cable from one tree to the other. My bicycle handlebars caught it. I flew into the next tree, and when I woke up, I couldn't move my neck.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

So being the tough guy that I was, I cried all the way home. My mom took one look at me and she said, Get in the car, we're going to Dr. Oaks. And I was like, Who is Dr. Oaks? And she's like, He's a chiropractor. I'd never heard the word for if I had, I didn't know what it meant. And we got up there, and of course, we walked into the waiting room, and there were people there, and they hooshed me forward, just the nicest, joyful looking people. And uh he took me back and took an x-ray, and he goes, We can fix this. Showed me on the x-ray, which meant nothing to me at age 11, but got me down on the table, turned my neck, and made this huge pop noise, which I don't recommend. You're 11 years old, but Steve stood up and my neck worked. And it was a miracle, it really was. And I totally forgot about it. Within, you know, a couple of years, I was busy in high school and went off to college to do that whole chemical engineering thing. But when I didn't like that, I thought, what was I gonna do with my life? I thought, man, this is the one thing that was really miraculous in my life. And so we didn't have the internet then, so I had to go to the uh library, copy down all those addresses, write those letters by hand, get that information, and uh it worked out. It was really nice. I ended up down in Marietta, Georgia, Life Chiropractic College. It was a lot warmer than Michigan, and I enjoyed it a lot.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Sure, that's great. So, what brought you to Arizona then?

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Arizona. When I was young, I had a set of cap guns, a hat, boots, and vests, and I would sit and watch gunsmoke. And I was determined to go west.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

And uh I did. I stopped and bought cowboy boots on the way. Then I got here, and everybody was in running suits and tennis shoes. It was such a disappointment. It took me about a decade to finally get around to riding horses, which I really wanted to do, and uh spent some time doing that, loved it, but I bung up my spurs now.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

No more riding for you, huh?

SPEAKER_03 5:17

I don't bounce like I used to.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

It's great. Great story. You have been practicing for over 30 years. What was the moment or experience that first taught you healing is not just physical, but deeply personal and individual?

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Not one moment, but a bunch of them. And it's uh it goes like this person comes in and we start working on them. And, you know, I try to make it easy for people to talk and tell me their history and what's going on and all that stuff. But lots of times you don't realize that there's more to it than just, you know, you're sitting at your desk and your neck tips forward or that car crash you had. So I'll be working with somebody and say hello back, and it just won't come around. We're working, we're doing everything right, they're doing their exercises, it just doesn't come around. And sooner or later it slips out that they're a in an abusive relationship, um, they have money problems, something like that, and they'll start talking about that. Well, as you're working on them and they're talking about that, it changes everything in their body, and you can actually do the adjustment different. Oh, wow. Muscles loosen, things come apart. And when you you don't even have to really base those things, but you do have to recognize them and realize that the body's energy, just like your emotions are energy, just like your mental thoughts are energy. We're all energy, it's just different densities, and and it gets more supple when you're addressing the problem.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah, so another interesting is people, men especially, right before they're gonna go on vacation, throw their back out. It's so weird.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I have not heard that. Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_03 7:08

So two weeks before it's a big vacation, they get excited and they get nervous, and maybe it's about all the money they're gonna be spending. I don't know. But it inevitably they'll come in and go, listen, we're leaving in 10 days. I need to be fixed. And uh, I know in my head when they say we're leaving in 10 days, then we start talking about what the vacation's about, who's gonna be there, all that stuff, and if it's family, then we thought about the family stuff and address it. And uh, it makes the adjustment just work.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So your practice emphasizes a step-by-step care plan rather than a one size fits all. Um, what does true individualized care mean to you?

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Just that. I don't put people on a plan. It's not three times a week for three weeks, two times a week for three weeks. It's nothing like that. You come in and we look at what you got today. Now you everybody's different. People who are in really great physical shape can handle more adjustments quicker. Um, some people can handle it really two or three days in a row. Um, we rarely do three days in a row, but sometimes I'll tell the person to come in right away the next day so I can get on top of it and get it moving again. But then we start going, all right, how are you doing now? Start deciding, can we do go to two times a week right away? Lots of times that's what we do. And so the three, um, because they're gonna, if they're gonna do their exercises, they're working on this. A lot of these people have a lot of agency and they are really involved in their health. And if I got somebody like that, I don't have to do as much for them. I just have to check up on them, do a minor adjustment, and then they do most of the work. The preventative care. Other people, however, need a lot more babysitting. And uh, you know, and they know it. They're like, I'm not doing any of those exercises, so you can just forget about it. I'm like, I'll see you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

And they love coming in, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Yeah, you know, they're like, great, let's do it. Just let Dr.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Matt take care of it all. I won't, I won't become aware of anything.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Exactly. And you know, everybody's where they're at, man. Don't judge them.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

That's right. That's right. Oh, very good. In your experience, what are the earliest whispers the body gives before the pain becomes a shout?

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Usually it's the person starts losing energy and they don't really notice it. Um, start shirking their walking, things are maybe tough at work, so they're working through lunch and they're not getting good nutrition. It's little things like that that set you up for it. If you're treating it great, it's gonna respond great. If you're treating it poorly, it's gonna respond poorly. And these little whispers are just that. Now you get the nagging little neck pain. But you can take an ibuprofen and it goes away. And that pain didn't really go away. You just, you know, masked it up really good. And now, six weeks later, ibuprofen is important. Else, you've got to go get this taken care of. Generally, that's when a person starts showing up. They're like, my doctor sent me, it said it had to be fixed. Or my buddy at golf said, Go see Matt. You need to get this thing taken care of.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Right. How do you help patients reconnect with their body signals instead of overriding them?

SPEAKER_03 10:23

When we're doing the adjustment, I try to point out what's going on. They're on the table. I'm going up and down their spine, feeling what's what and what's where and what needs to be fixed. And as we're doing that, we start talking about how the thing happens with the body. As the head tips forward, it starts stressing the spine, and these little things come up. So while we're working on it, I try to explain this is this way because you got this going on. If you learn to sit up straight, it'd be great. The problem is, is most of the things we do, working on the computer, driving the car, leads to it over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

I've heard of this thing called techneck. Yes. Do you deal with a lot of that from people being on their phones and their laptops and it's so expected that I mention it, I say do what you can, but I know that we have to do these things.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

I do these things. You know, I mean, it'd be like being a police officer and pulling people over for speeding.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

And you know you do it. Right. Yeah, right. It's difficult. Uh uh, so I try not to be too judgy. I just kind of remind like, if you can, it'd be great for you to do this little exercise called Superman. Hands out in front of you, stretch your feet out, face down, and then look up so you don't run into any building. And that will reactivate those muscles in the back of your neck so that they start the day route. And uh, it's super simple, five seconds. It'll turn those muscles on. Otherwise, you've been on the pillow all night with your head flexed forward, you're gonna get up and have your head flexed forward. But if you could just activate those muscles, you're not trying to strengthen them, they don't really have room to get bigger, but they just need to be turned on, they're super strong.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

That's great advice. Thank you. So healing often requires courage, courage to slow down, change habits, courage to face discomfort. What patterns do you see in people who heal well?

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Uh they're outrageous because they're there's a certain person who heals really well, and they're the people who have co agency and they have humility, and they are willing to listen and they're willing to do what it takes, and they will stop or at least slow down whatever it is they're doing. They're willing to cancel a golf game, they're willing to postpone a run, they're willing to do these things, and if they can do that and give their body just a little breathing space, it's miraculous. It can really heal. But if they're gonna push through, those are the people who end up with real bad chronic injuries, uh, and you they have to sing you a lot more often. And you know, I don't mind seeing people, but I would rather them be better. And uh plenty of people to see it.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

And get back to the preventative care rather than still they they're the kind of people that they listen to the little whispers.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

They're like, uh, you know what? I may have pushed that run a little too hard. I was running with some friends and went a little tough at the end. And they're smart enough, aware enough to the next run take it easy. Even if that's not what's on their schedule, even if that's not what their coach has for them. They will they will back it off, let the coach know, hey, listen, I did a hard run that day. I needed to get this back. They are that into, especially the endurance athletes and the power lifters and the bodybuilder guys, they are just really circumspect about how the posture is, what their energy's like, their nutrition. I mean, they they call for Athlon, they say it's really four sports, nutrition being the fourth, it really is so important because their their systems they take a beating, and digestive just systems take a beating as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Sure. What does courageous alignment look like through the lens of chiropractic and preventative care?

SPEAKER_03 14:12

It looks like getting a getting ready to change your life. You got to stop, slow down, take stock of what's going on, and make small changes constantly. It's not all of a sudden you're just gonna jump into something new because it's not possible lots of times. But it is okay to say, hey, maybe I shouldn't do it that way. Maybe I should do it with the proper posture this time. Maybe I should watch my footwork. Maybe I should get out and walk in the morning to loosen up my feet, my hips, my joints, and get the breathing going, get the blood circulation going so that I, you know, it can take some courage because you got to change your lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

That can take some time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Oh, yeah. And a lot of energy. It really does, because you know, you're especially if you're in a family and you have a routine, and now you gotta change that routine for the whole family, it can be a big deal. It's really a hard, hard thing. They get you really have to get everybody on board with your heel. You can't just do it alone. More to it. You have to have everybody buddy involved, and you gotta reach out and ask for help.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

You've worked with Iron Man competitors, powerlifters, runners, cyclists, people who push their bodies to extremes. What do elite athletes understand about alignment that the average person doesn't?

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Cyclists go into an office and they have their bike put on a machine. And they get on that bike with the clothing they're going to wear on a race. They videotape it from the side, from the front, from the back. And then the computer reads all of this. They have little dots put on their knee, on their hip, on their shoulders. Everything is caught on this computer. And it's the software goes through and sees where the inefficiencies are and takes it to such a degree that, you know, you think raising your seat is a move it up quarter inch oil. They're doing millimeters at a time. And they're changing their pedal alignment. They're changing the length of the crank, they're changing their handlebars to a more narrower grip or raising the front up or bringing it down. It's just one thing after another after another. You get into the power lifters, and they have special shoes that they use. They are different thicknesses of sole in the front and the back. They strap in to hold them perfectly right. They have a belt, but if you touched it, you may hurt yourself, get hurt badly because that's their belt and it's broken just for them. Noted. Yeah. They uh they're very particular about their equipment. They have favorite wrist straps to hold on to the weights when they're training. They every training. Some guys get on the treadmill and warm up, some guys get on the bike and warm up, some guys get in there and just do light weights for a while and get everything functioning right before they go to who's coaching them. Watching. And getting you, you, if you listen, they're giving little spotting devices. They're saying, hey, bring your hind and back a little bit. Your feet are not in the right spot. Make sure your foot's straight. Um, uh, the bar's too low on your back. And uh just one thing after another after another. And these guys are they know it for themselves and they know it for the other person, and uh it's really a a culture.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah, so just to have that right posture before they oh posture is everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

It makes everything go well. You can lift so much more if you're aligned up right. And then we get in the gym and pretend if you don't have somebody like that that knows what they're doing, you can do well. Right? You can have a great time. But if you want to go for competition, you everything has to be dialed down just perfect.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

If you could teach every person one preventative practice that would change their long-term health, what would it be?

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Can I do more than one? Sure. Yes. Well, first of all, I'd have them do that little Superman. Lay down on your belly, put your hands out in front of your face. Now, when you do this, generally your head's too far forward. So put two pillows underneath your chest, longs, and then you'll be able to lift your head up. Otherwise, you're gonna smother yourself. And uh as six months or a year go by, you'll be able to get your head back far enough. But you're trying to get that head up in line with the spine, and gravity's gonna be pushing down on you. So it's not like just standing up straight. That's great, but this actually puts a little pressure on it. Count to five. If you can get to five, you're doing great. If you can get to 15, you're in the zone. And uh get those hands out in front and lift and just bring it back so that the shoulders roll back and the head rolls back and aligns with the whole spine and it activates those muscles to get them moving. Next thing, walking. When you get the feet moving, you get the knees moving, you get the hips moving, that figure eight in the bottom of the spine starts moving. The bottom bone, the sacrum, is uh more of a sponge than a bone. And when you're walking and breathing, it is squeezing the fluid from the bottom of your spinal cord back up to your brain, and it does it really, really well if you're moving. And when that happens, you get clear-headed. When you're not doing that, everything back there is pretty stagnant, and it takes about all day for those fluids to go around.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

You get in the That's especially for people, I suppose, that are sitting at a desk all day just to get up every so often and it's walk around.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

It's just, yeah, uh you gotta get the I mean you gotta get the rust knocked off those joints anyways. Right. It's uh I didn't uh coming from Michigan, I understand rust. Um the other thing I would suggest is hanging from a chin-up bar. If you can get your hands up on a chin-up bar and get a box underneath you so that you're not putting your full weight on it, and just let your body weight stretch your arms out. Your arms are dangling by your side all day, every day, and it eventually bends the bones of the shoulder downward. And now when you go to reach up above your head, there's something impinging it. You can't get those glasses off the top shelf, and it hurts. If you can start stretching that, you'll stretch that bone back. That bone will actually change its position. Uh, hanging on that for 10 or 20 seconds every day makes a huge amount of difference. I was at my mom's house last month and her neighbor came running over to me. He goes, I'm 75 years old and I just gained an inch. I was like, What are you talking about? He goes, I've been hanging. I love it. I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, I hang every day, sometimes two, three times a day for like 10, 20 seconds. He goes, This is stretched out. I went from 5'9 to 5'10 at 75 years old. I was like, You've got to be kidding me. He's like, No, I gained an entire inch this year.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Wow. Yeah. A new definition for hanging. Yes. Come on over, let's hang. Let's hang.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, we can start a whole new I love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Chiropractic care interacts directly with the nervous system. How do stress, emotional load, and lifestyle show up in the spine?

SPEAKER_03 21:45

People under stress, they feel the weight of it. I mean, it's more than a cliche. It really the heavy emotions are heavy on your body. They they collapse your chest, your ribs don't open well. That bows your back forward. Now your head has a tendency to fall forward. We already have technec going on, so it's double trouble. These people with heavy emotions, whether it's grief or sadness or despair, it really, really impacts them. Now, move over to the Road Rangers, and it's a whole different thing. They got tension across their chest and tension across their back and then their hips. And those people have trouble too. I mean, it's a whole different outlook. And when I get them on the table, I can tell which is which. And really, yeah. Yeah. It's it's pretty interesting. Now, the people who are hopeful and take the time to push the shoulders back and get that serotonin rush of feeling confident, they have a lot easier time healing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

I bet that makes sense. Do you see a connection between someone's mental emotional state and their physical healing trajectory?

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Yes, because of that. Because just those things we talked about. Those people who, even if you're down and out and grieving, if you can force yourself to fake it for a few seconds, it really changes how fast you're going to heal. Grief tends to roll the shoulders in and down. And there's a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah. In our world, for sure. For sure. You're a board-certified acupuncturist. How do you see acupuncture complementing chiropractic work and restoring alignment?

SPEAKER_03 23:28

Well, we just talked about all that tension. Acupuncture is beautiful at releasing that tension. We get those needles in there. By the way, they don't hurt.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

I'll say that with the caveat. Every once in a while you hit a nerve and it happens, but it's pretty rare. Um the needles are super tiny and they're getting tinier as I get older and harder to see. So I do have a pair of cheetah glasses. Well, we get those out, and acupuncture is still not completely understood. But if you think about the body and the energy around the body, think about those acupuncture needles as little antennas, picking up that energy that's stuck and stagnant in the muscle and transferring it over across one to the next, almost holographic. When you put that needle in, it transmits it, broadcasts the whole body, and uh and the bubble body talks back to it. And uh, it's really nice. I use a an all-steel needle that gets moms from one piece uh instead of a plastic tip needle.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Interesting. What misconceptions do people have about acupuncture that you wish you could clear up?

SPEAKER_03 24:41

I wish I could clear them all up, but there's uh we really is it is more of a mystery than it is unknown. We know the spots that work, we know the spots that help, the points that help with different things, and sometimes a spot between your thumb and your first spender is gonna kill pain in your neck, and it doesn't really make any sense, but that's where it's at. Um we know that works, but we really don't know why it works like that. Um, so there are some mysteries to it. I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of a biofield, and the energy around the body is not mapped. We know it's there. In school, we learned that the brain, a nerve from the brain cell went to the body and impacted a muscle cell, and that's how you moved your arm. Well, it doesn't work like that. Brains send the message through the nerve, the nerve doesn't even touch the muscle cell. It's uh it goes down and it hits the biofield around the muscle cell and gives it the information, and the muscle cells they interpret that information and they know what to do, but there's not a single thread going to each cell.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

You offer a free initial consultation. What do you wish more people understood about their bodies during that first conversation?

SPEAKER_03 26:01

That everything about them is about their body. You don't just have a sore knee. There's a reason you have a sore knee. So maybe something's bothering you. Emotions get involved in all of this. Um, you're not separate, your body's not separate from your thoughts, your body's not separate from your emotions. You're it's all one thing. They're just different densities. And energy is energy, is energy. We like to think of this table as being hard, and it is, but it's still just energy. It's just compact it down. And it's as easily affected microscopically. You feel the effects of it, but we don't know how to control it. And so you've got to get your whole body, your whole person um aligned. And those is where the craig just alignments come in. When you see it in somebody else, boy, start looking.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Spot it, you got it.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

You got it.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

I like that. What does aging well mean to you from a biomechanical perspective?

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Pretty much wrapping up everything we just talked about and put it in one little package. Aging well is going to take a whole person approach. You have to really incorporate your diet. Are you are you getting everything aligned? Are you going to your workout class? Um, are you looking at what water you're drinking? Um, it all comes together. And people think popping that hill, although that hill may be amazing, it's gonna have a much more difficult time working if you're not out with it. The aging is something that can happen. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

What do you think about filtered water, bottled water? It strips our water of any kind of nutrients. So what do we do to keep ourselves hydrated if we can't just drink water? What are those other nutrients that are good for hydration?

SPEAKER_03 28:06

There's a couple of electrolytes that I like to use. Um, relite is one of them, and uh, it's sea salt basically. But just to put those minerals back in. Puts in a little magnesium, it puts in a little bit of this, it puts in a little bit of that, you got Tiboron and everything else going in there uh to feed those nerve cells, to feed those muscle cells, to feed those bone cells. Um, you need to get that stuff in there. Um there's a couple other ones out there that are really good and they're escaping me right now.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

And uh you don't have to overdo it, just do it.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Good enough. If you could define the culture narrative around pain, posture, and physical alignment, what would you want people to believe instead?

SPEAKER_03 28:52

I tend to believe that they have hope and agency over their health. It's not that you have to age. I mean, I have people in my office that they look and act 20 years younger than they are, and they get away with it. They don't just do it once in a while, they do it all day, every day. And these people are not rare in Fountain Hills, and that's you know, there's a lot of retired people there, a lot of snowbirds there. And some of these people are incredibly active, and it's just it's possible. You just really have to take the time to do it and not give up your right to have good food, good water, stand up straight, walk smoothly, squat down to pick something up, don't bend over to pick something up. You just beg it for problems. And uh it takes an extra second. It does. You're worth it.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

And do things that make you feel some joy inside.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

As the as the cherry on top, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Definitely. I think that we're we've gotten into a place where financially it's become tough for a lot of people to take time out for joy. And uh and they don't often enjoy their job as much as I fight that a lot in the office. It's one of those things where we we at least try to make the visit a good time. There you're right. It's uh it's important to find that joy. And it's hard sometimes when you're working a long job with a lot of stressful people in a lot of stressful situations. Uh that joy's harder and harder to come by.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

To figure out how to unplug from it, detach enough. That's where meditation comes in. I mean, it's some it's a way, it's a form to detach anyway, and give some space around that.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Coming in here, you started me with a meditation, right? We did. I got up the stairs and I didn't know I was doing how to do this. I don't know anything about it. You got me right down, grounded, feeling good.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Yeah, it was perfect.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

I'm glad. I'm glad. What does living in alignment physically, mentally, emotionally mean to you personally?

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Well, there's a loaded question. I actually learned a lot about myself going over these questions for this earth.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah?

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Yeah. Wasn't bad, you know. It was just to get started, and I'd get out on a bike ride and it would hurt. Or I'd get on a run and it'd start to, I don't know, just kind of feel soft in the wrong way. And and so I went in and I got stem cells put in. And I got PRP done, and I got acupuncture done, and I had all my chiropractic buddies adjust my knee their way. And uh, it just kept bothering me. So I doubled down and I did more of everything. And I'm thinking, you know, if I can just pile on enough therapies that it's gonna go. Well, my knee was telling me no. And I was looking at my knee as the knee, and what's wrong with you? Instead of listening to my body saying, Hey, we need a break and you need to slow down. And started to get up one morning, August 3rd, two years ago. And my knee was swollen. Wow. Swollen. And I had just done a spin class the day before, and I didn't feel anything at all unusual. It was just the regular niggle uh talking to me, and I was like, whatever, no big deal. Went to bed that night, it all felt great. But when I woke up the next morning, it was done. I had to stop. I stopped running, I stopped cycling. I was able to sit on a stationary bike after about a month and go slowly around, but I've been cringed this the whole time. Uh um, I got back to doing the therapies, um, uh, got adjusted, got the uh needles done with the acupuncture, did more of the stem cell, did more of the DRP, and I went to see an orthopedic surgeon. And he said, Matt, you're in trouble. He said, Yeah, he said, you don't have enough cartilage to have surgery. And because you're a chiropractor, you can't have a knee replacement. It'll only last two years, you'll tear it to pieces with all twisting you do. And he said, So if you'd like me to get you a brace ordered, we'll do that. And he said, You can clunk around the office in that.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Lovely. Sounds like a great, a great way to live.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

So I went out of there pretty down and out and got thinking, well, what am I gonna do? And I I started looking at what's going on, and I realized that I'd been using exercise as a way to get endorphins, and I was using endorphins to feel good. I was trying to feel good because there were parts about me that weren't good, and I didn't want to look at them and wasn't setting good boundaries. I was trying to fix things all the time. I was always trying to be there, push it, make it happen. And I just needed to step back, and I come to realize that hey, you're the awake, not everybody else. You're the guy who needs to step back and learn to receive. You're the guy who needs to set better boundaries and stick to them. So my knee wasn't a problem, my knee was a voice, and it was trying to tell me that you're pushing through things that you need to handle, and it's all energy, right? And that knee wasn't a bad functioning piece of my body, that knee was part of me telling me to stop.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Yeah, screaming at you. By the time it was swollen, it's screaming at you. What is it that I else we need to do here?

SPEAKER_03 35:07

Every time I've cognited of one of those issues, my knee's gotten better. Great. And even today, like this nice stairway you have here. Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to do that six months ago.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Really?

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Yeah, wow, yeah. So it's really improved a lot. And so I started listening, my body started healing.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah. Good for you. Wow, that's quite quite an awareness, you know. I mean, it's it can be humbling to finally get there and realize, oh, this is about me, not about anyone else. It was quite humbling. I gotta tell you.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

Because I was looking to point some fingers. I gotta tell you.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That's that's how we work, right? As humans. That's right. And take a look. I always tell people, you know, sometimes you just gotta open that door and stare the boogeyman right in the eyes. And it's usually not as scary as you think. For listeners who feel called to work with you, what would be the best way for them to reach you and learn more about your practice?

SPEAKER_03 36:19

Oh, just call call the office. My daughter works with me, she runs the front desk, she's amazing. Um, she handles me so well.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

So what is the number that they call?

SPEAKER_03 36:28

480-837-5988.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

So if the spine could talk, what would it complain about the most?

SPEAKER_03 36:41

It would complain about tension we live with constantly. We just expect it to function without giving it any love. There was a chiropractor in Georgia, and he she had a sign out in front of her office that it said if if your spine was on your face, you'd brush it more often. And that is the truth. The idea is you never see your spine. You see the your teeth and you take care of them because other people see them and they know that you've taken care of them or not. But your spine, nobody knows whether you've done your exercises for the day. And people really glossing your teeth. Nobody wants to do it. It's a kind of a hassle, but you really got to get in there and work on that spine. It needs some love.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

One daily movement everyone should do.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Walking, if you had to have just one. If you could do the Superman and the hanging from the chin-up bar, also great.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Most underrated part of the body.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

The feet. The everything, the your spine works great, but the feet are what propel the knees and they propel the hip joints, and as the hip joints move, they swing the pelvis back and forth, and as the pelvis swings back and forth, it makes the sacrum, that little square in the middle between the dimples, or the little triangle between the dimples, that area starts pumping that fluid, and that fluid washes all the spine inside and out. It washes it up and down and really just brings nutrients and oxygen. There's no blood in there, it's just this clear fluid. And the blood comes up to the edge of it and transfers the nutrients over into that fluid, and that fluid is sealed against the rest of the body because it's got it's in there and it goes to your brain, and it washes up over your brain and then comes back down through the center. And walking gets all that started and makes it work.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Your favorite trail to reset your mind.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Well, I like the ones down at uh Phoenix Mountain, and they're beautiful. But the ones up at Brown's Ranch are so fun to run out. It's uh crushed volcanic ash. And it is soft and it is Where is Brown's Ranch? Go up Dynamite.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Past Trune.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Uh, or right at the end of Trun. I think if you turn at Alma School and go north about a mile and a half, it's up in there. And there's a there's a connector from Tima Dynamite to Alma School Dynamite, and then on from there. But that area right there is some of the best, nicest, smoothest trails you'll ever find. And they're really nice after a rain because it walks right through, all the dust is gone, and they're kind of spongy.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

So that's fine. If you don't want to run in the mud, there's the place to go.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Matthew, thank you for sharing your wisdom, your experience, and your deep respect for the body's ability to heal when we learn how to listen. This conversation reminds us that alignment is not just about posture or pain relief. It's about awareness, prevention, and the courage to make choices that support long-term well-being. To everyone listening, may this be your reminder to slow down, pay attention, and honor what your body has been trying to tell you. Thank you for joining us here at Courageous Alignment. If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, follow, and share it with someone who is ready to step into their truth. You can find more about Courageous Alignment services and upcoming retreats at www.courageousalignment3.com. And you can follow on Instagram at CourageousAlignment 3. New episodes drop once a week to help you rise, realign, and reconnect to who you truly are. Remember, when you are truly in alignment with your soul, your heart will follow and your mind will become its wingman. And life becomes much easier. Courageous alignment is where it all comes together. I'm looking forward to spending more time with you next week. Until then, stay aligned, stay present, and stay courageous.