Hi! I’m Allison, the newest member of the Next Level Chiropractic family. Through my blog posts, you’ll get a peek into the inner workings of my mind and the topics that are near and dear to my heart. Thank you so much to Dr. Homer and Sarah for welcoming me with open arms, and for giving me free reign to be creative and raw through these blogs!

Self-Liberation from our Conditioning
Where do our opinions, our biases, and even our dogmas come from? And do we take the time to think about these kinds of concepts…to analyze our structure, or lack thereof when forming opinions or making decisions? How much of what and how we think comes from our conditioning?
Condition-to have a significant influence on or determine (the manner or outcome of something)
To make this topic relatable, I’d like to use myself as an example. For the first half of my childhood, my mother was married to a man with a very dominant personality and alcoholic tendencies. He was very much the type of person who tried to control the people around him to feel secure within himself, even if he had to inflict fear to do so. My mother, my sister and I were malleable in his hands, bending to his commands to keep the peace. My sister and I weren’t exactly raised by him to be confident, compassionate girls, encouraged to follow our dreams. Additionally, my family moved a lot and didn’t settle until I was 12. I was a flower being blown whichever way the wind chose; I was adaptable. I grew into a very soft spoken, shy young woman with more focus on survival than actually being someone. I didn’t know that my way of thinking was unhealthy. I didn’t know who I was, what my interests were, what I wanted to be when I grew up, or what kind of impact I wanted to make on the world. Attention from people terrified me, I much preferred to adapt to my surroundings than stand out from them.
Liberation- the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release
It has taken me a long time to realize that I am someone; someone who is not small, someone with aspirations, someone who wants to make an impact on the world, someone worth knowing, and someone worth loving. Once we take a step back from the small scope out of which we view life, we can be liberated from our conditioning. I encourage everyone reading this to recognize and question their habitual trains of thought. Do you truly feel that way or are these feelings brought on by the conditioning of family and/or social constructs. We are so much more than we can even comprehend, and we must free ourselves from the judgement of others and sometimes ourselves, to fulfill that being.
Allison Markee