My article was published in The Edge magazine in the twin cities. Check it out: Chiropractic

How to be Spiritual without being Religious.

Whenever I am asked what my religion is I say that I use to be Lutheran, but now I am non-demonational. But, I am very spiritual; just not religious. I usually get a baffled look followed by the same question.... how is that possible??? I smile because I know I have a real opportunity to give a new perspective which is something many people don't get very often nor do they want no matter how "open" they claim they are.

I am a former Lutheran with the other side of my family being very committed Catholics. So, I definitely know and understand how religion works and what the goal/intention is as well as how people respond to it in all spectrums of "believers." The first 20 years of my life I was what you would call a semi-believer that stuck around out of the fear of thinking differently; because the fear that if there was the exact God they talked about, and following the exact rules they talked was as important as they said then I was afraid I would go to the horrible place they talked about. To be honest, as soon as I started to look around in my teens and thinking a little bit, something inside me made me wonder if all this was actually true. I also looked around at the people and their actions. They would claim forgiveness, acceptance, God is all knowing and all creating, and LOVE of all; but in the same breathe they would claim Gays are going to Hell and they are abominations as well as unforgivable sinners. Now, understand that I am from small town South Dakota where there are very few ideas that being gay is even believable and must be very rare. I laugh looking back at this because now I live in Minneapolis, MN and there is a huge homosexual population and I have met and known many. Guess what I found out, they range in their personality and everything else just like every other person on the planet. Also, in previous generations religion claimed that other populations (blacks, etc.) were abominations and "Satan Sent." So, these people I was surrounded by in this "forgiving, accepting, loving" place was full of judgement, segregation, non-forgiveness, and dislike (if not hate). It seemed to teach me to Love all, but that we are superior; that we are all God sent, but not all of us (understand that I was very confused with head going *#@&$#????).

As I became more aware of my surroundings and started to observe instead of listen I realized that, at lease the religions I was familiar with, they got away with all these contradictory claims by doing some very tricky and quite brilliant supplemental claims. Some of these unquestionable "game-rigged" claims are "You must have Faith," "You must believe in Jesus and God to go to Heaven," "You must be Christian to go to Heaven," "You are the chosen ones because you are Christian," "Love God." I'm sure I am missing some, but non the less these are game rigging ideas. If they can get anyone to believe some of these few things then they can do, say, think, express whatever the HELL they want no matter how contradictory or blatantly absurd. Some of the things they say would be clearly and very observably manipulative to anyone not brought up in it or fearing of it. I can't explain how often I get hit back with the "I just have Faith" line (even some of you reading this are saying this right now ;-). At this point I realize there is nothing that I can do at this time and frankly it is not my obligation to do anything. These sayings are as good as mother telling you "because I said so." By teaching a young and very moldable mind these ideas is an excellent way to sign them up for life because it is a lot of work questioning these ideals because many don't know where to look for other answers or who to talk to about anything different. Many are simply too lazy to look around and really don't care (many of these people just go to church once in a while and do this so they can put in their time incase there is this God and Heaven).

Which leads me to my next point, FEAR. Fear is put in you in subtle and obvious ways. Such as if you don't believe in God and Jesus you won't go to Heaven (aka you will go to Hell). If you aren't of X faith you will go to Hell. These alone are pretty good reasons to keep riding that train and at least claim you are christian just in case they are right because you figure if they are right I go to Heaven, and if they are wrong I just die and that would have been the same either way. By the way, people like this don't really know anything of anything else in terms of spirituality, which leads me back to the first paragraph of this entry.

Spirituality and Religion are absolutely NOT mutually exclusive. Religion does not have a monopoly on spirituality no matter how much they say they do or whatever else you have heard of or thinking of. Religion has done the world an injustice by teaching that they are spirituality. They can't take something that has always existed and say they own it just as i can't all of a sudden claim I am the only way to water. Spirituality does not have to have RULES, religion DOES. Religion simply takes spirituality (which has and will always exist) and adds rules and ideas that they like as well as simply teaching the aspects of spirituality that they think serve them and can give them some substance while talking to people. This is done in the same way you would plagiarize another's ideas. In Christianity, they talk about God as being all-knowing, all-creating, you made in his image, all loving, all powerful, always present, etc. Funny enough, I always pictured God as a middle-aged guy in the clouds which so ridiculous that I can't even write about that here and will not even aknowledge that someone thinks that. The word God I fine as long as it is not describing a guy in the clouds orchestrating everything. I am spiritual in a way that can only be felt and discovered through a journey which includes fear, scrutiny, passion, knowledge, curiosity, questioning, LOVE, gratitude, trials, adventure, reading, listening, opening, watching, and feeling. I see God, The Source, Universe, or whatever you decide to call IT because I realize that I am IT, You are IT, WE are IT, I am You, You are Me, They are WE.

Whatever I do is spiritual and if I do good/Love/grateful then I am at the highest level with the closest relationship with myself and therefore The Spirit/The Universe/The Source/GOD. We have all existed forever and always will no matter the forms we take. I don't mean this in the way that some guy in the clouds decides to re-incarnate us, but I say it that the entire Universe is made up of the same amount of "stuff" it always has been and that it has always changed form but only used the same materials in that you can have metal and make a car, or a house, or a boat, or whatever. The fact remains that they all are made of the same stuff but are simply put into different forms and shapes with different purposes and uses, but all are useful and full of purpose and potential. All aim to serve and Be. All are the same, yet different. All are perfect, yet different. These are the ideas that spirituality is made of. Spirituality is everything no matter how different it may seem, it is all ONE. It ALL has Power, knowledge, LOVE, and purpose because it has all always existed as ONE and always will. It cannot be destroyed and more cannot be created.

So, no matter what form You seem to be or He seems to be or what She chooses to do or what They say, remember that there is only WE and ONE. No matter what You do it is Spiritual because IT is All relevant and impossible to find what Spirit isn't or find something not spiritual. You decide what is spiritual because You are Spirit so whatever You TRULY find to be Spiritual in your HEART then it is. No labels, rules, definitions, opinion, or anything else make it so; only YOU. All these rules, labels, definition, opinions, etc. ARE NOT REAL. They are made up and aknowledged/created by the SPIRIT (YOU and WE). So, let go of labels and rules and just BE and see/be grateful for/Love the ONENESS of everything and everyone. You and WE are The Creators and The SPIRIT; feel and aknowledge your power and use it to be happy/enlightened/grateful and spread Love to the whole world. I am spiritual because I KNOW it and aknowledge it without following anyone else's rules or labels about what it is and what it isn't.

Peace and Love,

Dr. Matt Mullaney

P.S. - Feel free to check out my Hubs.

What is The Center for The Good Life?

Hello, I am Dr. Matt Mullaney and I am the owner/founder of The Center for The Good Life in Minneapolis, MN which is located in downtown in the north loop warehouse district area. I am a Doctor of Chiropractic. The Center is not even close to your typical chiropractic office, it really is much more(this sounds gimmicky but The Center really is much more). It is an overall health office that has chiropractic as a component of having great health and The Good Life. I do regular chiropractic care which is the relief of nerve, spine, joint interference thru the chiropractic adjustment(it feels great and is gentle). I do this because it is a lifelong healthy thing that everyone needs to maintain their nerve and joint health and slow aging of nerves, spine, and joints. So, this is the "nuts and bolts" of chiropractic and it just makes sense since having nerves that can fully communicate with the brain and the cells of the body is absolutely necessary for a high quality life. Also, having healthy free moving body and spinal joints is absolutely essential for living an active and healthy life. So, Chiropractic for nerve, spine, and joint health simply makes sense for EVERYONE.

Why is The Center for The Good Life different? The philosophy here is Good Movement, Good Eating, and Good Thinking = The Good Life. I also focus very much on education and practice of great nutrition, fitness, and a positive happy attitude.

For nutrition, I teach my patients what REAL nutrition is. You would be very surprised what most people think is healthy. Believe me, no matter what your thinking right now is healthy I have at least some new insights for you. What is also great about this nutritional diet is that it DOES make sense to EVERYONE because it truly is simple. As soon as the veil is lifted you really do look at things in a completely different light. Most nutrition or health that most people have learned comes completely from marketing or other uncredible resources such as info. from other people who also thought they knew what they were talking about and told you. Believe me, health is very simple but society and ourselves tend to make it complicated.

Now, I said this style of nutritious diet is simple and it consists of food actually made from the earth and naturally. We are use to eating a traditional M.A.D. (Modern American Diet) and it is loaded with addictive chemicals and qualities. This makes the simplicity of a natural diet simple but not easy; we genuinely are addicted to chemicals and foods as badly as someone is addicted to tobacco. Because of this MAD style of eating, change is tough but very valuable because these food like substances and "modified" foods we have been eating are loaded with poisons and toxins. In the beginning stages of changing to a natural diet we literally go thru withdrawals and are detoxifying which can cause headaches and other symptoms. Like I said though this is very valuable because the MAD is the cause for all the Dis-Ease that we have from fatigue to IBS to MS to heart dis-ease to cancer (seriously). Most "primitive countries" don't have much of any of the dis-ease we have; they die from starvation, dehydration, infections, lack of cleanliness, etc. All things we have removed ourselves from. Yes, we get infections but we fight them off and are not exposed to nearly as many infecting agents because we have cleanliness and have removed ourselves from the overwhelming dangers of them. The main reason we get infections is because we poison our bodies and weaken it so that infecting agents move right in. Bacteria can only grow on dead or dying tissue. We literally are the inflicters of suffering and Dis-Ease on ourselves(both empowering and scary to realize).

I offer help getting back to health from a nutritional standpoint which includes education on what to eat, what to avoid, what is in what, how this affects you, how this helps you, etc. I also offer support group which is where everyone gets together just to share, learn, and offer suggestions with other people at different levels of the program. I also teach about being active, how much is good, how much is bad, what is good, what is bad, etc. You would be surprised at how much activity is GOOD(it's actually a range that varies for everyone but is similar and everyone can get at the GOOD level) and how much is BAD(yes, there is such a thing a overactivity).

Now onto Good Thinking. I am very much into personal development because it has made my life so much more fulfilled, positive, exciting, loving, peaceful, and happy. I am a big advocate for everyone growing as human beings. Some will say self-help is for wimps or losers and I really feel sorry for them because they have no idea what they are missing out on(really) and I hope that they find peace and fulfillment because they are clearly seeing the world in a negative way that hurts them and those around them. That is the focus of the class I offer at The Center for The Good Life.

The Class is challenging, so do not kid yourself. It is meant to have you grow and learn a lot at a realistic pace(not crammed into a weekend) so that you can learn and apply at a Good learning speed. Of course(as with anything) the more disciplined and focused you are the better the results. This is a class where you must be truly ready for it because if you come into it and are negative or lazy or very resistant then you will be negatively affecting the others in the class and you will be asked to leave and take the class when you are Really ready.

The class is called 8 Questions to The Good Life. It is 3 times/week for 4 weeks(like I said challenging and takes a real commitment). The first meeting of every week is a presentation by yours truly, the second meeting is a workshop, and the 3rd meeting is a field trip where we go out into the world and have a real experience and learn something you just can't learn in a room, but fun. This class is my baby and I get so excited even thinking about it, I feel my body shaking as I write this, YEAH! It is the accumulation of 1500 hours of reading, learning, applying, studying, practicing, writing, creating, and becoming happier and more fulfilled. This is the biggest thing that The Center offers that is way different then a typical chiropractic office because it's not chiropractic. It's personal development. A real opportunity to experience, view, see, and live life to its fullest. To share this with you is my greatest experience and to help as many people as possible live a full, complete, healthy, exciting, happier, inspiring, purpose-driven, awesome, excellent, extraordinary, outstanding, magnificent life is my passion, purpose, and one true goal in life!!!

Come start Living The Good Life!!!

Live Well and Feel Good,

Dr. Matt