| 6-min read |
ASIAN HERITAGE CULTIVATES COURAGEOUS CHIROPRACTORS - By Joyce Yeung & Melinda Pham -
A
s an international student from Hong Kong, I think of chiropractic as a culture. A culture among the many in the health care system. Modern medicine focuses on getting quick results and focuses on a physical component to identify the cause of the discomfort. On the other hand, chiropractic, like most holistic professions, focuses on the ability of the person to heal itself, and the connection between the mind and the body. The culture I grew up in is most familiar to me. A lot of my habits and ideas are cultivated because of the culture I am surrounded by. It is the lens I use to make sense of this world. There may be times when you feel like you don’t fit in, you may feel like something is off, and one day, you may find a group that understands you and thinks more similarly to you despite the culture you grew up with. When you go to college, you may formulate new ideas and start looking at the world differently when you make new friends and read new books. Oftentimes, I think about myself as an international student when I feel alone, frustrated or when I am explaining chiropractic. I think about how different cultures inform one’s worldview and how I find common ground to share something that we both value in a language that we both understand. I also think about how language is usually not the barrier to seeking mutual understanding, but ignorance and arrogance. I check with myself first, am I judging the others based on my own understanding? How do I get to think from another person’s shoes? How did they get to where they are now? The beauty of diversity reveals when everyone walks an extra step and is a little bit uncomfortable to learn from each other. It helps increase our awareness of our beliefs and behavior when we pause and ask, “why?” when we see differences. § - Joyce Yeung
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