Jonathon Colter
Cynthia Schwartz
When Jonathan Colter opened up his practice as a Chiropractic Physician in North Carolina, he found that due to the time commitment he had to give up one of his favorite activities—team sports. To maintain a high activity level, Jonathan worked out at health clubs and became a long-distance cyclist. When Jonathan and his wife Elaine researched retirement communities, team sports and the opportunity to maintain a healthy lifestyle were high on the list.
Jonathan and Elaine found PebbleCreek. They chose our community because it offered a truly active lifestyle. Jonathan was very excited that PebbleCreek had softball teams, tennis courts, golf courses, and fitness centers. The bonus of moving to PebbleCreek was a new sport—pickleball. Pickleball was a sport that he could play with his wife as he honed new skills and expanded his social network.
With the shutdown of courts, fields, and fitness centers in PebbleCreek, Jonathan created the following plan for which we’re thankful:
How I stay healthy during the coronavirus outbreak
To maintain optimal health, I need to balance three components. They include:
1. physical
2. mental
3. emotional
Physical: This is the easiest component for me. I will typically stretch, walk, bike ride, play golf, play tennis (where permitted, using appropriate safety guidelines), throw a softball with friends, etc.
Mental: Exercising the mind is half the job. Relaxing the mind is the other half.
I exercise my mind by researching health topics using online resources that include technical journals, YouTube videos, and professional webinars.
I relax my mind two different ways.
I’ll passively lay on a lounge chair in my backyard with my eyes closed enjoying a soft natural breeze while listening to the sounds of nature.
I’ll sit at my computer and actively use the right side brain function to create humorous memes to share with PebbleCreek residents. Who doesn’t enjoy putting a smile on other people’s faces?
Emotional: I’ll watch uplifting movies that inspire me. Some of my favorites include: Patch Adams, Remember The Titans, Brian’s Song, A Dog’s Purpose, Secretariat, The Pursuit Of Happyness.
I actively seek to discover positive experiences each day to balance human feelings of boredom and frustration. This is especially important now when limitations have unfortunately, but necessarily been imposed on us. Some recent examples have included:
1. greater awareness of the beautiful landscaping throughout our community
2. painted rocks left in the grass, on benches, and against light posts
3. positive chalk messages written on the sidewalks
4. the ongoing smiles and hand waving our community overwhelmingly shares as we pass each other walking or riding bicycles.
Although this pandemic has temporarily interrupted my chosen lifestyle, the friendships I’ve made living in PebbleCreek have made this experience so much easier to handle.