Clarity.
It is January. In the US, this is the time for new beginnings, resolutions, and planning for the year to come. In the early days of the new year, we at Enso gathered to celebrate our first 365 days together and to sit as a collective, envisioning, connecting, and crafting our future.
For us all, in the hustle of day-to-day life, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. In the worlds of healthcare, amidst illness and imbalance, and business, with its minutae and never-ending details, the broader vision can become a far off dream. For us at Enso, constantly returning to the greater perspective is essential for the health and longevity of both the practitioners and the collective. Why do we do what we do? What gets you out of bed each day? How do your core values align with what you bring to work? What inspires you?
When the seed of Enso was planted nearly four years ago, while Katie and Holcomb were on a walk, the vision came clearly - have a clinic with providers connected through their value of offering intentional and integrated healthcare in a space that promotes healing; nourish this collective so that it would birth something much larger than the sum of all the parts; create a vibrant work environment that provides living wages, fosters wellbeing for both employees and clients, and educates all involved; make a difference in your beloved town by doing our best work in integrative medicine along side others who want to do the same so that ultimately we all thrive in community; give back to the planet that sustains us.
As with any concept, the question of how to take it from the nebulous world to the concrete world always exists. With this framework in mind, Katie and Holcomb built Enso. Literally – we laid floor, plastered bathrooms, tiled floors and we had meetings, mountains of meetings (and meetings on mountains!), tinkered with spreadsheets, took out loans. 2017-2019 was time of dreaming to manifesting. Bit by bit, Enso Natural Medicine came together – both the physical structure, the actual business, and most importantly, the incredible practitioners who took the leap and brought their passion and purpose to the clinic.
Now, at the start of a new decade, with the building phase behind us, we get to redirect some of that creative force back to the philosophy of our mission. We have more capacity. More capacity to grow in ways that we hope to see the world change. We get to answer our questions - How do we sustain our vibrant healing center, grow the community, and continue to educate ourselves and the public? How do we take our medicine and have it continue with our patients beyond our four walls? We are continually asking how to help the world and her people heal. With this, we are starting a collection of reflections – Mountain Medicine. Our monthly writings from each of our providers about the medicine they practice, health tips, snippets on our wider community, thoughtful questions to have you feel held outside of Enso. These writings will be unique every month as our voices are all different, but complimentary. We hope to teach you, inspire you, and knit our world together with these reflections.
VALUES EXERCISE
When we all had the chance to be together outside of work, we used a tool to determine our core value and then reflected on how our deepest values determine the way we move through our life. In understanding our fundamental sense of self, we can then more clearly understand how we honor each other and our own core essence. This value is also what you can return to in times of stress, illness, or when you need some guidance!
Pick your top 20 values from a stack of around 50 cards, then narrow them to 10, 5, and finally 1. This is challenging - The keys? Try not to second guess yourself, think of what words encompass one another, and be honest! This is not about “shoulds”, it’s about being real. We’ve provided some links below to premade cards – or make your own!
For the Enso practitioners, our top values were: mindfulness (x2), integrity (x2), spirituality (x2), love (x2), nature, courage, connection and patience.
What is yours? How do you honor this in your life?