How Spirit Moves

We have talked of stress, and how excessive amounts greatly determine our levels of health. As well, we have talked of ways to help deal with excessive amounts, and how to increase our ability to handle more, so that it doesn’t show up in our bodies. From a preventative or wellness standpoint, we have covered a lot of ground. I would like to talk more about the essence of this healing power and understanding it more, instead of how to reduce it or manage it.

Our essence is spirit, or you may know it as life force, or universal intelligence, or you may even call it “God”. It is what we were before we manifested into matter, it is to what we return to when we die. We are energy, and the very first law of energy is that it is constant- you can’t get rid of it; you can only change its form. Our bodies are merely physical anchors for spirit, a matter to change an unseen energy into a “seen” energy.

Within spirit is a limitless power or intelligence that changes energy into form; an incredibly intricate, enmeshed, and resourceful machine called “the body”. We are born with this innate intelligence, the same incomprehensible power that joins two random cells, and from that, billions of cell divisions later, creates our wonderful bodies. It doesn’t leave us when we are born, it stays with us and is the force that helps us grow and age, and most importantly, to heal. An equally important law of energy is the one of conservation; energy seeks the least expenditure for change. That means that a system in balance seeks to stay in balance, conversely, when it is out of balance, it seeks to return to balance. Being healthy is a balanced state, and this is why our bodies are capable of healing itself. When we eat a bad meal, our digestive system recognizes this and throws the food out. When we cut ourselves, the wound heals. When we strain a muscle, the injury repairs itself. When our heart breaks from some grief, it heals over time, and we go on. It is a power that is greater than ourselves, and has the capacity to restore us anytime to our balanced, healthy selves.

We all posses this power, it is on constantly. It wants to express itself, but it is we who suppress the power through many of the choices we make or the attitudes we take. I believe that the ultimate “purpose” for those of us here on this planet is to allow the fullest expression of this power. We are here to live, to thrive, and grow as much as this power will allow. Tapping into that power is not a guarantee of living forever, but it is of living life at its fullest. If there is indeed this power that lives within us, guides us to being balanced and healthy, and wants to “shine” as brightly as possible, why do we all struggle so much with health and wellness? I believe that it is partly because we fail to see the greatness that is within us, and that is all of us. The first step to allowing this power to guide you is to open your heart and mind, and not only see the greatness, but believe that it is working for you.

“Have you more faith in a teaspoon of medicine, than in the power that created our bodies?”

An attitude of change...

So now we know that stress, which is actually change, is the cause of all of our health concerns (actually, excessive stress). We can expand our ability to handle more stress by exercising and eating right. We also know now that our bodies have built in "fuses" to protect large muscles and organs and glands from damage caused by excessive stress. Resetting the fuses, aka correcting a subluxation, is the domain of the chiropractor. They are experts at finding the "blown" fuse, and then resetting it through "adjustments". This allows the nervous system to resume better communication between the brain and the rest of the cells of the body, as well as expanding our ability to handle stress.

It's an impossiblity to lead a stress free life- the only time we don't have stress is when we are dead (and I'm not 100% certain about that, since I haven't died). We all need stress to grow and change. We just don't need excessive stress, the kind that can damage the body. It is important to try and lead a life where excessive stresses aren't a common thing. When we talked of good nutrition and of exercise, these were the key components to making that happen. As important, but much more subtle is the attitude needed for those positive changes to take place.

As I mentioned before, stress is any change that happens in your life, so therefore, we are changing all of the time. However, we are creatures of habit- we learn through repetition. Just look at a baby and how it learns to finally walk upright, and you'll begin to understand that the action of walking is lots of small steps taken over time, repeated, and integrated, until finally.... we are walking. We take walking for granted at this point in our lives, because it has been repeated so many times. Most of the actions that we take daily are established patterns, habits, and are the result of learning and integrating movements, reactions, and feelings. We habitualize our life, which is the nature of the beast. Nature craves efficient actions- we use the least amount of energy possible for changes. This conserves energy and resources, and works as a survival tool.

This is why changing old, sometimes unhealthy habits for new, healthier ones becomes a challenge. It takes energy to form new neural (brain and nervous system) pathways, and faced with using less or more energy, most of us stray toward the easier path. To become masters of our bodies, we need to expend energy, and move past the "survival" instinct, to more of "thriving".

To break a pattern, you must first understand why or how you do the old habit. In my life, one example is running. I have learned through my early life to be slightly bowlegged. It was a lazy habit, and at least partly reinforced by knowing how much it irritated my father. The forces of this posture on my knees caused pain as I got older. I have a goal of participating in triathlons, and running is part of the activity. I had to carefully look at my old pattern of walking which lead me to understanding that I had some key muscles which weren't working as I would walk or run. By using specific exercises, as well as consciously making the weak muscles work as I walked and ran, I started the process of establishing a new, more balanced habit. I'm still in process, but I am now running short distance without any knee discomfort at all.

This is the essential second component of making those changes, the attitude of being fully present and aware. It does take energy, but to thrive, which means to live fully, you will have to push yourself out of the old comfort zones. We don't want to push ourselves to the point of excessive stress, but only enough to expand our "adaptive potential". By doing this, we are able to handle more stress, including the changes we are working on. After time, the "new" patterns become our new, healthier habits. This works not only on physical issues, but emotional patterns and nutritional habits as well.

Sub lux what? What chiropractors are good for...

Subluxation- it's a word that chiropractors use to describe interference within the nervous system.

In the previous posts I talked about stress. The first post, 2 weeks ago, was about stress in general, and how it affects the body. The second post, last week, I offered tactics to help you effectively handle more stress. Today we talk about how chiropractors help with stress.

If you remember from the previous articles we have what is called an "adaptive potential", which is our ability to handle a certain amount of stress. If our stress levels stay within that range, our bodies function well; in regards to health, we can heal ourselves of any health concerns (i.e.- exposure to toxins, muscular fatigue, emotional pain). We can expand the boundaries of our "adaptive potential" by utilizing good stressors, such as exercise and eating well; in this manner, we are able to handle more stressful situations. However, if we exceed our adaptive potential, two issues emerge. One, the excess stress moves into our bodies and can start to interfere with normal, healthy function. Secondly, we actually decrease our adaptive potential, and may have trouble handling other stressful situations, which can then attack the body. This is generally not a problem, as the body is a natural healer, and can correct the effects of the overload. Unfortunately, if the "excessive stress" is huge, such as from trauma like an accident, or prolonged, such as poor posture, this can result in long term damage, as the body gets overwhelmed, and can't repair itself.

Luckily, we have a system which literally works like "circuit breakers", and keeps the stress overloads from damaging muscles, organs or glands. They are called joints, and work via the nervous system.

The nervous system, as scientists and physiologists will agree, is the most important system within the body. It allows communication between the brain and the muscles, organs, and glands. Basically every cell of the body can communicate with every other cell of the body via the nervous system. As long as good communication is present, healing is happening. When the communication system breaks down, so does health.

Joints are highly innervated- meaning that they have lots of nerves wired into them. The same nerves that supply a particular joint also supplies the tissues deep to it, such as the muscles, organs and glands. Obviously, the only joints that have organs and glands deep to them are the spinal joints, which is why they are so important. Joints are also the most accessible points to the nervous system, which is why chiropractors are so concerned with them. It's not the spine, per say, but what the spine represents. A gateway to the nervous system, and a gateway to the body, particularly large muscles, organs and glands.

The spinal joints, and to a lessor extent, every other joint in the body, is designed to "take the hit" when the body is exposed to excessive stresses. Liken this to actual circuit breakers of your house. If for any reason there is an overload to the power of your house, what can happen? The excessive power can damage wiring, destroy appliances and electronics, and even burn the house down. A circuit breaker is designed to "trip" when an excessive current passes through it, literally cutting off the power to the house, wiring or appliances, thus protecting the home and its contents from damage. The spinal joints are no different. Excessive stresses- those that exceed our adaptive potential, are noxious stimuli- think, for one example, really loud sounds, like a car horn right next to you! This obnoxious overload can damage large muscles, organs and glands if it is allowed to enter the body, which it does along the communication system, the "wiring" of our bodies- the nervous system. The spinal joint is the protection for the important deeper tissues, and "trips", or shunts this stimuli into the small muscles around it, which normally control its fine movements. These muscles go into spasm- they tighten- and depending on the amount and duration of the stimulus, will stay tight, and thus prevent the overload from going to the deep tissues.

Any muscle spasm that is excessive, or prolonged will have a tendency to stay in spasm, even after the obnoxious stimuli is removed. The circuit breaker stays off, and isn't reset. The communication of the nerves at this level to the deeper muscles, organs and glands is reduced or removed. Because the nervous system can't coordinate communication between the brain and those deeper tissues, health issues can arise. This is the interference which we are talking about, which we chiropractors call "subluxation".

Luckily, every major muscle, organ and gland has input from nerves from many adjacent spinal joints, so if one joint is "tripped", than the communication can be routed through other nerves. Unfortunately, with this reroute the body is no longer functioning at its full potential, and if stress levels stay high, other joints can "blow", which further lowers the function. If communication is significantly reduced or lost, major health issues can happen. Again, any joint in the body is capable of functioning as a "circuit breaker" and protecting the tissues beneath it, or around it, but the spinal joints are special because of their relationship to the more important organs and glands of the body.

Think again of our one example. Ever sit at a traffic light after work- tired, anxious to get home and relax, and a little zoned out? Then the guy behind you leans on his horn, as you suddenly realize that the light you've been sitting at had turned green and you hadn't noticed. The loud noise is like getting hit. You tense your shoulders in your startled reaction, your head jolts forward, and you "death grip" the wheel. This is a noxious stimuli, an excessive stress. Your joints, particularly your neck and upper back joints, absorb this shock, and subluxate- they work as circuit breakers and "trip", saving the deep muscle and organs and glands from damage. After you resume driving, you notice that you neck and upper back are tight minutes after the horn had blared. If this was just one incident that exceeded your "adaptive potential", you'll notice that after a few minutes, those muscles start to relax- good news- your body has healed itself! If you have been under a lot of prolonged stress, then those muscles may take a long time to relax, if at all. If they don't, they may trigger a migraine, or a sinus attack- your system has lost some of its function, and some of it's ability to heal itself.

Chiropractors are experts at finding and correcting subluxations, which "resets" the circuit breakers- the spinal joints- and restores or improves the communication to the nervous system at that joint. I have equipment and testing that measures the functioning of your body, and tells me is your nervous system is compromised by subluxations- tripped circuits that stay off. Chiropractors use "adjustments"- specific forces applied to only the involved joint that "tripped"- which restores the movement of that joint, as well as reducing or eliminating the spasms of the muscles around it. These forces can be anywhere from the "popping" type techniques to very light force procedures. Its always done to a persons comfort and safety level. By resetting the breaker, we open the lines of communication, and begin again the healing process. As well, correcting the subluxation actually increases the adaptive potential of the body so that it can handle additional stressors.

Remember that if one joint subluxates, there are others around it to continue communication with the deeper tissues- the muscle, organs and glands. Because of that back up system, the body can continue to function, although not at 100%. You may not feel when you have a subluxation; if it occurs at only one or two spinal joints, you may not feel any symptoms at all. However, your function may be compromised. In this day and age, I for one feel that I need all of my resources. It's always a good idea to get checked.

So it seems that this chiropractic thing this isn't just about neck and back pain, is it?