Facing Breakdown
Sometimes your internet goes down for 5 days, the washing machine starts to leak, the dryer begins to burn clothes, and your primary electronic device sustains water damage that will take 1-3 weeks to repair. While these examples all reflect non-emergent challenges of modernity, they certainly interrupt the regular pace and flow of what may otherwise be very full days.
What both experience and the second law of thermodynamics tell us is that all (closed/individual) systems break down in the face of reality. Entropy is the tendency for all systems to move toward disorder. The clear exception to this is living systems. For a time, they oppose entropy, intelligently and persistently organizing the way energy is expressed through physical form. The intelligence of life is abundant and the energy available is everywhere. The two things that limit organization (and health) are matter and time.
The aim of chiropractic is to determine whether and where the nervous system is experiencing limitation in its ability to use energy to coordinate normal function in the matter of the body.
Dysfunction, dysregulation, dis-ease all reflect interference to innate coordination. When challenge presents, it’s worth reflecting on what practices, people, and communities we turn to. The extent to which they can contextualize challenge, bridge connection, help alleviate fear, and facilitate right relationship to stress, the better able we are to cultivate trust in our inner adaptive capacity.
Reflection
Both water and the spine have the capacity to mirror. The tone and tension of the spine reflects the tone and tension of how someone is living their life. A tense spine reveals bound energy, which is often the precursor to dis-ease. Like flowing water sustains the earth, a spine that is free to move - to transmit information and energy that organizes and heals - can nourish the body.
The fascial covering of the brain is called the meninges. The outer layer is called the tough mother (dura mater). The meninges protect, contain, and guide fluid within and around the brain. The places where the dura folds are called reflections. These areas create anatomic regions, “separating” the right and left hemispheres and the cerebrum from the cerebellum. I say “separating” because everything in the body is connected and any division we recognize is one imposed by the mind, not one that exists in the continuity of the living body.
The dura covers the brain and the spinal cord, creating a sleeve around tail of the brain as it exits the skull. The dura anchors into the tailbone (coccyx). When we talk about tension in the spine, we are talking about tension in the dural sleeve. This tension can be seen, palpated, and measured in chiropractic analysis. The tension on the spinal cord is transmitted to the dura. The muscles, joints, and posture of the spinal system reflect this deeper tension on the tissues of the central nervous system.
Adverse tension in the spine alters nerve signal and blood flow. Our ability to express health, maintain balance, and adapt to challenge requires clear and effective communication between the brain and the body. Chiropractic looks to identify where communication is being impeded and adjust the local conditions so that information, energy, and ease can flow into and through the body.
Ease and Dis-ease
Our experience of life and the world around us is mediated by our senses. Our senses feed this experience to the brain along the channels of the nervous system. The brain then takes that information, processes it, and sends signals back into the body directing the tissues, organs, and organ systems how to respond. When this occurs with coordination and balance, a healthy nervous system adapts to the stresses presented to it. When there is interference with this loop, with the communication between the brain and the body, the ability to coordinate and efficiently respond to stress is reduced. More energy is required to perform the same vital functions. Less energy is available to go above and beyond vital tasks (see: Autonomic NS) and there is a shift from responding to stress to reacting to stress.
Another way to describe this lower energy state is dis-ease. Dis-ease is the precursor - the intermediate step - between health and ill health. It is a state in which there may or may not be pain or symptoms associated with a condition or diagnosis, but the body is exerting excess effort to maintain balance. From a clinical perspective, dis-ease is observable and can be measured by assessing where and how these areas of imbalance are affecting normal, healthy function in the body.
For me, chiropractic offers the invaluable service of supporting people by promoting communication within their bodies. Supporting the health of the nervous system has a positive impact on how folks relate to themselves, their environment, and the stresses of both. As with all relationships, when there is ease, balance, and clarity with communication, life is better.
