Process and Return
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
— Viktor Frankl
The total lunar eclipse last night was a reminder that the alignment of bodies is always a temporary phenomenon. The silence of the still point, the momentary pause in which everything is just so connects us to limitless (re)Source. In our human bodies, this is analogous to a return to a regenerative parasympathetic state, in which we “rest and digest.”
Far from a fixed point or a straight line, we express health and wellness in a dynamic process, characterized by motion and change. Our objective in chiropractic, therefore, is to promote our adaptive ability to move and change. We find balance by returning to center after we’ve been away.
Just as the flow of blood in the body moves in a circle (“circulation”) throughout the body, it returns to and emanates from the heart. There is a pause between stimulus and response, between beats, between moments. It rarely lasts long and doesn’t need to. It is the gift of the present.
Lessons from the Heart
In a time of so much noise, one of our biggest challenges is to find signal. In a sea of information - what is meaningful, what is true, what is clarifying? The question of what we choose to center is an important one. Luckily, we have to listen no further than our own heart to hear something vital.
Let us consider what the physiology of the heart might teach us about love and connection.
The heart is the vital center of our physical body, ever sending and receiving the life blood of our being. The potential action of all cells in the body depends on a phenomenon we would do well to acknowledge: depolarization. As charged particles exchange across the membrane of a cell, the electrical gradient shifts, triggering a cascade of events that allow cells to do their work. Without exchange, the membrane becomes a wall, polarity escalates, and the environment becomes hostile to healthy and coordinated life. The next part is just as important: the gradient inverts, the ions efflux, repolarizing the membrane to allow the cycle to occur again. The ebb and flow of ions, the collection and powerful release of blood from the heart, the trade of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the lungs, the breath in, the breath out - all a rhythm and a dance reflecting the universal principle of exchange.
The muscle cells within the human heart are special. Unlike smooth and skeletal muscle cells, their features allow them to synch together. The lub-dub of a healthy heart is a song of coordinated depolarization and the harmonized opening and closing of the valves that maintain the fluid boundaries within the chambers. Heart cells are also special in that they will beat on their own. However, the rate, rhythm, and strength of a heartbeat is a conversation (another exchange) between the nervous system and the heart itself. We can tune into and read this conversation when we measure heart-rate variability.
By design, the heart is a powerful, steady, and receptive organ. What better seat for the uniting and harmonizing force of Love to reside within the body? On a day when we will see hearts everywhere, let us remember what the physiology of the heart tells us about depolarization, receptivity, and vital exchange. Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Triad of Change
In mythology, the 3 Fates represent the forces that determine destiny. In Greek and Roman tradition, they are described as weavers: creating (Clotho), measuring (Lachesis), and cutting (Atropos) the thread of a human life. The number 3 is symbolically useful because it asks us to see relationships beyond the duality of black-white, either-or, us-them.
Chiropractic philosophy describes the Triune of Life as an interplay (force) between intelligence and matter. Life, after all, is the expression of intelligence through matter. We recognize the vital element that animates form. We also recognize the intelligent ways living things maintain their active organization in the face of a constantly changing and challenging environment.
The Triad of Change provides a useful model to understand the ways that energy organizes in living systems. As humans, we can consider Structure (the body we inhabit), Behavior (how we move ourselves), and Perception (how we view our relationship to ourselves in the environment). This model is appropriate in the context of chiropractic practice because we work with the nervous system. As chiropractors, we assess and support the ability of the nervous system to be more flexible and more adaptive. We do this directly through the alignment of the body (structure), facilitating movement and connection between parts (behavior), and offering a perspective of coherence (perception).
Whether our preference is to lead with the energy of the fabric maker, the measurer-planner, or the action-taker, we are participating in the process of weaving. Seen from this perspective we weave with the Fates instead of at their mercy. Empowerment comes when we are in alignment with our principles. We can choose to defer our fate to perceived authority or we can do the work to build resilience, act with integrity, and clarify our perception .