A healthy spine is aligned.
Our body strives to be in a state of minimal energy expenditure. The optimal, natural alignment of the head and vertebrae (the 26 bones of the spinal column) allows the body’s weight to be carried by its center of gravity – the pelvis and sacral region.
With a head forward posture, which is very common in today’s tech culture, the muscles of the back (from the pelvis all the way to the neck) have to work much harder to keep us upright. With proper alignment and awareness, we can prevent wear and tear on our nerves, bones and muscles.
Think of spinal care as taking a car in for an alignment and rotating its tires. Just as the tires will get more mileage, we can as well with proper spinal alignment.
A healthy spine is soft.
A healthy spine has no stored tension patterns that it can’t resolve in its bones and surrounding ligaments, muscles and nerves. There are no places that feel stuck, blocked, or disconnected that can’t bounce back with a gentle nudge.
A healthy spine breathes.
The entire length of the spinal column from the tailbone to the base of the skull (think Cranio-Sacral) is involved with each full breath cycle. Each vertebra of the spinal column is free to wiggle or oscillate when there is unimpeded stress along its path.
Our breath is a natural inner massage system that flows and clears our midline channel approximately 22,000 times per day. Think of the potential that this inborn wisdom has in store for us. A quality of breathing that is extremely empowering is the fact that it happens naturally and often without our realization, yet we can intervene at any time with proper awareness and inner direction.
A healthy spine moves.
There is a lot of movement potential between the 33 vertebrae and its surrounding structures: the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the pelvis, back and neck, and the rib case. In a healthy spine, there are no restrictions which allow the body to move with no compensational deficiencies, thereby preventing unnecessary aches, pains, and discomfort.
A healthy spine is self correcting.
This allows the spine to recover quicker from mishaps such as falls, long car rides, strenuous activities, and long hours at a desk job or on the computer. Just as animals are seen “shaking off” their stress, a self-correcting spine helps us achieve the same goal after trauma or following an emotionally trying day.
A healthy spine is our natural state!
A healthy spine is achievable at any age with proper care, consistency, and direction. OMsource Wellness is committed to helping you achieve your goals and optimizing your life through the qualities outlined above.
A healthy spine allows us to unlock “The 5 Gifts of the Spine”. Let’s dive into that!
The 5 Gifts of the Spine
1. Function – “I’m alive and all my parts work.”
The spine is the main conduit of our life force energy, also known as innate intelligence. This inner wisdom is responsible for creating life from two single cells, continually recycling and growing new cells throughout the body-mind’s tissues and organs and maintaining our homeostasis and inner balance. Every “alternative therapy” works with and honors the midline of our bodies.
The midline can be understood as the connector between the body and mind, or how the brain communicates with the body and vice versa through the nerves. This is simplified through what’s known as the safety pin cycle. We’re usually not aware of the loss of function until we lose it or get a symptom as an alert response.
2. Emotion – “I like these feelings but not those ones.”
The purpose of emotions is to help us redirect our behaviors to shift out of a particular life situation or pattern. Our emotional brain (midbrain) developed before our evolved brain (cerebral cortex) and is involved more with reactiveness. Emotion requires motion, and often enough we are frozen or stuck and unable to feel enough pain or muster up enough desire to get out of a certain situation. In her book “The Molecules of Emotion”, Candace Pert, PH.D. shares research that there is more emotional tissue in the spinal cord than in our brains. A healthy spine allows a healthy shift in our emotions to occur vs. staying in a rut or a fixed pattern that further interrupts our life and decreases our inborn potential.
3. Sense of Self – “What does it take to be who I think I am?”
Our sense of self is determined by the emotions we have which ultimately determine the different actions we take in life. We posture ourselves based on our sense of how we fit in with our culture, our relationship and in our own mind’s perceptions. The spine and its inherent wisdom offer us the ability to change our posturing and to redirect how we feel about how we feel.
4. Behavior – “I’m way more than I thought I was. What else can I do?”
If our sense of self doesn’t change, behaviors tend to flatline. Most of us can relate to bad habits that we know don’t serve us yet are hard to break. A spine that has greater, clearer function expresses more range of emotion, which allow for greater sense of self. This ultimately leads to an easier path of changing habits to create a more fulfilled life.
5. Consciousness – “I’ve focused on me long enough. How can I serve others more?”
Defined, consciousness is the state of being present, awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, and surroundings. This involves our sensory system which includes our brain, spinal cord, and nerves. Through the function of our spine and nervous system we experience ourselves and life around us. Increasing consciousness and awareness influences how much you get out of life or how much life gets out of you!
