The Bonsai Tree: a Spinal Analogy
Every human body has a story to tell, whether I am looking at a person's spine on X-ray or feeling the arthritic restriction and muscular compensations as I motion the spine. While I can (and do) call it physical stresses of, for example, dancing for 20yrs, past whiplash injuries, or the repetition of sitting at a desk daily - in reality it is what makes you, YOU.
Your daily activities and your lifestyle have laid a flat foundation for how your body moves. The tightness, the restriction, and the pain that happens are the indicator(s) that there is nothing going on to balance the form and function of your body.
Take a bonsai tree. It is considered the "art of growing" because it twists and turns with all of the forces acting against it. In the end, you have a masterpiece that was carefully developed over a lifetime. Our bodies are no different - they are beautiful replicas of the forces and activities we have placed on them.
“Everything in the process is meant to bring balance to the tree as an artistic composition, while at the same time maintaining the tree in a natural form.”
Maintaining the proper motion and function of our spines for a chiropractor is like the patient, skillful bonsai gardener who maintains the growth and shape of the tree. When it comes to your lifestyle, the answer is not to stop doing what you love and what makes you happy. The answer comes with how to create balance within the spine, so that you have the energy, the mobility, and the structure to support yourself and your careers, hobbies, and family activities.
If you have always been on the fence about seeing a chiropractor, go see a chiropractor. If you have never considered seeing a chiropractor because you do not have pain, go see a chiropractor. Create that balance of what you do to make you, YOU. It is no longer about back pain, but the understanding that your body will twist and turn with the stresses you put on it, and without proper maintenance, it will go in directions that you may not have any control over.
“As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”
Many of my patients go through corrective care, where we initially work to make a structural change to their spines. Such as producing the necessary curve in their neck that was lost, or reducing the rotation in their pelvis, or improving their scoliotic curve by degrees. After that, maintenance care is always recommended and necessary. And the reason for that, is to achieve that balance in the body against the ongoing stresses of gravity, work, and the loving living that we put our bodies through.
You may not understand how chiropractic can best help you, so take this as an encouragement to do so.
As always, your dedicated house call chiropractor,
Dr. Katherine McCarty, D.C.