Health Relationships

HEALTH RELATIONSHIPS

When we look at the concept of relationships we are observing the phenomena of life itself. There are no aspects of our lives that exist in a vacuum and everything can be considered as to how it relates to everything else. Thus, we come to the notion of wholeness in our lives and begin to view life within the "holographic" paradigm - everything has awareness of and has an effect on everything else. Thus, it has a relationship.

Our relationships in life do not just encompass the interpersonal. They involve relating to the environment (internal and external), society, your personal sense of a higher being, your body, your state of health, and your nervous system and how, through it, all of your vital organs relate to each other to maintain life. We can even go to the extent of how well your subatomic and atomic particles relate, creating to varying degrees of integrity, the basic elements of the body that comprise the functional systems.The latter sets a foundation for how well your genetic potential can express itself, ie., a foundation for health or for illness.

As wellness health care providers, we watch people's lives over time and how their relations to the inner and outer daily influences effect their level of health. We were recently reviewing testimonials received from patients over the years for inclusion into our website. Besides the physical results, patients related how their experience with chiropractic care had changed their relationship to their body and to their concept of health. A wellness and vitalistic approach had had a positive, life-changing effect on their quality of life.

Most patients come into our office grounded in the "mechanistic" paradigm of health - the body is a physical machine or a bunch of parts to be manipulated through something outside the body, such as physical therapeutics, drugs, or surgical proceedures primarily to get pain relief. This model has been the prevailing approach of Western medical practice over the years.

Chiropractic adjustments do facilitate the above mentioned desire for symptomatic relief very effectively. In fact, most studies have shown it to be much more effective than other physical therapeutics. Even though this is a beneficial "side effect", utilizing chiropractic strictly for pain relief is missing the true benefit it offers - that of being one of the best ways to remove interference to the body's innate ability to manifest it's optimal health potential.

Introduction to traditional chiropractic philosophy gives them another perspective as to how to relate to their lives, that of "vitalism". The body is a self-regulating, self-healng organism capable of maintaining itself in optimal genetic health potential. The intent of the holistic alternative health care practitioner is to be a coach, assisting in the decision process and facilitating the removal of interferences to the body's ability to fully express this potential.

This philosophy surprises many people because they previously had the incorrect notion that chiropractic is a back pain therapy (unfortunately, some chiropractors present this as what

chiropractic is). Actually, chiropractic was originally developed over a hundred years ago to analyze and correct vertebral subluxation which is a common and devastating source of interference to the nervous system preventing the body from expressing it's innate health and healing potential.

The nervous system is your interface with your internal and external worlds. Your five senses relate you to the external world and your nerve receptors relate you to your internal world. Your internal world is the millions of processes that have to occur every second to manitain life. We humans do not have the capability to consciously think of these let alone begin to be aware of all of the multitude of miraculous interrelationships occurring between the different organ systems. Fortunately, your innate, inborn intelligence takes care of it for you.

Through this system, your body continually strives to attain wholeness. within your genetic potential. How much of this potential you express, is therefore dependent on how much it is interferred with. A human being that is subluxation free is more capable of relating and adapting to their external and internal worlds effectively leading to a greater expression of life. We could say that this person is in harmonious, integrated relationship with itself as opposed to a dis-integrated one which leads to sickness and disease.

In the process of becoming different observers as to the effects on health in the vitalistic model, we become aware of our responsibility in the process of establishing and maintaining health within our lives. We acknowledge and honor the role of the healing relationships that manifest from within. We realize that attaining wellness is not about just working out, or just eating right, or just getting chiropractic adjustments. The key lies in developing a holistic approach and finding balance within the different elements of mind-body-spirit. Then, to nuture the relationships that these elements strive to maintain with each other as a total system within the greater whole of existence.