By Dan Vidal
This is a term that gets thrown around a lot.
Your body has a number of tools at its disposal to orient you in space, get your eyes even on the horizon so you can see straight, and maintain your balance so that you don’t crumple to the ground like the bag of meat and bones you are.
Seriously, you’re really just a bag of meat and bones.
The only thing holding you upright is the tension in those strands of meat. The degree of tension and in what areas it’s located are determined by your central nervous system (CNS).
If your CNS is doing a good job, that tension will be distributed evenly, and adapt easily to the things your body encounters in the physical world. If it’s not doing a good job (usually because there are other factors that aren’t letting it be great), your body will do the best it can with what it has.
This is kind of like when you are super busy at work and don’t leave time to organize your workspace. Before long, you have a giant mess on your hands and can’t get anything done!
This happens in your body as well. It may start with something like a typical ankle sprain. You may start favoring that side of your body, and shifting your hips to the opposite side to compensate. This will cause that hip to rise. Now your torso or shoulders might tilt back toward that side to try to even you out. Your neck will bend to try and get your head level, and if that doesn’t work, the bones in your skull will shift around to get your eyes level. Add in stress, side dominance patterns, and everyday repetitive actions that we take, and eventually your body is just as disorganized as that neglected workspace.
When you get to this point, the tension throughout your body is very unevenly distributed, and over time, the normal physical forces that we encounter will put destructive strains on certain anatomical structures at the expense of others.
This is ok in the short term, but if we get accustomed to being in these compensation patterns, we eventually forget how to live without them. This is why things like bodywork, as well as mindful movement and meditation practices are so crucial for our health. They reacquaint ourselves with our bodies and give them the feedback they need to reorganize themselves and work more efficiently.
So bottom line: treat yourself, be mindful, and clean that messy desk.