A friend was helping me rearrange some things in my office recently. One of the things we did was to put up a white board or Dry Erase Board as a way to educate and communicate with my practice members on a more real-time basis.
After everything was done, we stepped back to admire our handiwork. That’s when my buddy said “It’s crooked.” I replied “What? How could that be? You saw the level balance perfectly!” I had downloaded an app called 3D Level for my new smartphone and used it to make sure the white board was perfectly level. After checking 3 or 4 more times, we realized that the level had worked perfectly. The problem was the tiny (almost undetectable) little bumps on the side of the phone for volume control. Although tiny, it was just enough to affect what the level was perceiving. And over the 4 foot width of the white board it was very apparent.
Right then, it hit me like a brick. That’s EXACTLY what happens when we have a misalignment of the top bone in the neck. While we don’t really notice it, that slight misalignment puts pressure on the nervous system at the brain stem. That affects the feedback your brain gets from your body. It can cause all sorts of problems like vertigo, high blood pressure, headaches and all sorts of weird symptoms. And even though your brain might be sending the right instructions for the input it’s getting from your body, if that feedback is not quite right, neither will be your brain’s response.
And while that little tilt in the white board won’t affect the message that I’m trying to convey to my clients, it WILL affect how they view the board. That same scenario works in your life and mine and everyone else’s, too. If you’re off even a little bit, it can affect how you view your whole life. Not only that, it can affect how you respond and adapt to situations in your life.
One other thought. So much of our health life is affected by various “measurements” like blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body temperature, etc. Unfortunately, many treatment protocols are based purely on a single measurement. What IF either the measurement were not accurate because of “white coat syndrome”? Worse yet, what if the “measurement” was outside of “normal” range but very appropriate for whatever your body was dealing with at that moment.
My point is, be careful when you measure. Understand what you’re measuring and why. Understand that your body’s own innate wisdom is always on the ball. And remember the old carpenter’s rule of thumb “Measure twice. Cut once.”
A Different Way 