Salads and Body Work.

I'm here on the terrace in Sardinia, looking out over the mountains and enjoying the sun. David and I have been enjoying time to eat well, read, relax and think through ideas that are sometimes neglected when we are at home purely because we don't seem to have the time.

One such though struck me yesterday. I have been reading about fascia this week and there are a couple of texts that I  'had' to read for my level 6 diploma last year and back then I went straight to their indexes, found the bits I needed, used the quotes and shoved them back on the shelf. Now I am reading them cover to cover, slowly and enjoyably and making notes. This morning the highlighter even appeared!

This week I have been reading Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers. It's the standard text for exploring fascia in the treatment room and I have been dipping in and out of it for about 4 years now. But on Tuesday I started on page one and spent two days dragging myself through physiology of cells and dusting off knowledge about how fascia communicates within the body. In the past I thought that the physiology of cell structure has never been my bag and I would leave the microscopes to the academics. I remember when I spent a semester at Westminster Uni (quitting after realizing that university life was not for me) dreading the physiology lessons. The lectures were dry and never related to what I wanted to do, which was clinic work. So, I didn't get a feel for why this stuff mattered to a therapist.

But over the past three years I have seen cells in a new light and started enjoying the detail of what they offer; after all, they are the stuff of life. And yesterday, when I was making lunch, I think I actually worked out why I now don't mind it so much, but most importantly I worked out why it's important for me to know it for my clients.

The only way to describe it is by relating it to a salad.

I made a huge mozzarella and basal salad yesterday for lunch. It had spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, olive oil ... loads of good stuff. I presented the bowl to David and we both ate it all up and enjoyed mopping up the end bits with a nice chunk of bread. Delicious!

The bit that surprised me was that neither David or I would go to the fridge and just eat the spinach. Not one of us would pick up a lettuce and munch through it. Only on occasion would I eat a tomato on its own. But together, when mixed, they make a great lunch.

Body-Work is the same. I really don't want to spend my life looking at cells on petri-dishes, but I really value the guys who do as they can tell me what they are doing and how cellular changes, patterns and links relate to the work that I do on a day to day basis. Also, I don't enjoy adjusting the skeletal frame, but I am very pleased that it exists and I know enough about it know when it needs help and then I refer to people who can adjust it. I am no endocrine specialist, but knowing that it is a vital system and the basics of what it does enables me to recommend people get their hormones checked if they are feeling a bit off centre.

The body is a salad, not a vegetable!

The beauty of it is that when we all work together across professional disciplines and we know that one  treatment effects the other, we get the best outcomes.

 I look forward to the next blog and seeing what comes to the forefront of my thinking so I can share it with you.

Take care and remember to breathe deeply and enjoy the day.