Posture and Healing

I was speaking to a patient the other day that had an interesting question about their posture.  It got me thinking about how best to explain to someone how we make changes and heal.

It occurred to me that a lot of people want instantaneous results and put the onus on other people to fix it without realizing that they have a very important role to play in their healing journey.

There are two parts to healing. One is repetition. The other is time.  If you want to lose weight, or fix your posture or change your mindset, all these things take time, but the repetition is what needs to be consistent.  Discipline and self-ownership are an important part of this.

For example, losing weight may require you to either exercise or change your diet.  Most likely, it is both. When you decide to make that change, you must be consistent with it – day in and day out.

Fixing one’s posture is another good example of being consistent and giving time for the changes.  When someone has poor posture, it did not occur overnight.  It most likely happened over months, or even years.  It also takes months or even years to fix it.  Research has shown it can take anywhere from two months to eight months to make a new habit.  And research on core strength has shown that athletes who train for competitions are the strongest around five to six years into their performance. 

Most people are fixated on the pain.  That is understandable.  Poor posture often is accompanied by neck or back pain, or even headaches.  Proper gait will be compromised, and the improper mechanics are playing a huge factor. 

Making sure your body is functioning optimally in regard to brain and body communication is an important part of the formula in making changes.  Chiropractic helps promote proper biomechanics and muscle patterns.  It allows people to adapt to stress better.  This makes it easier to do the exercises required to change your posture. 

The onus is on you as the patient, to do the exercises consistently and give it time. That is the formula.

The body is self-functioning and self-healing.  You must give it what it needs to adapt to the stress in everyday life. Chiropractic helps with this!