The Great Divide

Most people would understand and agree on one simple truth: your body was designed to heal from the inside out. You don’t have to figure out how to heal that cut on your finger. Something inside you is coordinating and orchestrating that without your conscious effort or attention. This inner wisdom in your body is what Chiropractors call “innate intelligence,” the built-in life force that organizes and heals your body from above-down, inside-out.

Over time, society has drifted away from trusting this inner wisdom and become more obsessed with outside-in fixes. We’re surrounded (bombarded?) by messages that say health comes from the latest pill, procedure, gadget, or shortcut, rather than from strengthening the body’s own capacity to heal. This tension between outside-in thinking and inside-out living is what Dr. BJ Palmer, the developer of Chiropractic, described as “the great divide.” It is a fundamental clash between two worldviews about how the body functions and where health and healing truly come from.

Take the common tension headache as an example. You end your workday with the pain and aggravation of pressure in your head, neck, and shoulders. It’s nagging and uncomfortable and has the potential to ruin your evening. So, you count on the predictability and swift response of the over-the-counter pain relievers. The problem with this approach is that it disconnects you from the very source of health in your body. It also trains you to see your body as incapable of healing, resulting in habitual reliance on pills to make you feel better. In this view, symptoms are seen as problems that must be eliminated at all costs.

The inside-out model starts with a different assumption: there is an intelligent life running the show inside you, and your best health comes from removing interference to that intelligence so it can do its job. Symptoms are signs and signals from your nervous system that something isn’t right. With that headache, from an inside-out model we would first suggest checking your spine and nervous system for interference, or subluxation. Subluxations must be cleared so that the body’s innate healing can do its job. And yes, this may feel like more of a long-game approach when you’re in the thick of a headache, but a crucial step, nonetheless. An inside-out model would also lead to supportive choices like rest, stretching, and hydration to give your body what it needs in those painful times.

Chiropractic rests on three fundamentals:

• There is an innate intelligence within the body that coordinates all functions.
• Interference with that intelligence (subluxation) changes how the body functions.
• An adjustment is designed to correct that interference so the body can heal and regulate itself.

Living an inside-out life requires a lot of attention and intention. Listening to your body when it whispers, so that it doesn’t eventually need to scream and shout. Trust that innate wisdom that keeps you alive and breathing. Be clear that your body was not created lacking a single thing. Know that health isn’t something to be chased with pills and potions, but something you were created with and can be uncovered and supported by removing interference with consistent and regular chiropractic check-ups. That is the heart of what we do at Hazeldean Family Chiropractic – stand on the Inside-Out side of the great divide and hope you will join us there.