What is Ishta Spinal Touch?
We were recently asked to write a short introduction
to Ishta Spinal Touch for an alternative health advisory service;
and we were given quite a small word count to do it in. If you've
ever had to explain Spinal Touch to anyone you know how difficult
it is to be succinct. Let us know how you think we did.
Ishta Spinal Touch
The following quote is by Roger Sperry and refers to a physical body when
it is in the Physiologically Efficient Posture.
The Key to Abundant Energy
"Better than 90 percent of the energy output of the brain is used in relating
the physical body in its gravitational field. The more mechanically distorted
a person is, the less energy available for thinking, metabolism and healing."
Roger Sperry, PhD.
Medical Nobel Prize winner for brain research, 1981.
This is the underpinning of just why everyone should be having Ishta Spinal
Touch on a regular basis.
What is the Physiologically Efficient Posture?
This is a shorthand way for describing a body in which all of its many parts
are in the correct relationship to gravity and to all of its other parts.
It is in this position that the body works most efficiently. That is, it
uses the least amount of resources at its disposal to maintain itself as
it should do.
But what does it look like?
Well, if you stood a person in front of a plumb line it would bisect them
evenly in two, left to right, and their shoulders and hips would be level
and parallel. Side on, the plumb line would fall through the middle of their
ear, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle, and the body would show smooth and regular
curves; much like in the diagram below.
The Remaining 10%
If we look again at the quote from Roger Sperry we can see that just under
10% (let's call it 10% from here on in) of the total output of the brain
is used for thinking, metabolism and healing.
Just think about that for a minute. 90% of the total output of the central
nervous system is used for keeping our bodies upright in the gravitational
field and only 10% for everything else.
Only 10% of the output of our central nervous system is available for digesting
our food, making new body parts, composing symphonies, being good at sums,
restoring, renewing and repairing ourselves, loving our families and friends,
being creative, reading this page, and in fact any other activity you can
possibly think about!
Obviously we need to keep that 10% working so that we can reach our full
potential in life.
Less than 10%
What happens if we are not in the Physiologically Efficient Posture? I'm
sure you're ahead of me already. The body will recruit as much of the remaining
10% it needs to offset the increased drain on the system that is incurred
when the body needs more resources to stand upright.
That means even less of the remaining 10% is
available for everything else, or, as Roger Sperry says in the
opening quote,
"The more mechanically distorted a person is, the less energy available
for thinking, metabolism and healing."
For optimum Thinking, Metabolism and Healing
Obviously for optimum thinking, metabolism and healing we need
to do two things. We need to keep the body in its Physiologically
Efficient Posture and we need to make sure that the remaining
10% isn't being reduced in its effectiveness in some other way.
Ishta Spinal Touch does both of these things simply and elegantly.
How do we lose the Physiologically Efficient Posture?
The most common cause for losing the Physiologically Efficient Posture is
that the body's centre of gravity comes out of balance with its centre of
support, called the counterweight.
If we were a static object, like a bridge for example, we would eventually
collapse when the centre of gravity and the counterweight's relationship
became deranged enough. However, we are not static objects but rather dynamic
ones and we can compensate by chronically contracting our postural muscles.
These will hold us up against gravity; but at a cost. We use extra resources
to do this. That means there is less energy available for thinking, metabolism
and healing.
What reduces the effectiveness of the remaining 10%?
Normally the postural muscles will correct any misalignments of the vertebrae,
but if they are too busy holding you up against gravity then they are not
flexible enough to do their job. When vertebrae misalign they can compromise
the nerves going through and around those joints thus reducing the effectiveness
of the remaining 10%.
So there is even less energy available for thinking, metabolism and
healing.
What does Ishta Spinal Touch do?
Ishta Spinal Touch, suavely and with great ingenuity, returns the centre
of gravity to its correct relationship with the counterweight, releases the
chronic holding pattern in the postural muscles and so restores the
Physiologically Efficient Posture. The postural muscles, now freed from the
task of holding you up against gravity, can get on with the job of correcting
those vertebral misalignments allowing as much of the remaining 10% as possible
for thinking, metabolism and healing.
|
