The Laws of Nature

Apprentice yourself to nature. Not a day will pass without her opening a new and wondrous world of experience to learn from and enjoy.” - Richard W. Langer

In the 20 years I’ve been practicing as a neuromuscular therapist, I’ve noticed the majority of people don’t really know how to take responsibility for their body/pain. They think pain is only due to injury or comes automatically with getting older. Most of my new clients don’t realize they have any control whatsoever over their situation. They tend to think all injuries are accidental happenstance. Not many are educated about the cause and effect relationships of the human body and postural influence over the long term that may predispose us to a particular injury. We were taught at an early age that brushing our teeth is very important, and we understand the consequences, and most have incorporated this habit into their daily routine. But no one seems to be out there teaching about the  consequences of  poor posture and how it contributes to physical breakdown and pain.

               Two basic natural laws applicable are the Law of Cause and Effect and the Law of Gravity. The Law of Cause and Effect states that every consequence (effect) has a cause. If one desires a certain outcome, one must identify and then enact the course of action in order to produce the desired results. For example, a beautiful lush garden (the effect) requires a certain course of action (the cause). If a gardener fertilizes but does not weed the beds, the garden will not immediately perish altogether, but it will
not attain the potential health and beauty the gardener could achieve with a more complete operation. The two actions are inconsistent—fertilizing promotes garden health, while allowing weeds to remain attacks the viability of the garden.

In the same way good health also requires a specific course of action. An individual who eats a healthy diet but does not exercise will not necessarily fall into immediate ill health. Nonetheless, this inconsistent practitioner will certainly not achieve the full level of health and fitness that would be possible from the addition of exercise.

Basically, the law of gravity submits that each object in the universe attracts each other object. Gravity is the force of attraction between the physical human body and the earth upon which it stands. It is actually gravity that is the premise for what makes posture good or bad-efficient or inefficient. This becomes very important when exploring body mechanics and why poor posture can cause muscle pain. We'll explore this much more later.

So many people seem to think at some magic age (forty?) that their body is destined to develop aches and pains and begin to ‘fall apart.” But it is not simply a matter of how much time you’ve been alive on the planet that determines how your body feels, it’s much more about the postures and positions in which your body has spent that amount of time.

             In the next few blog entries, I'll explain a little about the physiology of your body by comparing the human form to something you, as a gardener, already understand. For example, you know that if you want healthy, robust plants you must add the right fertilizer to the soil. And you know that different combinations and proportions of nutritional elements will promote different characteristics in your plants. The same nutritional parallels apply to your body. Next time we'll  explore  a bit about fertilizer and nutrition for healthy tissue on a cellular level so your muscles have the ingredients necessary to perform in the garden. 

           On second thought, I should probably jump right in with the ergonomics of Raking Leaves! So tune back in  for the next post.