Blockages

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Let’s say you and your family go to a restaurant. The kind where you sit down and order and someone brings you your grub.

The host brings you a menu, and some water, and maybe takes a drink order. Pretty quick the server comes and takes your food order, pulls the menus, and you wait.

If you have ever eaten in a restaurant, you know there is always a chance that you might be waiting for a while. You sort of have a feel for how fast things are moving and when that arbitrary time is violated, you start to get cranky. You know you have been waiting too long because “those people over there got here after us and they are already eating!” You might start to get a little loud to voice your displeasure. Maybe even make a ruckus. Something isn’t right. You don’t really care what it is, you just want some food.  

Why am I talking about a restaurant? Because I love analogies, and restaurants and nervous systems have a lot in common.

Here we go.

There are a lot of moving parts in the food service industry. I have worked in 5 restaurants, at least those are the ones I can remember. Some ran pretty smoothly, most did not.

Because of all the things that have to go right to get people served in a reasonable amount of time, these businesses are ripe for blockages. Blockages keep a place from running smoothly. If the dishwasher gets behind and there is no clean silverware, guess what? Slower service. If the kitchen fumbles an order, slower service. If the bartender makes a mis-pour, slower service. If the busboy gets sick and doesn’t come to work, if the clients want to stay and chat and the table doesn’t get turned, and on and on it goes, people are waiting. There is a blockage somewhere.

Slower service means someone is getting cranky.

A million things have to go right in order for you to get your grub in a timely fashion. A million things have to be just right with your nervous system in order for you to walk down the street.

And if the million things don’t go right, you have a blockage somewhere. True for the restaurant and true for your body, your nervous system. Finding the blockage is crucial for restoring a  smooth functioning restaurant and a smooth functioning nervous system.

Blockages tend to make people cranky.

Keep the image in the back of your mind of the family in the restaurant booth getting irritated.

And now picture a person coming into our office with neck pain that they just woke up with. No trauma, no known anything. They went to bed fine and woke up not fine.

“What? You made a mistake while sleeping?” (I never actually say this but I want to.)

So think for a minute with me. A restaurant functions like a nervous system with a lot of moving parts. Remember the nervous system controls and coordinates all the functions of the body.  And it has a million things that must be coordinated for even a simple activity, like sleeping.

Somewhere in our injured persons mind, he believes something happened in the night. He believes this because he did not have pain when he went to bed and now he has some. He believes his problem just started. It didn’t. Likely he has had some non-pain producing blockages for quite some time. Some coordination errors have been accumulating in his nervous system. It may have been going on for years. And the reason it “started” has nothing to do with sleeping. He can’t see the blockages so he doesn’t even know they are there. Until now. Until something finally starts screaming for attention.

All the problems in the restaurant started way before the man in the booth got angry. They probably happened way before he and his family ever came into the restaurant. For example, the dishwasher couldn’t keep up, he is a blockage, and now the man in the booth is feeling the pain.

All the problems in the man’s neck started way before he went to sleep that night. The nervous system had some blockages, and now he is feeling the pain.

The pain and the problem are two different things. The dishwasher is feeling no pain, but he is the problem. The man in the booth is not the problem, but he is signaling pain.

The pain in the neck is likely not the problem. Something deeper in his operating software, his nervous system, is the problem. The man rolls over in bed, his motor program fails, and he wakes up with a stiff and sore neck.

The most common misunderstanding surrounding chiropractic is that we are treating your pain. We are not. The underlying issues, the problems, the blockages, must be dealt with if the pain is going to resolve. That is why chiropractic takes time to work. Chiropractic is meant to address the blockages in your nervous system, particularly ones that you are unaware of.

Making the pain go away is as simple as bringing food to the hungry family. Making the problem go is as simple as getting a faster dishwasher.

Making the pain in the neck go away is as simple as taking a pill. Making the problem go away takes time and persistence and a willingness to be patient.

Be a patient patient. Get the blockages addressed. Time is your ally.

Cheers,

ks