Harmony

I’m obsessed with this song The Wellerman. It’s a sea shanty. If you listen to the lyrics it’s about a ship whose captain hooks a whale and 40 days later it’s still towing the boat around.

But the story is not what appeals to me about it. It’s the harmony: all the voices, alto, tenor, baritones, base. As one individual singing it’s just lovely; as many voices combined it gives me chills and such a feeling of auditory satisfaction.

 

I can hear you chuckling at me. But you get it, right? That feeling of utter pleasure when you hear a song like that, or see a beautiful piece of art, or a perfect snowscape, or a baby laughing. We’re all attuned to something that way.

There’s a harmony in our bodies, too. Each individual piece sings its own song, but when all of the pieces flow together, it’s magical. Just look at a marathon runner striding, a pro hockey team in perfect formation, or an orchestra playing a symphony. The harmony within the body executes movement that MOVES US. It’s breathtaking to watch. Symmetry. Fluidity. Precision.

In holistic health care, I see the opposite on a daily basis. When dissonance rings through a body, it presents itself as pain or discomfort. Sometimes people notice it within themselves, and other times they’ve just become used to the wrong notes twanging, and it has become their ‘normal’.

And I see these things and wonder: Do they know that harmony is possible again?

It absolutely is. We are all capable of movement that sings a beautiful song.

Here’s how we go about doing that:

First, tune the instrument (your body). Test it. Re string it. Run a few squeaky notes through it. Polish it and make it fine again. At our clinic we do that through assessment. You don’t need to be injured or broken for this, remember. Just ‘out of tune’.

Next, practice. You’ll have sour notes but practice smoothes those out. In your body, this looks like doing your exercises, listening to your body when it tells you to stop, and maintaining the great work you’ve put in with body work that feels good and keeps you in tune.

Finally, appreciate.  Appreciate your body, not just if it’s ‘perfect’, but along the way back into better function: The song of a beautiful golf stroke. The melody of a whimsical pirouette. The harmony of a movement executed without pain, without thought. Everything doing it’s job in sync with the rest.

It’s possible.

When was the last time you felt like all of your body played together in sync?