Anatomy books are a bit like maps, for the body – there are simple ones that don’t show much detail, and then larger scale ones that show a bit more, all the way to the detailed A-Z that is the mighty tome of Gray’s Anatomy (yes it was a book long before the TV series!) . They show us where things ought to be.
But our bodies are the living landscapes of our lives – we acquire scars, bits get chopped off, or added on, or replaced. With the passing of time we drift further and further away from the textbook norm. As Caroline Myss wrote: “Our biology is our biography“.
When we walk or drive a route again and again, it becomes familiar, we no longer need to look at a map to know where we are. When I was studying osteopathy back in the late 1980s, my goodness there was a daunting mountain of information to take in about our anatomy – the visible bits of the body we see, and the internal bits that we don’t – but now in my daily work, anatomy is real and living and vivid, and I love it!
When I was a tutor at the European School of Osteopathy and having a clinic tutorial with my students, I would ask one of them – give me a route from the left ankle to the right shoulder, and they would have to describe the anatomical connections all the way up. I would then ask the next student to give me a different route. A great way to really understand how the body is a connected whole.
Sometimes on a long train journey, or in a supermarket queue I might do this myself to while away the time and keep my knowledge fresh.
For example, just this morning I had a patient with a frozen shoulder. I love being able to explain in simple terms how (in this instance) their shoulder should work, and where the restrictions are that are causing the problem – and thus why they need to do their exercises.
My patients tell them they like the way I explain WHY something is hurting. Then they understand what they can do to help themselves between treatments, so that they get better faster – and can get back to cooking, gardening, dancing, playing the violin, editing films, whatever – whatever is their passion that gives them joy, or that earns them their living.
If you live or work in or near Baldock in North Hertfordshire, or Bromley in South East London, and would like to have a chat about how osteopathy might be able to help you and the living landscape of your body, then do send me a text on 07535 350 343 to get the ball rolling.