Are you getting the whole picture?

For many people on their healthcare journey, as soon as they look below the surface, they realise things may not be as simple as first hoped.

It could be looking into an upset gut, poor sleep, or that weird pain that comes and goes. It may feel like a big symptom or just something annoying in the background. When you have an imbalance that persists, it often doesn’t feel like it’s entirely managed.  

Let us step back a bit and take a look at why things require extra investigation.

The human body is complex. This complexity is what makes things strong, resilient, adaptable, and beautiful. Hundreds of interdependent systems and processes all work together to keep you alive. The complexity means we have many avenues of solutions so that lots of areas can help out when one region or process is placed under increased stress. Usually the body has tried to implement these solutions long before we notice any symptoms. This may seem like a nuisance when you’re trying to solve a complex problem (why can't it just be A caused B and C fixes A!!!), however, working this was means most of the time we don’t notice the little imbalances our body is correcting.

Each system feeds off and into another to create our overall health function.

We can look at the body this way using the analogy of a pie chart.

In this pie chart below, we have your overall health, and we can see some of the triangle sections that make up the big picture.

(in reality there may be hundreds more categories, but hopefully you get the picture)

Another example could be your knee pain.

There are the obvious categories, and maybe not-so-obvious categories.

These sections may be familiar to you if you’ve ever come in for an adjustment for a sore knee, and your chiropractor has looked in 5 different areas before even assessing your knee.

One of the both brilliant and limiting characteristics of Western medicine is its desire to look specifically into ONE factor, to try and explain in detail how this influences your overall function. Going deeper to try and understand a mechanism has led us to some amazing discoveries, but it has also taken away so much of who we are on the whole.

If we focus only on ONE factor, or amplify the proportion that this factor contributes to your overall function we do a dis-service to the beautifully complex being you are. You were designed to be complex, so ignoring that ignores one of your greatest attributes.

Having an awareness that there are always many different factors at play, allows both a patient and practitioner to truly look at health holistically.

Now certain practitioners and modalities are here to specialise in certain “triangles”. It can feel like a big sigh of relief when you feel that match between the “triangle” you are out of balance in, and finding a person who understands the intricacies of that topic. This is why we often need a team of people or solutions to manage some more complex problems

We tend to look into the areas that feel easiest to change, because we understand them, trust them or have lots of experience in those areas. This isn’t a bad thing. But what happens if we only look at the “triangle" that isn’t the driving factor - we try to solve a problem with the wrong solution. This can feel like trying to put out a fire with water that’s being fuelled by an oil leak, stretching a muscle that’s weak and long, or taking supplements for a gut that isn’t absorbing any nutrients.

Knowing all of this can sometimes feel overwhelming, that there could be hundreds of little factors that are contributing to your… **insert that problem you just can't solve here**

But let's zoom back out again, to gain some perspective and regain some power over the problem.

You may not know what is happening with all the factors that are influencing your health. But it is likely you know more than you're giving yourself credit for. For many health issues starting at the basics reveals a lot.

• Are you eating a range of fresh, unprocessed foods? How many colours have you eaten today?

• Are you drinking enough water (like really enough, not just 4 cups of coffee or tea)?

• Are you giving your mind a break throughout the day, especially at the end of the day so it can rest and wind down? (hint: staring at a screen is not a break)

• Are you moving your body? In ways that feel supportive?

• Are you listening to your body?

• How is my breathing? Have I noticed it at all?

• Have you had a connection with someone who made you feel seen or heard?

We can always build on top of these basic factors, but without mastering the basics you won't go anywhere quickly.

If you feel like you are getting nowhere with an issue, ask yourself, am I looking at the whole picture? And give yourself an honest answer.

If the answer is yes, and this has just highlighted what you need to change – great!

If the answer is no, consider taking a step back, and giving yourself a moment to ask - what other areas do I feel are out of balance right now that I could try changing? And do I need help or guidance in doing this… The depth that you can investigate each factor means for many of these areas in life, nobody can be expected to know everything about anything so reach out and don’t be afraid to look elsewhere if you’re feeling lost.

Your body has an innate ability to heal itself. The imbalances we see are a response to the body trying to correct something else. Sometimes we don’t need to ask “whats causing this” but “what imbalance is this trying to correct”. Looking at the whole picture allows us to honour our bodies and look after them the way they were designed to be.