Our obsession with everything mechanical has divided us from seeing the Whole.

Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine, but what caused the spine to curve and twist in the first place?

X-rays, braces, stretches, exercises, and conversations around treatment make the spine the main focus as the body around that spine is seldom talked about.

Bones do what the muscles tell them to do. Bones don’t shift, elevate, twist, or curve for no reason. Misalignments tend to be reactions from muscles not being able to take action.

In the drawing above, there is a hip imbalance. The muscles surrounding the right hip aren’t able to move the hip well.

Because the right hip can’t move well, the right pelvis raises higher to help the right hip.

Now when you move, the pelvis is forced to move out of a balanced position to accommodate the right hip not moving well. This is compensation in action.

Although the pelvis hiking and twisting is helpful short term to minimize the imbalance coming from both hips moving differently, it becomes problematic long term.

The spine can’t sit this problem out. The 24 bones that make up the spine with numerous muscles attached to them will twist and curve as a reaction to how the hip and pelvis are moving.

In many cases the spine curving is blamed as the problem, yet it’s just reacting to the body around it. The spine becomes the fall guy for the greater problem that is often missed.

There could be a problem with the spine, but that spine doesn’t exist by itself. There is always the entire body around the spine that needs to be in the conversation when looking for treatment plans.

Unfortunately, many people are told not much can be done but to take pills, wear a brace, stretch this side but not that side, and hope things don’t get worse.

I propose anyone struggling with any back problems to take a step away from the spine for a moment. Look at what the ankles, knees, hips, pelvis, and shoulders are doing that could be the real reason why that back is doing what it’s doing.

Seeing the spine position as a reaction instead of the problem can be a game changer for you and I’d love to show you how to do just that. Click the link in my bio to start.