Biosphere
I have a friend from my time at McGill University who is a badass.
I've followed her career for a long time. While I went into the business of caring for people, she went into the business of caring for the world.
Alizé (um, best name ever) studied environmental conservation research and advocacy long before I knew what that entailed, and she is now a "National Geographic Explorer", which basically means she gets paid to travel to unique and diverse environmental research & conservation sites around the world. She is also getting a Ph.D in Climatopias (who knew that was a thing?!).
Anyway, she recently went to a place called 'Biopshere 2' in Arizona. Biosphere 2 started as a two year living experiment in a 3 acre glass dome that took place in the 1990s.
The intent of the experiment was to show that closed ecological systems would be able to support human life and allow them to thrive for space exploration.
The experiment had 7 biomes and 8 "Biospherans" who lived inside the following ecosystems: a rainforest, an ocean environment with a coral reef, a savannah grasslands, a wetlands, and a massive agricultural field where food was grown, plus a human workshop area.
Spoiler alert: The experiment failed. Among other things, dangerously high CO2 levels, dead pollinators, food supply shortages and weak trees showed that as humans, we are unable to recreate or replicate all that goes into our earth.
Anyway, the reason I am sharing this with you is that what resonated with me is that the reason the trees were unable to thrive: TREES NEED WIND RESISTANCE TO STRENGTHEN THEIR TRUNKS. (!!!!).
For a therapist like me, this was a revelatory moment. It makes perfect sense! It called to mind what doctors & therapists learn as 'Wolff's Law'. Wolff's Law states that "bones grow in the direction that they are loaded". In other words, THE WEAKEST SPINES are the ones that have NO RESISTANCE to fight against.
AKA - our spines are like trees. We need to WORK AGAINST RESISTANCE. We have to bend so that we don't break.
People tend to avoid exercise when they have any sort of back pain or injury because they are afraid that what they do will cause further damage. This is a myth, and a dangerous one at that.
I hear people voice concerns about arthritis, degenerative disc disease, back pain, fear of re-injury, fear of causing damage to the body -- meanwhile, trying to avoid these things is what causes these things.
I recommend you hop on a zero commitment discovery call with myself, or one of our team to learn if a Foundational Strength Program at Align is a good fit for you.
In this program, you will learn how to load your spine CORRECTLY and become proficient in the movement patterns that keep your 'trunk' (gotta keep the tree metaphor alive) strong.
If you have continued pain or are dealing with an active injury, you may need to work with a therapist first, and that's ok too - we will be honest about what we think will be the best choice for your health, and your body.
Respond to this email to set up a call, or click the link below to dive right in and schedule an appointment with Cole, or one of our other therapists.
I'll be over here channeling my inner tree. Strong, stoic and able to weather a storm, there are worse things to be than tree like.
Oh, and if you want to learn more about the wildness that is the Biosphere 2 experiment, there is a documentary on Hulu about it called Spaceship Earth.
Signing off from the biosphere (OG planet earth),
Amanda