26 Oct I love my car, but I love my body more…
I recently had a long drive down to Devon (for the lovely Hayley’s wedding!)
Before setting off, I filled the car with petrol, topped up the water, checked the oil, and checked and corrected the tyre pressures. I was pretty alarmed to find that one of my rear tyres was really quite low on air. I had had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right with the car for a few weeks previously, but life was busy and I kept forgetting to check things.
Now, my car is my absolute baby. I bought it back in April and never knew I could love a lump of metal quite so much. I keep it clean inside and out and annoy my passengers /friends/ family with my being so precious about it!
When I realised that the tyre pressure was so low I was really disappointed in myself for not checking it sooner-I’d been driving around on it causing damage. The car still drove well and ran fine, but I know (and trust me I’m no mechanic) that driving round on it like that would have been causing silent, gradual damage- not only to the tyre itself but also to the whole structure of the car- I was causing imbalances and degeneration of certain nuts and bolts and other technical ‘things’! It’s also dangerous- that imbalance will have affected the car’s braking abilities, not to mention fuel consumption. So it’s even been costing me more- and funnily enough I had noticed that I seemed to be getting through fuel quicker- but again I ignored the warning signs and didn’t check things.
So why am I telling you all about my precious lump of metal?! What relevance does this have to Chiropractic/ health you may ask?!
EVERYTHING!
Our bodies are like our cars- they’re resilient and strong, and can keep going when small dysfunctions occur. Compensations are made elsewhere and we just carry on. It gives us warning signs- fatigue, discomfort, maybe even pain. Is that pain always even and equal? Do we always get knee / hip pain on both sides? If we get shoulder pain is it always the same on both sides? In my experience- NO!
We gain and cause imbalances in our bodies and too often we ignore them until it’s too late and we’re unable to walk properly, concentrate on our work, get to sleep without pain- and only at that point do we perhaps think to get help from someone (GP, Chiro, osteopath…)
But how about this- what if we checked that things were functioning properly BEFORE we got the warning signs, or even at the earliest warning sign? We’d save ourselves pain, time AND money.
So – next time you’re checking your tyre pressure, or forking out a horrible amount of money at the garage – perhaps book yourself in for YOUR MOT! …
