“An Ogre is Like an Onion, Donkey”

A patient asked me this morning, “Why is it that I often feel better for a day or so after an adjustment, but then a few days later, I feel stiff and sore and stressed again?”

This is such an important question.  I’m very grateful to her for asking it.  And here is how I see the answer, and in general, the process of healing.

Have you ever looked at a cut tree in cross section?  You see all these concentric rings, the growth rings.  In years with abundant rain and sunshine, the rings are wider, because the tree grew more rapidly.  In leaner, drier seasons, the rings are much narrower and closer together.  The tree was not able to add as much thickness that year.

We accumulate tension and stress in our bodies in layers, much like a tree’s growth rings.

Or like the layers of an artichoke.  Or an onion, like Shrek spoke about in the movie.

And each time we get adjusted, we are peeling back another layer of stress and tension that keeps us from fully enjoying and living our lives.  Everything that is not us.

So we often feel better for a time.  A day or two, perhaps three.  But there is still tension and stress underneath that needs to come out.  So the body in its wisdom brings that up to the surface to be released.  And that is what you occasionally feel a couple days after an adjustment.  So it is actually a very good thing.

Even though healing sometimes feels like an up and down process in the short term, what matters is whether you are getting healthier in the long term.  More aware, in touch, flexible, vibrant, alive.

And think of it this way.  Every layer of tension that comes up, is another one ready to be gone.  Every layer of artichoke, or onion, is another growth ring, and another layer of old stressors that no longer serve you, and another layer closer to the center.  To the core.  To the heart of the onion/tree/artichoke.  To your center, your core, your heart.

So just keep letting go of your layers, and you will no longer be an onion, or an ogre, or whatever you feel like on bad days.  You will just be more YOU: a more alive and aware person, with a healthy, strong, open heart.