Interconnectivity

We live in a world of interconnectivity and I don’t just mean the world wide web, and cell phones. I mean that to a greater or lesser degree all things are interconnected. We as people are connected to each other, we has humans are connected to the earth, and even internally our bodies are interconnected with themselves. You might think, okay big deal. We’re interconnected, so what? But it is a big deal because interconnectivity means that what affects one part affects the whole. On a global scale the failure of one countries economy causes a depression in the economy of other countries as well. In a circle of friends when one person suffers everyone feels it. In your body when your hips are out of alignment, it affects more than just your hips, it throws off your back, neck, shoulders, and much more.

If we introduce a new element to a balanced system it throws the system out of balance, now sometimes the system will reach a new balance point, or sometimes the system never balances again. Australia is a good example of this. In 1859 rabbits were introduced into the wild of Australia, where with no real natural predators and hospitable ecosystems, they proliferated rapidly. So much so that they began to destroy the ecosystems they inhabited. The rabbits are suspected of being the most significant known factor in species loss in Australia and are also the cause of serious erosion problems, as they eat the plants that the hold the topsoil in place. It wasn’t until 1950 that a successful method of population control was found, when a disease specific to the rabbit population was purposefully introduced. Successfully reducing the 600 million estimated population down to around 100 million. In some ways we as humans are like the rabbits, we are doing much the same thing to our planet as we speak, but that’s a topic for another day.

Now let’s look at another example, the life of an individual. As a person, we are not defined by any one thing. We are a series of interconnected elements, both in personality and in body. Our body is a series of finely tuned inter connected systems. Without our lungs we would die, but without the heart to pump blood through the lungs and carry oxygen to the brain we would die as well. Without a brain to tell the heart to beat, or the lungs to inflate, there would be no oxygen and again we would die. All three systems are interconnected and dependent on each other. The brain needs the heart and lungs, but the lungs need the brain and heart, and the heart needs the brain and lungs. Without any one part we don’t function as a body. But beyond just simply living, when one part of the body suffers, the rest of the body suffers as well. Stress is a good example of this. Psychological stress is an emotional reaction to outward stimuli, but it can cause physical reactions as well. Stress can cause elevated blood pressure which if it persists long enough can become hypertension and hypertension can lead to serious health problems. But stress also causes a fight or flight response, which is beneficial in some situations but when prolonged, starts to take its toll on the body in other ways. Part of fight or flight is a release of adrenaline to help keep us focused and a tightening of the muscles to prepare us to either defend ourselves or to run. Tensed muscles over prolonged periods can become tight and cramped. Which in turn pulls on the bones and can cause misalignment of the skeletal structure, and both the muscle tension and misalignment can cause a myriad of other problems. One of the most common reactions to muscle tension is headaches. When this muscle tension is caused by stress this particular form of headache is called a stress headache. Stress will also cause knots in the muscles. These are called myofascial trigger points. Basically they are parts of the muscle that never relax as they are supposed to, and simply remain bunched up. This of course causes them to be painful, but that’s not the only problem they cause. Because they are tightly bunched they restrict their own blood supply and will trap toxins in the muscles. So something as relatively small as stress can throw off as highly complex a system as our body. It’s all interconnected.

Okay then how about mental interconnectivity. We as humans are a collection of events and experiences, no one event defines us or makes us who we are. Also it is impossible to analyze a given event or choice or behavior without looking at the other events that caused us to react, chose, or act the way we did. Life is a ball of knotted up string and you can’t expect to just pick at one thread without bringing along more than you expected. When trying to analyze or deal with an issue in your life, you will be affected by your past and often to understand our present feelings we must look at what has come before. If you have an irrational fear of clowns there’s likely something in your past that caused that. Or if you’re afraid of commitment, there’s probably something that caused that as well. Often times this is really about that. The reason you get upset may not be immediately apparent and the obvious answer might not be the right one, because nothing is stand alone. Have you ever listened to a song and reacted emotionally but not known why? It’s probably because the song triggered some memory or thought, and it’s not always about what the song is about. Emotions are complicated things and they are rarely subject to logic, which often makes it difficult to untangle the mess that are our thoughts and emotions.

I know that this post only scratches the surface of each of these topics, but it will have to do for now. So dwell on this, if everything is interconnected, then what you do, and say, and who you are simply being, makes a difference. You chose how you effect the global community by the way you interact and effect the people around you, you chose what state your body will be in by the way you deal with and react to your environment, and you chose who you get to be, by how you react, process and deal with the things that you experience. So the next time something seems disconnected remember that sometimes this is really about that.