are you tuned into your body’s conversationsđź—Ł and circlesâ•ď¸Ź?
As the psalm a friend’s mother used to say, “my cup runneth over” this week with so many wonderful conversations.
It made me think about the push for more “systems thinking”, a framework of looking at the relationships and interactions between parts.
It’s called “yuimaru” in Okinawan culture—the “circle of support” and reliance on one another. It’s one of the enduring gifts of osteopathic medicine—how astonishingly interconnected our bodies are.Â
Every organ participates in a conversation that began long before we're born and it goes something like: the heart pulses life, the brain interprets it, and skin meets life in the world.
It’s mind-blowing to me that our skin and brain are biological siblings so to speak, born from the same embryonic tissue and remain intimately linked throughout our lives.Â
It’s evident—when we're startled, our heart races, our mind sharpens and our skin prickles with goosebumps.
This conversation is why stress can manifest as skin inflammation, and why when we’re upset, a loving touch comforts us—our breathing slows and our heartbeat settles.
Our physician wants to see us because skin is often the first messenger of nascent disorders in the body before diagnosis are made to the actual conditions.
Case in point, there is strong evidence that some inflammatory skin diseases like moderate to severe psoriasis are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Â
These are just a few reminders that the heart, brain, and skin are constantly responding to one another in ways both visible and unseen.
Systems thinking, yuimaru and skin biology all rely on functional interdependence. It’s a mindset desperately needed in our body politic today…Â
Let’s honor one of our body’s oldest conversations—one that continues with every heartbeat and every moisturizing touch for the whole of our lives.
