Small is Huge!

Categories: Blog Mar 29, 2015

Have you ever broken a pinky toe? I've done that once; once on the right foot, and once on the left foot. The funny thing about a pinky toe is that you just don't appreciate how valuable they are until you break one. I could not balance on my foot, run, or even walk well when it was broken. How about a finger? Have you ever broken, or hurt a finger? How was your grip? Could you hold things well? Probably not.

Sometimes we just don't realize how important the small things are. Every part of you, no matter how small, has an important role to play. Another way to say that is every part of your design has a purpose. Even the hairs on your arm have purpose. They are not just for looks, and they are not just there to be braided. They actually give your brain information about your environment, like little antenna.

In fact, one of the smallest parts of your body is perhaps one of the most important parts: your vestibular apparatuses. Your vestibular apparatuses are your balance mechanisms, and so much more. They are located behind each ear. They detect every movement you make, no matter how small, and they feed the brain this information. The brain then processes this information and tells the body how to respond, reflexively. Like a healthy pinky toe, a healthy vestibular system is crucial to optimal performance and function. In fact, an unhealthy vestibular system can turn your entire world upside down, literally.

The best way to keep a healthy vestibular system is the way you developed one to start with: move your head, and then move the rest of your body. Remembering how to move your head, remembering that you are supposed to move your head, is a great way to start nourishing the vestibular apparatuses. They detect linear motion, rotational motion, and lateral motion. They really detect all motion. Moving is what keeps our vestibular systems healthy. It feeds our brains, and reflexively keeps us "sharp": fast postural reflexes, fast global reflexes, and optimal expressions of strength and mobility. Moving is what we were designed to do.

Your vestibular apparatuses are very small but they are the members that build everything about you, the members that determines your body's expressions: strength, mobility, flexibility, even your emotions.

Again, nothing about you is insignificant. Even the smallest parts of you are like the most precious treasures in the world, they are priceless. And, if nothing about you is insignificant, you best believe that you are not insignificant either. No matter how small a role you believe yourself to play in this world, you matter. In fact, you may play a small role in your world, to your own estimation, but you also may be the greatest treasure to those around you. You may be the glue that holds everything together. Nothing, no one, is insignificant. Small is huge. You have impact.

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