Start to look around at your fellow humans. You might begin to notice the right side dominance isn't just about people using their right hands. Oh no, it goes much deeper than the activity of the right hand.
The right side dominance largely develops out of the size and position of the heart. The heart itself is not symmetrical. It has 4 chambers, two atria and two ventricles; with the left ventricle being the largest of the chambers. These chambers create the body of the heart which is located mostly on the left of the body with a slight tilt to the right and behind the sternum. As it takes up a significant portion of the upper left compartment of the chest cavity the other organs develop around it asymmetrically.
Separated by the heart are the Lungs. Though there are two lungs they are not equal. The left lung only has two lobes to allow the heart to tuck within and slightly behind it. The right lung dominates the right side of the chest cavity with three lobes. Moving down to the feet we find the lungs contacting the parachute like diaphragm. Again because of the heart's position on the left the diaphragm has to extend higher on the right side of the body.
From the diaphragm we move down toward the feet again and into the abdominal cavity. Here the largest part to the liver is tucked up into the diaphragm on the right side of the body. There are four lobes to the liver with three on the right side and the smaller forth portion positioned behind the sternum and contacting the stomach to the left of the body.
Are you starting to get the picture? Because we value are heart so much we have heavily weighted the right side of our body to compensate for the room we've given the heart. For most of us this means we will lean to the right. Do some people watching. Ask your friends how many of them have problems on their right hips, legs, feet and left shoulders. The reason for this cross body phenomena is partially the heart's dominance and creation of the internal asymmetry of the internal organs.
Subconsciously, then, the world becomes built around this right side heaviness so to speak. Then we begin to favor our right hands and we further the asymmetrical repetitive habits.
We are given two arms and two legs with symmetry to compensate for the asymmetry created by the heart. We are ideally suppose to use our left arm and right leg (and visa verse) to move us forward. The heads of our femurs are suppose to move within the hip sockets like pistons (up and down and backward and forward). However for most of us we lack movement in the pelvic girdle and the femur heads move out of the sockets to the outside of the body before moving forward.
There are a few people out there who use both sides of their body equally and have not paid attention to the right side weight. Most of us are not that lucky and must start to bring more awareness to your left side. Play around with taking your first step with your left foot, reach for items with your left hand and pick things up with your left hand. This will begin to retrain your brain. See how long it takes your posture to change as you reprogram your brain with reciprocal movement.
In future posts I will discuss how to continue to reprogram the brain by addressing the Diaphragm's right side dominance. I believe when we understand the functioning of the diaphragm we begin to understand the body's true core is the diaphragm. This realization will revolutionize your postural awareness. Stay tuned....
