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 There is a duality to everything we encounter in life, black and white, true and false, right and wrong, life and death.  This holds true for mechanical, physical, neurologic, and cognitive processes as well, inhalation and exhalation, flexion and extension, sympathetic and parasympathetic, happy and sad, stress and relaxation, pain and no pain, right and left. We all function within these dualities and live in a fluid manner between the ends of the continuum.
 

Proper function through the course of a day, a week, a year, a life depends on the ability to transition along the continuum in either direction and to be able to reciprocate both ends of the duality. The idea of transitions suggests that at some point we are in a state that is neither of the dualities, or in other words neutral. This is a neurologic reset button, a state of rest integration. We function therefore by not living totally black or white, but somewhere in between, or grey. We manage these multiple dualities without any consciousness, they continue to transition in response to feedback that matches our activity, emotive state, and perceptions, by altering our shades of grey.​
 

The shades of grey that we live in, or where we are on these continuums is fluid with certain functions being darker at times than other functions and at times vice versa as we reciprocate the continuums in response to the current demands.​
 

The shades of grey are a reflection of what combinations of the dualities are most stable given the input, environment, and past that we are experiencing. Function is impaired or lost when we repeatedly experience the same stability and become too stable in one position on the continuums, therefore we become stuck, losing fluidity and the ability to transition. We become black or white.​
 

This position becomes defining, comfortable, and known. It becomes our pattern.
A pattern is not always the best for us and becomes so ingrained that we have to compensate to accommodate the inability to transition out of the pattern, which only reinforces the pattern.
We therefore start living in that pattern and in a state of compensation without the ability to transition. This is living in a state of asymmetry, all black or all white. It is when we live in a state of asymmetry, that forces in the pattern strengthen and forces outside of the pattern weaken.  It is here, where we have lost the ability to reciprocate that things start to break down. Physical, mechanical, and cognitive processes become stressed, worn and often times painful. We have lost our rest integration and therefore something is always on like our neck, back, or our sympathetic fight or flight response.
If lasting change is to be made to a pattern of asymmetry, it can not be achieved by simply imposing the other duality through manipulation, stretching, strengthening, or pain management. Lasting change can only be achieved by identifying a pattern, overall positioning, and then learning how to transition out of it, and ultimately  maintaining the ability to reciprocate.