SILVER LININGS AND INNER TREASURES
Not only every cloud, but also every bone, has a silver lining.
This is the translucent, silvery, dense, irregular connective tissue called “periosteum”. Basically the skin of your bones, the periosteum entirely envelops them except at the ends of the joints.
The periosteum is a living layer inside of you, actually two layers of life! The outer “fibrous” layer is connective tissue – “fascia.” Like fascia elsewhere in the body, it contains living cells, fibroblasts, that produce fibrous tissue, particularly here irregularly woven strands of collagen that interweave, giving strength and flexibility to this outer covering of every bone. Yet deeper, living on the very surface of the bone, we discover the “cambium” layer, coming from the Latin “cambiare” which means “to change”. Indeed it is this cambium, “osteogenic” layer which changes our bones, helping them to grow and repair. The cambium layer produces progenitor cells, which become osteoblasts, which in turn make bone.
The periosteum is vital to our life as it also conveys blood to the bones. Sometimes we forget the vital role of bone in the circulatory system. The inside of bones are so alive with circulation that people receiving transfusions, if an obvious vein can’t be found, can be fed directly through the inside of the bone.
Periosteum also contains extremely sensitive nerve endings. Thus, when we bruise the periosteum, called a “contusion”, the pain is distinct and easily located. Bones themselves do not usually contain pain sensitive nerves, so it is the job of the periosteum as well to provide us this valuable intelligence.
In Zero Balancing we use the term “bone gold” to describe a place where we feel an unusual thickness in bone and its periosteum. Just as releasing tension from the neuromuscular system gives us more energy for life, so the discovery of bone gold excites us as its release also contributes to an awakening to the incredible inner resource that is our skeletal system and its miraculous skin, the periosteum.
Even gold, it turns out, has a silver lining – your periosteum, this deep living treasure inside of you!
