If you’re looking for a wellness program to improve your quality of life, Network Spinal Analysis (”NSA”) is an intriguing option—if you’re open to a process that takes time.

Where health is concerned, we tend to assume that more is more. Two Motrins will reduce inflammation more than one. Running four miles is better than running two.

NSA is different. It uses the lightest of touches to achieve heavyweight results. An offshoot of chiropractic medicine, NSA enables people to access their bodies’ innate wisdom by releasing long-held energetic and emotional blockages that are held in tension in the spine. These energy releases are brought about by gentle hand or finger contacts applied at “spinal gateways” or “access points” along the neck and lower spine.

NSA is remarkable not only for the results it can produce, but for how it achieves them. Sometimes the NSA practitioner’s touch is light, and sometimes it’s downright ethereal, as their hands work the energy field above the body—a real mind-bender for people who believe we’re our physical bodies and no more.

Two healing waves characterize the NSA process. The first is a breathing wave, which releases tension in the spine and body. The second, which shows up further along in the wellness process, is a “somatopsychic” (or “bodymind”) wave that is characterized by a dolphin-like undulation.

According to wellness pioneer Donald Epstein, who developed NSA, this “has not been reported anywhere else … and is a signature of Network care.” He and other NSA practitioners believe the somatopsychic wave is a signal that the brain is re-organizing at higher levels of complexity, enabling people to process information less defensively and make better decisions.

Does NSA work? Apparently. A retrospective study of close to 3,000 NSA patients was conducted in the late 1990s. It “revealed significant positive health benefits and lifestyle changes. These included improvement in physical state, mental/emotional state, stress evaluation, life enjoyment, and overall quality of life.”

In our high-tech, hurry-up culture, it’s natural to expect quick fixes. You won’t get that with NSA. It takes years for the body to build up its protective patterns, and it takes time to release them too. Slowly but surely, NSA facilitates this process. It can help you get out of your own way and accelerate your path toward wellness. Light touch upon light touch, it can open you to a richer, fuller, more light-filled life.

For more information, visit the Association for Network Care Web site.

Carl Frankel is a journalist and author who has been writing about green business, green products, and integral living for the past 20 years.