Down and Out

There are times where you are in a groove, where you are doing everything you feel is appropriate to maintain balance. You have a positive attitude, you are exercising daily, you are eating incredibly organic, drinking water, stretching, reading, meditating, and getting plenty of rest. Or so you think. Maintaining balance and proper wellness is a full time job, and along with your real job(which may be several), it can be exhausting. Every once in awhile your body is giving you signals to back off, but your ambition and positive attitude dismiss the signal and you keep moving forward. Life is full of negative stress, and you need to counterbalance with positive stress. Sometimes, however, too much positive can become a negative. This year there have been numerous uncertainties due to unusual circumstances related to health. As a wellness expert, I thrive on helping others to achieve optimal health through balance, and maintaining ideal lifestyle behaviors. Everything I advise patients and clients to do is based on my clinical experience, research and my personal experience of constantly trying to achieve and maintain balance. As a spine specialist, I have seen patients with the worst conditions in horrendous, debilitating pain. While I have injured virtually every part of my body through the years, including my back and neck, I have always recovered in a reasonable time frame. This year, due to the uncertainties of the world around me, I spent more time focusing on balance and consistency. Perhaps too much. The irony is I became too focused on this and my balance was thrown off. Recently, I bent over to clean my dog's mouth after a romp outside, and my back went into severe spasm. I felt like I had been shot in the back. I could not move...for several days! As I was lying in bed, I had plenty of time to analyze what I did wrong. The answer was simple and obvious. I did not listen to my body. For a week before the incident, my back started giving me subtle feedback. It started on a plane ride back to Florida. I could not get comfortable in the seat. Warning! Then, the following week, my back felt a little stiff each day after my morning run. Warning! Then I sat at my computer writing more than usual instead of standing. Warning! Then, after doing some yard work, my back stiffened a little bit more. Warning! Finally, I went for a run last week, and it took a half mile for my back to loosen up. Warning! Then, the final blow, bending over after the run to clean my dog. Bang! As humans we pay the price when we ignore the warnings. I have ignored warnings in the past and it always ends up with me injured in some capacity. A strained calf, hamstring, quad, sprained knee, tight back etc., but I always bounced back quickly. As you age, you need to (and I need to) pay much closer attention to the rest and recovery phase. Since I have been lying in bed for a week, I am more determined to get back to a consistent healthy routine, and listen to my body. Like any healthy relationship, communication is important, and listening to someone else is a key component. Listening to your body is a key component to a healthy relationship between your mind and body. My body was listening to me telling it to keep running, but my mind was not listening to my body screaming out for rest. I did not give it the attention it deserved and my relationship broke down. Maintaining a healthy mind-body relationship requires work. If you ignore your personal vehicle, it can become quite painful. It's never too late to learn how to listen better. I am back on my feet and I appreciate my body more than ever. I was down and out, but I am back up and about. My ears are wide open!