Life always has a way of slowing you down when you are going too fast, doesn’t it? You may come down with a horrible flu or mono when you’ve been running yourself ragged. It’s like your body knows the only way to stop you is to force ya down. Hence, what my body is currently doing to me.
A few days ago, I was rushing around my house (as one does when you have a million things to do) and took one wrong step and BOOM. Out the back goes. Naturally, it was during a weekend that I had a million meetings that I HAD to be at…So, off I trotted, well, waddled. Cane in one hand, heating pad and Tylenol (I can’t take ibuprofen, sadly) in the other. I walked as little as humanly possible because each step was agony.
I was hoping a good night’s sleep would fix me right up. Oh, how wrong I was. Today, I am forced to work from home because I know if I don’t rest and recover, this will go on for weeks. How do I know this? Because I have made it a habit to ignore my body in the past. I know how it will revolt against me. This time, I’m trying to appease the back spasm gods. I have arnica gel on order because getting my body out of the house and to a store is just not going to happen without lots and lots of wincing. No one needs to see that.
This happens to me enough to know the things I need to do, heat/ice, pain reliever, stretches, repeat. The bigger issue is the fact that I always seem to forget that this sort of thing happens because I don’t listen to my body when it sends me the warning signals. I don’t pay attention to my body telling me to slow down. Relax. Take a breather. Ignore that email for a day, that notification doesn’t need an immediate reply, that self-imposed deadline doesn’t HAVE to stick. Because if you don’t…
You end up flat on your back, thinking about all the snacks in the kitchen you can’t get to.
So let my pain be a warning to you. Stop. Slow down. Smell the roses, but be careful how you bend when you do!
Danielle Bannister, Author 