Quick Gains vs. Long Term Change
When it comes to changes in your body, healing from physical injury, illness, trauma, pain it is the long game.
There is no quick fix that will make everything better. It is the slowest game there is AND it is the most beautiful and rewarding path.
When I experienced two car accidents within two weeks and my health rapidly declined at the age of 25 I was so confused at what was happening and I thought it would be fine. I just need to get a doctor to tell me what to do. I tried one quick change after another. The quick changes worked for a short period of time, but inevitably I would regress to the place I started, or worse, lower than that.
Then came a time where I slowed all the way down. And my mind kept telling me that I wanted to go for a run, but I really just needed to do a couple stretches at home, get a massage, take a bath, drink some water, eat some vegetables. What I needed changed several times a day and I needed to follow that thing that was telling me, now we need to take a nap, now we need to get up and walk, now we need to make some food, now we need to have some fun. Piece by piece, step by step, following that thing that told me what I needed, I started to mend slowly. I made progress, the gains were almost not noticeable.
But one day I would wake up with no pain. One day I would be able to walk two blocks instead of one. One day I was able to run up a set of stairs instead of barely walk up them.
I didn’t reach those milestones by planning them out in advance. I didn’t reach them by doing them over and over again. I reached them by following what I needed in the moment (even and especially when it didn’t make sense to my mind).
Over time, things changed and shifted. I felt less physical pain, more emotional pain. Things would always level off. Some times physical pain lessened but digestive issues got worse. Sometimes there was so much going on I couldn’t address all of it at once, so I needed to take it one thing at a time - but how do I know if I’m doing the right thing?!? Well, when I tuned into my body, I could hear what the next thing was. I trusted it. Our bodies have a beautiful intelligence that is beyond the comprehension of the mind.
I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to jump to the results, to have everything working properly, to not have so many problems. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. I felt defeated at times and just so over all of the pain and the daily requirement of tending to all of my needs. And dealing with the emotions and irritation and frustration.
It’s the long game. There were moments of bliss and breaks in the clouds. I’m coming out the other side of the storm now. The storm that I thought would never end. But every single thing we experience is temporary, my friend, and so even if it sucks now, I guarantee there will be a moment that it sucks a little less. The question is will you feel that moment? Will you be aware of that moment? Will you take that moment in fully?
I sometimes have a really tough day and then I look back at where I started and feel so much gratitude that I didn’t give up, that I continued to take one small step at a time, that the times that I did give up, I decided to get back up, eventually.
Had I not followed that internal guidance system, that thing my body was telling me I needed, every step of the way, I wouldn’t be here today, in the way I am here today.