When Pain Strikes
It’s 6:25 am and I can barely walk today.
The fear of a shooting pain strike with each move is worse, perhaps, than the pain itself.
I hurt my lower back on Monday. Nothing to point a finger at. No specific cause I can pinpoint.
Not like the time I turned to lift a snowblower into my van. Stupid!
This pain just randomly occurred as I was doing simple work around the house.
Normally, my chiropractor can set me right in just a 10 minute visit. But it’s been two days now since his adjustment and the pain is still the same.
Perhaps fate drew me to notice the sign on his wall this visit stating: “Chiropractic adjustments are not a fast fix, but a means to help you heal faster.”
What Can You Do With Pain?
I’m angry because there is so much I want to do, need to do. But I can’t!
It’s hard to be “The Boss, The King, The Shaw” to quote from Robin William’s song in Disney’s Alladin, “Friend Like Me”, when you can’t even bend to put your socks on!
The thing that saves me, empowers me, is something I write about often. Mental State.
You can be in pain. You can be angry. You can be sad. You can be frustrated. You can cry about all the things you can’t do.
All that.
And I’m not naive. I know some people have lifelong crippling physical and mental burdens they must fight each day.
But there’s still something you CAN DO. No matter how small.
And that’s where our focus has to go.
“What CAN I DO?”
“Can’ts” are abstract and useless. I can’t go to Mars is the same as I can’t win the $250 million lottery, and I can’t be 25 again.
There’s no value in thinking of these things I can’t do at all. Let alone shedding tears over them. Or staying in bed all day depressed about them.
“Can’s” are real. No matter how small.
I can sit at the computer – so yesterday I completed 4 pages of a marketing course, and closed 1 biz deal on the phone.
I can sit at the computer – so today I am writing this article, creating two Pinterest Pins, dialing for dollars, and listening to multiple educational podcasts.
At the end of the day, pain or no pain, I will go to bed with a feeling of accomplishment. Of progress. Of growth.
Do that everyday and you can’t help but move forward. Grow and learn. You can’t not become someone better this way.
Regardless of what the pain is doing.
Triumph Over Pain
A’way back in the 1900’s…
Milo C Jones was a young man when he took over his family’s famous Wisconsin dairy farm. At age 35 however, he was struck with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease which leads to severe joint damage and pain. Confined to his bed, Milo was now unable to operate his parents’ beloved farm.
But Milo was a “CAN DO” kind of person, with a knack for innovation and entrepreneurship. He was determined that his family’s success and pioneering spirit would not end with him.
From his bed, Milo ordered that the dairy farm be turned into a pig farm. And those pigs would be used to recreate his mother’s famous recipe for homemade, all-natural breakfast sausages, consisting of 4 simple ingredients, pork, water, salt and spices.
Those same simple ingredients are still being used today, 131 years later, to create the breakfast sausages that are sold worldwide for Jones Dairy Farm products.
Milo C Jone’s didn’t cry about what he COULD NOT DO. He focused on what he COULD DO.
Modern Day Pain Fighter
“Sure. That thing “screwed me”. I can’t do what I wanted to. So what CAN I do?”
Psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson is famous for his “Start with organizing your room” advice. “Start with whatever thing you see that needs doing, that you might be willing to do for 5 minutes.”
Starting always seems to be the hardest part.
But if you will start, momentum follows shortly after to help you.
I know that in time, “this too shall pass”. This back pain will be gone one day.
But I can’t sit around waiting for that day. And neither should you.
Life’s short. And there are things that I can do, that I would be willing to do.
Right now. Even for 5 minutes.
Usually those 5 minute things turn into hour things.
Often to finished things.
Once I get started…
Then I can sleep well at night. Knowing I’ve grown.
“What can you do?” people often comment when you tell them something bad that happened.
Few, however, actually spend time searching for an answer.
What CAN you do?
“Bene Vivere!”
Bob “more Elderbob today” Schwarztrauber
P.S. Crippling knee pain once slowed me down for years. Until I found these special exercises which quickly got me back to normal. I share my story and the exercises in the link below.
