When I first started physical therapy for my injured shoulder in August 2020, I had 3 goals.
The first one was to be able to start with cross-country skiing, the second was to play table tennis again and the third and most audacious goal was to play tennis again, as this is the sport with the most strain on my right shoulder. The shoulder I couldn’t even lift above my head without pain.
By dedicating myself, my time, effort and money to this goal, I am proudly announcing that I reached all of my goals. A couple of weeks ago I played my first tennis match without any pain and I am super happy and excited about it. My shoulder is not in perfect shape but it is allowing me to do everything I want to be doing without pain.
It took more than 16 months of going to physical therapy 3 times a week to come to these results.
1. AFTER 6 MONTHS I REACHED MY FIRST GOAL → I started a new hobby I wanted to do for years, cross-country skiing, without any pain in my shoulder.
2. AFTER 10 MONTHS I REACHED MY SECOND GOAL → I could play table tennis again. A sport I really enjoyed and even trained for 2 years as a kid. I revived this hobby after 10 years and started to have fun with it again.
3. AFTER 16 MONTHS I REACHED MY FINAL GOAL → My first hour of tennis in almost 2 years.
I consider this as a great accomplishment because it’s much easier to just complain about pain, talk about it and find sympathy in other people for your “misfortune”.
I created this injury myself with 32 years of wrong movement patterns. Then only after 32 years did I start feeling pain. I had to re-learn how to use my shoulder in “the right way”.
It was more of a mental game than any real physical exercise. I felt like I had to imagine using muscles that were completely atrophied because I used other muscles to do the job.
I can’t help but find parallels between the challenge of fixing my shoulder and the challenge of fixing my mind. They were both operating with old programs that after so many years brought me to a bad place. A place of suboptimal performance and even pain.
And after you make a choice that you want to get better, the work starts. Slowly, step by step, you make new neural connections in your brains and grow. You start making different, better choices that bring you better outcomes. You rewire yourself.
And in time you can start living a better life. You can start enjoying physical activities again and you can enjoy life with everything it has to offer. It’s not easy but it is worth it. IT CAN BE DONE! It really can be done. It may sound crazy but everyone can change. Physically, mentally and spiritually.
It’s an amazing ride to go within. It’s a challenge. But it brings results on so many levels. And the improvements start showing in all areas of your life.
Everything is connected. Our mind and our body. Just imagine how physical pain can impact how you feel. It will be very hard to enjoy and be grateful for the love between you and your partner when your back hurts so much that you can’t move.
And vice-versa, imagine how emotional pain and how you feel affect your physical well-being. When you are emotionally deeply hurt, you feel sick to your stomach and can’t enjoy your favourite dish like you normally can.
We are complex. There are so many moving parts within us that function reciprocally. All of them could be functioning better if we gave them proper care. If we started behaving according to our values and not what the outside world supposedly demands from us.
Going for a run, taking 20 minutes to meditate, giving yourself an hour to feel your body, writing down your goals and finding clarity on who we are and what we want to be doing…these are all activities that seem insignificant in the short term. “Who has the time to do that?!”. Unfortunately, we really don’t take the time for this until they become urgent. Until our body and mind tell us it’s enough of terrorizing it with everything that “needs” to be done every day. Usually in a form of pain, disease or something similar. Then we have no choice but to start thinking about ourselves and our choices.
We could sail through life much smoother if we recognized the important things in life before the critical phase and gave them attention. Before the symptoms become so bad that we can’t ignore them any longer.
And that’s the challenge. Doing the important things that are so easy to do but also so easy not to do.
Listening to ourselves and our bodies for what we need and giving it to ourselves.
It’s so hard to do. Going within instead of finding ourselves outside.
But there is no more rewarding journey than going within.
Hope you found this article useful. I would love to hear your thoughts.
All the best!
Lan
