Have you visited a physio for an ache or a pain somewhere in your body?
What sort of questions did the physio ask you?
Did they palpate different areas of your body to find out where the ache or pain was emanating from?
Did they ask you whether any movement pattern in your everyday life aggravated the ache or the pain?
Over the past year I’ve needed to book in for physio on several occasions and not on occasion was I asked about my movement patterns in my everyday life.
Do you know what caused your aches and pains?
I really should have been able to work this out for myself, but I was in denial. Bad habits really do die hard! You see, I had a feeling that the cause of my hip pain was due to the regular twisting movement from my bed to my bedside cupboard several times in an evening/night to get something out e.g. a tissue, eye blinds, ear plugs, a drink of water, check the time on my phone, etc All my life Iโd slept on the left side of my double bed and only now is my body saying to me โEnough!โ.
I guess I was hoping that the physio would come up with some magical exercise that would fix my painful hip and that I wouldn’t have to change a habit of a lifetime. But I realised now that no matter what exercises I was given to relieve the pain, until I had changed the negative movement pattern that was the cause of the pain then it would never go away permanently.
Earlier this week when the physio told me that perhaps surgery was the only option for me, I knew it was time for me to change this negative habit. In the middle of the night I got up, I dragged my bedside table the way all round to the other side of my (big) bed, I rearranged the electrical plugs to accommodate my bedside light and moved my other furniture over towards the opposite side of the room to make room for it.
Today, I’m almost feeling that I have fixed the pain. I have convinced myself of its cause, rearranged my bedroom furniture and managed to break a habit of a life time. It all seems so obvious now. But that’s human nature for you. Always wanting to take the easy way out and staying with habits that we found easier to keep rather than change even though we knew they were having a negative effect upon us.
Take Time to Communicate with Your Body
I’d like you to take a moment and think about any ache or pain that you have in your body and see if you can relate it to a particular movement or activity that you do on a regular basis in your everyday life. The chances are that no amount of physiotherapy, medication or rest will fix those aches and pains.
Just like with any chronic disease we may have, we need to recognise the causes and change our behaviours accordingly in order to get better. Without doing this, there is no medication that will get you better on its own.
Please do share what light bulb moments you’ve had about your aches and pains in relation to your everyday movements and activities. I’m sure there will be more people than just me who will learn from your a-ha moment.