Let’s go ice skating they said.
Yes! I said, I’m a fabulous ice skater, I love the feel of the ice, I love the freedom, the movement. I can skate tricks, I can do circles and turns, forwards and backwards, I can do single legged swans and spins.
You see, I grew up in Logan where every year they ice over 4 baseball diamonds for a huge outdoor ice skating rink, thats free to the public. I spent so many hours out there, skating, playing, learning from others.
So imagine my surprise that as I was simply skating forward, I tripped, tried to catch myself but fell on my wrist, and broke it!
It was especially frustrating because I wasn’t doing anything fancy, I wasn’t even skating backwards or doing a turn or a spin, no, just skating forward and tripped.
At first my mind went to self blame, dang it. I didn’t need this, and then i looked at my wrist, it was more than an oops. It was not straight, fudge there goes the evening. Plans of Sushi after dissappeared into a backdrop of waiting rooms and x ray machines.
My friends took me to Instacare for x rays, where you could see both the radius and ulna broken. Nect stop the Emergency Room, where the orthopedic surgeon came to assess and put the bones back into alignment.
Honestly the pain wasn’t too bad if I didnt move it. But then I started down that spiral, “was I not paying attention? Why me? I didn’t need this right now…
Oh no its gonna be expensive, and I thought of the money, and debt, just when I felt I was getting ahead.” And the pain got worse, even about a 9 of 10 (10 being high).
Obviously this was not the frame of mind that would be helpful, so I switched.
“Thank you to the hospitals for being here. Thank you to the doctors and nurses. Thank you to my friends and family for looking out for me. Thank you to the technology and x ray machines and CT scans.” When I think of all the people, technology and things that came together, its absolutely astounding. 100 years ago their best advice would be to carry a pail of stones around with the broken arm so it straightened out and maybe some whiskey to dull the pain.
When I switched my mind, I noticed a clear shift, when I focused on the problem of this, the worry of it, the money and the debt, my pain level was about 9 of 10.
But when I focused on all the thank yous of it, and felt the thank yous, not just lip service, but the feeling of it, the energy of it, my pain level was dramatically less a 3 of 10.
Sometimes our deepest pain is from our mindset, it’s been a reminder for me to adjust my attitude. But I hadn’t really considered using thank yous as a pain management tool, but it works, how very cool is that?!
Pain, whether physical or emotional, is a red flag that we need an adjustment. It was remarkable to me how much it made a difference in what I thought and the pain I felt.
While it may not be a complete solution, it is a key factor, what we think about creates our emotions and also registers in the body.
And sometime we need others to help us along the way to create the alignment we need to heal.
May you find health and healing this year in mind, body and spirit.
