Silver Linings

Don't you hate those testimonials from people who contract some devastating disease and then claim that they are so GRATEFUL for it? It makes me cringe every time I read one of those. My father died from cancer when I was 8 years old, and I'm pretty sure he never felt grateful for that disease. Nor did I, my mother, or my younger sister. Some clouds are just pure gray and nothing but gray.

However, I am now going to run the risk of making you cringe when I say that I am currently discovering a silver lining to this injury I have recently sustained. Of course I was not able to see it at first. In the beginning, there was only the pain, the burning, searing discomfort that barely responded to ibuprofen. There were the sleepless nights of tossing and turning, trying to find a position that didn't hurt. There was the worrying about canceling my bootcamp, and trying to make it through my Zumba classes that I could not cancel.

But as the days progressed, a few things became clear to me. This injury was stress-induced. If I wanted to help my tight, strained muscles relax, I had to rest. Rest? What is this rest you speak of? Well, since my body could not possibly exercise, I had to stop exercising. Stop pushing myself on a daily basis to do more, work harder, get stronger. I had to put my legs up and read a book or watch some DVD's. I took a few warm baths. I tried to follow my own rules about stress eating and stick with the healthiest snacks.

And hilarious as it might sound, I actually lost more weight! This morning, I got on the scale and did a double take as I have now dropped a pound and a half below my lowest weight in years! Sometimes less is truly more.

I believe our bodies have an inherent wisdom. My body had been feeling super tight for quite some time, like my muscles were just getting wound up and wound up and never released. I was trying to stretch those tight muscles, but this was only irritating them further because what they really needed was to relax! To rest! To just stop! And the only way my poor body could get me to stop was by forcing the issue.

No, I'm not suggesting that everyone should just lounge around and eat bonbons in front of the television instead of working out! But I am suggesting that we all pay close attention to what our bodies are trying to tell us. Pain is a message. And if you are really stubborn, like me, your body might have to resort to extreme pain to get you to listen. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and catch your own pain cycle before you have to cope with something truly debilitating.