What works for the body works for the mind?

This picture captures the actual feeling I had about
mindfully and consistently working toward my
physical therapy goals.

I’ve been receiving physical therapy for 4 weeks now and I'm getting ready to discharge.  I don’t think I ever anticipated needing physical therapy at 30 because it is for athletes and people who actually do physical things.

After a bad wind storm that hit my neighborhood hard, we lost the top 60 feet of a huge sycamore tree in my backyard- straight through the power lines and two sections of fence.  I kicked right into disaster response mode and got out to get to work.  The first day, I helped neighbors who were hit far worse than me clear big trees from their yards.  The next day, the powerline was put back in its proper place and I could get to work on my tree.

My wife will attest that I went about it in a foolish way, instead of waiting till an army of neighbors returned home from work, I got started cutting up the big tree and hauling it up a steep hill in our backyard to the curb by myself.  Long story short, I hurt my back badly.  I figured I’d been sore before and that this would go away within a week.  6 weeks later, the pain wasn’t getting better so I saw my doctor and ended up working with a very talented physical therapist.

I am a therapist who works with the mind, brain, spirit, relationships, etc. so seeing someone who I assumed worked only with the body was an interesting paradigm shift.  In our first assessment, my therapist outlined four stages we would be working through.  I thought “Ah, right, the road map… it’s good to know where I’m going so that when I feel like this is taking too long I can have some perspective and not get totally impatient." He then told me that A big part of this working is going to come from you changing how you think about your body and how you use it. If you can change what goes on in your mind, you can help your body. I wanted to shout Hallelujah! we believe the same thing, let's get started.

Then he told me we would accomplish this in about 6 sessions over roughly 3 weeks. After the first visit, I kept thinking about the timelines and his confidence in them. I thought how nice it would be if I could tell my clients we would be resolving their problems so quickly. Since becoming a therapist, I have really tried to be a good client. I try to do what my doctor asks me to do, I try to follow through and apply what I learn about human development and emotional health, and I really try to take all aspects of my health and wellbeing seriously. I am near discharge from physical therapy, pain free, and grateful for what taking care of my body has taught me about taking care of all other aspects of my life. This is some of what I have learned from physical therapy:

Going harder doesn't mean you will get there faster. If life isn't going 'as usual' you can't pretend that it is. Part of the reason it took me 6 weeks to see someone for my back pain is that I lived under the false belief that it would be better tomorrow. "I can put up with pain today, it won't last forever." When I did have a good day, I would go for a run or work in the yard and without fail I would pay for it.

So many of the emotional and relational problems we face are not helped by ignoring that they exist. When you come up against a barrier, it is important to understand exactly what the barrier is before you move into "knock it down" mode.

Practice and regular routines add up to results. Each time I go to the physical therapist, he gives me one or two new exercises to add to my routine that address where I am at in my recovery. We check in each visit on how frequently I have been utilizing the different exercises and how I am feeling. I have taken this homework seriously because I wanted relief. It was amazing at how quickly my pain subsided and how much stronger I am because I am doing some simple things each day to stay up on my health.

When it comes to mental health, there are several simple daily routines that make a big difference. A relatively few minutes of mindfulness meditation is shown to have impact on mood and change your brain. Exercise is wonderful for mood and for accelerating learning. Meaningful connection with others has the potential to release long-lasting and pleasurable levels of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Writing on a regular basis increases creativity and can help the brain to more thoroughly process information.

It is so easy to stop doing what helps when you start to feel better. This is where the 'getting better' process breaks down for many people. I have recognized a point where I am feeling so much better I am actually having to set reminders on my phone so that I remember I'm still not better and that I need to keep working to maintain the gains I have made.

Essential to this process has been someone who knows a lot more than I do and can see a bigger picture (my physical therapist). An essential ingredient of emotional health is having someone(s) in your life who know more than you and have walked the road you are walking. That is how we get to know our blind spots, people who care enough to tell us when we 'have food on our face.'

Having a general roadmap helps to get the most out of where I am at now. The first exercise the physical therapist asked me to do did not feel good and it seemed like it would compound the injury, not help it. He let me know that he could tell a lot about what might be going on in my back by how I responded to the initial stretches he asked me to do. I have been thinking a lot about the 4 phase process he is taking me through 1) diagnose the pain 2) get in front of the pain 3) build a strong foundation 4) build strength that will protect against future injury.

When we have a general sense of where we are going and why we are going there, it can lead to more investment in the journey (i.e. me doing my PT homework). Emotionally, when I understand that I am still reeling from pain, I can put the breaks on rushing into the next emotionally intense situation, instead I can focus on regrouping and coping with my pain. When I understand that some fundamental things need to shift in how I think and process my environment, I can relax a bit away from rushing to get to the 'destination' I have in my head.

The brain the the body are connected, you never go somewhere with one where you don't bring the other along.