Have you ever had to stop moving, or exercising? It's awful. As a result of grinding to a halt, your muscles flop, your energy flops and your joints are less stable. Sitting, standing or doing any day to day tasks feel more like a chore. You just feel less supported.
After 25 years of teaching I'd almost forgotten what this low energy state felt like. Even during pregnancy I taught exercise and Pilates 6 times a week. I had no excuse after creating our 'Pilates in Pregnancy' DVD.
But the last 4 weeks I've had to slow down and allow a knee injury to heal. Bizarely I managed to do my first ever Great North Run (half marathon for Cancer Research UK) quite easily. Proudly raising over £1000 I built the miles up slowly and felt good. Roll on a few weeks after the event and a swollen knee joint and pain during movement has halted me in my tracks. Even child's pose and kneeling are tricky. Not great when I'm teaching all week.
The worry of whether 'this is it' or whether I could get back to normality crept in.
Now there's the physical issues - of feeling floppy, unfit and lacking structural support. But there's the psychological ones too. Am I getting old? Is decline inevitable? Can my body heal?
It's interesting to question how we might have been programmed about age from our early years and from society. And those beliefs are often held below the surface at a subconscious level. All around us we are told 'signs of ageing' include decline. We are told to expect injury / issues and even illness. But why do we accept these as inevitable and what would happen if we didn't?
From an early age I used to say "I'll live until I'm 104". And that "I'll get fitter and stronger as I get older". I've no idea where this came from. Maybe the rebel in me. The feeling that I will NOT be told by society that I become somehow 'less' as I increase in years. So my NLP and my more recent training in Psych-K(r) has allowed me to check out my subconscious programming and change any limiting beliefs that might be getting in the way of a fully healthy, energetic and vibrant life. This simple tool allows you to check what your sub conscious mind is aligned with and pluck out at the roots any unhelpful beliefs... replacing them with empowering and liberating ones. It's a ground breaking and elegant method that I've had the joy of supporting others with.
So along wth my diet, my supplements to help my tissue recover and a subconscious belief that my knee is just giving me the opportunity to focus elsewhere for a few weeks, I am really looking forward to that fitness and tone once more.
Thankfully, Pilates allows me to still exercise. The core work, the spinal movement and modified moves allow me to cope with this new behaviour of sitting and typing for hours.
I'm looking forward to a better balance again.... and getting my lovely dog running over the fields.
But in the meantime I'm grateful how my unusual journey so far - of mind, body and psychological learning - are coming together in all their glory.
My message? If you ever have to stop, keep moving. Look for the learning. Tackle the subconscious beliefs. Nourish to recover. You are built to be well. And believe it, you can be!
In good health and happiness,
Love Lindsey x
