I've had a simply terrible month in what's been a brutal Summer for me.
I've spent so much of it flat on my back.
But today...I dragged myself out of bed this morning thinking that it was gonna be another one of those days in which I'll be housebound and more often abed.
Fortunately, it didn't pan out that way
Since I'm a total weather vane -- a barometric junkie-- after an hour shuffling around the house I began to feel a little nimble.
I don't look a gift horse in the mouth so I always try to seize the opportunity if it's there. So I altered my agenda to fit the expanding options.
The thing is that I bounced.
And bouncing is a skill you have to work at.
I was able to bounce today because I have such a great customized exercise program and my body is ready to be turned to active mode when it is given the go ahead.
That means I am trained to recover quickly.
This is the great thing about careful exercising -- something that explains the seeming conundrum. Exercise doesn't lessen my illness at all. I can't help the bouts of stiffness, pain and fatigue I am prone to.
Like shit, it happens.
But when flagged 'well' I can quickly seize the moment.
I value that bounce.Waste not. Want not.
Exercise also reduces my pain levels. It won't prevent pain or stiffness, but my body is less willing to cede its carcass to crippling rheumatic symptoms. So I get traded a certain edge -- a little leeway.
I am allowed resilience.
Resilience...and awareness. Exercise gives me movement awareness. I'm more attuned to how my body moves and feels. I more readily read all the somatic signals I get from all over: pain, stiffness, ease of movement, tension, fatigue, clumsiness.... It's surprising how easily you misread how your body is -- how routinely you make assumptions based on a shallow inventory. I do it all the time. And so often I have to begin some exercising to chart the full picture because that will then tell me what I am install for and what agenda I can expect that day.
Finally, what exercise does is switch me from victim to animator. It won't do that all the time, of course, but I find that if I attempt light exercises while ill - and dancing is especially good in this regard -- I switch on responses in my body that alleviate the pain, fatigue and stiffness. I consider it a sort of endorphin response but it also may indeed be cognitive in that activity has its own rewards.
And exercise, afterall, is its own routine. Like those three meals a day, exercise is a regime, a schedule --- something that gets included on your to-do list.
And exercise, afterall, is its own routine. Like those three meals a day, exercise is a regime, a schedule --- something that gets included on your to-do list.
If you wallow in pain by focusing on its presence you will indeed ensure that the pain will continue.
So get up, get out of bed -- and have a go...or so I try to tell myself. But hey! It works.
