Pain to Performance: Your Most Trusted Guide
On the lighter side of pain
When you finally make your mind up to get in shape, workout, eat right, get sleep and rest, what is your most efficient reliable guide?
- It is Pain. When you work out to strengthen your muscles and body, it is pain that won’t let you do too much, too long. Not the doctor, teacher, personal trainer, or coach.
- It is pain that won’t let you stretch too far.
- It is pain that won’t let you workout too fast.
- It is pain that won’t let you endure to the end of the workout
- It is pain that makes you start at step 1, not step 6.
- Lastly, and perhaps first and last, is the fear of pain that you can or can’t accomplish this task. It is the fear of pain (or just plain lazy) that you won’t push yourself and if you don’t push to pain you don’t get the better results.
This is addressing the fact that you need to get out of the way of yourself or more bluntly, ‘that you are your own worst enemy’ when making changes in your life.
Changing the quality of your life is simple, not easy (like many things in nature). It takes persistent tenacity before you are able to relax in exercise, whether it’s in movement or in sitting still.
Both are disciplines of exercise – dynamic or static.
It is a paradoxical process that we may manage and recycle our energy more efficiently in movement or a resting posture. Many people believe they must claim or regain their energy in rest. This is not absolutely true. There are people or circumstances where movement is rest for the body: Where movement helps a person to breathe (heart and lungs) or joints to move (arthritis). As a matter of fact all body parts are in constant motion/activity. The tissue/organs never stop doing what they do. The heart always beats, and the lungs always breathe. The mind on the other hand has a difficult time to remain still. Performance suffers with any physical or mental distraction. Lack of ability or fatigue is a sign or symptom of distraction. The energy we put in performance multiplies performance output when our physical and mental faculties are optimum/harmonic/in-sync.
How is this possible you might ask?
Co-ordination and posture: It is joint range of motion and angles of advantage that we can use our bones as levers to accomplish work in movement/non-movement, more effortlessly.
Research suggests up to 16x more leverage when the natural lordatic/kyphotic curves of the spine are balanced and individual joints have optimum full range of motion.
This is a basic fundamental principle of chiropractic treatment: To optimize your health. Chiropractic care reduces the eroding effects of gravity on your body physical. Poor posture means poor leverage that leads to more effort, and less work and productivity.
From the basic fundamental elements, we may want to expand to the absolute beauty and grace of optimal performance. This is dynamic movement or static posture (i.e. and ability to remain totally and absolutely still).
The coordination of the body, mind and soul in movement, is the epitome of performance. We have discussed the lighter side of pain and movement, but to expand to our optimum potential in movement requires the expression of a relaxed quiet patient background stillness embedded within a dynamic (tension) movement. Somewhat like digital high fidelity sound, the quieter the background, the more the sound stands out.
This is beginning to sound like we are going to describe zero point energy and quantum mechanics. No, we are just describing the extremes of pain, yin/yang, positive/negative, and the light/dark side of pain.
We want to understand and be cognizant of a bigger picture of the function and benefits of pain, so that we may work with pain to enhance our results. This is a different and beautiful attitude, and one you will never forget when you experience it – in yourself, or others. It is the essence of expression and communication.
To address the Body Mental, image of self and your attitude brings us to the ode of function, sculpting form (your body) to express your life. It is a fundamental and monumental task, profound in nature and a totally comprehensive undertaking.
So let’s begin where a tragedy brings you…almost to your end.
From the Darker side of pain
Pain to Performance: Your Most Trusted Guide…to light your way.
Who can be on the positive side of pain?
Pain is the physical means by which fear rules the behavior of man. No one desires to live in constant pain especially ‘extreme’ constant pain.
When one lives in a constant state of pain and one cannot breathe without having pain, pain captures your complete attention. A new consciousness begins to grow in you with a complete awareness of every minute detail, of what you think, act and do.
You become aware of your first movement to your last or next movement and everything in between. Now, you know I am talking about serious pain: The pain that delivers you one degree from death itself.
Now where is the positive side of pain?
The positive side of pain, should you decide to return to life and light, is the opportunity to see the world in / and from a totally different perspective, and witness a different quality of life. From that decision springs the light of hope. This is a different perspective because your posture in life has changed. What you think mentally, feel emotionally and do physically, are totally different. How you move, literally is different, even though it may appear the same. This is because the quality of movement has changed deeper/intense energy has emerged; embedded in behavior as grace and truth to be expressed.
The new attitude, fresh and new, commands your and other’s attention, silence and respect. This creates space.
You return to the world of movement, one detail at a time, with a new attitude. This is a monumental feat and a catastrophe if you do not. You may have to learn how to walk again, or run, play or dance again. Perhaps see, hear or talk again. You return one detail at a time to a bigger picture of life with a greater sense of humility…more quality in and of life!
And your chiropractor, with adjustments, is there every step of the way; back to being whole again.
Pain has the power to change your perception or create limits for fear of pain. With a little courage, pain delivers the energy with which you may make adjustments, discriminate the smallest detail, and discern the difference that makes the difference.
Who does not want to be effective? Especially if one needs to recover their health or desires to improve their ability to make the grade.
To start we need to know where the pain is coming from and then where does it go, in order for us to correct the condition.
Sounds simple, not necessarily easy!
The Body Metaphor
What is the body meant for except your personal feedback? It’s Nature’s map for your reading as you navigate through your life.
If you have back pain, you have support issues of some kind, on some level of consciousness. There are an infinite amount/number of approaches to this challenge that we do not need to digress too. Suffice it to say, the only one that matters is your way.
The goal of your approach to the issue is looking for completion. Healing and your care will be custom tailored because your issue can only be completed/correct/resolved when you become whole again.
This can only be done by your complete and undivided attention. A chiropractic holistic approach is ideal and fundamental in this process.
This brings us back to your choice again. Do you choose the old form, the old habits, and the old pattern; or do you choose the new life, the new activities/habits, the new qualities of movement, and the new function (hopefully enhanced)?
The ode of function is sculpting and expressing your body form. Function determines form or vice-versa.
Your choice.