Rest and Recovery

This year, I boldly declared that I would take one day completely off each month. Well. With my coaching enthusiasm, I ended up scheduling a lot of privates and clinics and then I would justify not skipping yoga because I needed to preserve my sanity somehow. So I missed January, and my resolution got off to a rocky start.

Then this week, I earned myself a shoulder impingement and inflamed rotator cuff by way of a dislocation that popped itself back in on its own. Stubbornly, I refused to take time off. It didn't help that the pain kind of came and went - from severe Tuesday morning to not awful Tuesday night to absolutely none on Wednesday night through Thursday afternoon to ICE ME NOW from Thursday to Friday night. After Josh and Nicky and Elvis harassed me enough, with no coaching scheduled on this particular Saturday, I agreed to take a day off of (almost) all physical activity [I say almost because I did go for a long casual walk but I really don't think that even counts].

A physical therapist assistant friend gave me some exercises to do to help stabilize and strengthen my shoulder, and what surprised me is that I already knew many of these exercises: a massage therapist had given them to me almost 10 years ago! In all honesty, I was not diligent about them then, and that therapist knew it every time I came back to her table. I've had on and off back and shoulder issues for a long time. I can't help but wonder what the difference ten years of stabilizing could have made.

Which is all to say, what you do with your body really matters. The importance of physical activity has never been lost on me. But I have always resisted slowing down and prioritizing proactive self care. This week has really made me think: I don't want to be somewhere even worse 10 years from now wishing I'd been more careful.