If I hurt either way…

Early on in my massage years, I had what I thought was an impossible repeat client. Every week we worked on the same problems and every week they came back just as bad as the week before. As I worked on her back she would tell me how her bowling league did the week before, and as I worked on her hips she would recap her latest motorcycle excursion. With an abundance of caution I asked, “have you thought about taking some time off from bowling and the bike?”

She politely sighed and shrugged, “I hurt either way, so I might as well enjoy it.” It is tough when pain gets in the way of the things that you love to do, so sometimes you have to evaluate the risk vs. reward involved. And to this client’s point, how much of it is what you do and how much is the way you feel?

This is how I started to look at my life and the things that I was doing. Did exercise make me hurt that much more, or was it a different kind of hurt that I was not used to? Would I hurt just as much after a few hours on a bar stool or a restaurant booth as I would after a few hours on the couch? I have learned that one game of bowling is fun and only makes my wrists and elbows hurt a little, but a second game is debilitating the next day. Long drives are their own kind of selfcare, but I have to take care of my body along the way or I end up regretting it. You have to strike a balance between the things that you love and the things that your body does not.

Finding that balance is the key to making healthier choices as well as continuing to do the things that you love (healthy or not).