Pay Attention

Sometimes we get on a mission and don't pay full attention to how we're moving our body. Big mistake!

Transcript

Awareness. You've got to be aware at all times. I've got a funny situation when I tweak my back, I usually don't know at the time that I'm doing an activity that the next day I'm gonna have my back tweaked and the next day it might be even worse. 

I do know the type of activities that cause that, and so I'm realizing I need to be more aware of the situation I'm in and what I'm doing and pay particular attention to anything that could torque my back. 

I mean, a twisting pulling motion can easily fire my back up. I've known that for over 20 years. But I get on a project, like I was the other day... We were peeling old decals off of our old studio in preparation for turning in our keys and moving exclusively to the new studio, and I spent four hours on a ladder putting my body weight into it, twisting, and slowly, slowly, painstakingly pulling off these decals. 

I realized at the time I was getting a little fatigued, but I didn't really pay the attention to it I should have. I was on a mission. My brain had kicked into mission mode. And I was gonna complete this task.

So I spent four hours doing that, and that night I didn't do anything about it. I realized I was a little fatigued, but I thought, how about that? You know, it didn't really hurt my back. 

Well, the next morning I woke up and it was excruciating, and then two mornings later I woke up and it was just debilitating.

I fought my way through classes and then had to cancel a couple days of classes to allow it to heal. 

I think in retrospect, if I'd been a little bit more aware, and maybe taken more frequent breaks as opposed to pushing through it... or maybe broken it down into two days. I had plenty of time to do that. Two hours, one day, two hours the next, but I got mission oriented and wanted to complete the task. 

We decided we wanted to get this done, but to have completed that day was not that important. So breaking to the next day would've been a huge relief. 

Where I was heading was that even if I had stretched that night, if I'd had Peggy stretched me, if I'd done my stretches, if I'd done my lower back routine, I have a feeling I probably wouldn't have suffered and missed two days of classes.

That's my message for today. Be very aware of every situation you're in, especially situations where you are on a mission. You're gonna push through and get something done, but you know you're doing things that flare whatever your issue is... your shoulder, your neck, your mid back, upper back, lower back, hamstrings, quads, whatever it is, your ankles.

Be mindful, make adjustments and then if you do push through it, do some stretches and things that will resolve the issue before it hits. 

Move well, stay healthy, be happy, live with passion. I'm gonna talk to you more about this tomorrow.