It’s Not Laziness: It’s Chronic Pain | How to Love Yourself & Heal a Little Bit Every Day

I keep reading all these posts about lazy people and people who don’t want to get off their asses, so I thought a response might serve as a nice pick-me-up and a bit of inspiration to those of us who are really trying — but also fighting debilitating pain conditions that keep us from moving to our full potential. If that’s you, keep reading.

Strong, Mobile & Fit

I get it. Not too long ago, I LOVED my CrossFit workouts (WODs), and I pushed myself to the limit. I still would, except now, my chiropractor would probably ground me and sit me out for a week after a single workout because I would do so much more damage than good. Here’s why:

· I’m stubborn, and my body is protesting.

· I’m getting older, and my stamina doesn’t match my drive.

· I WANT to do more than I can currently do, so I tend to injure myself.

Finding Middle Ground

Did you ever play Frogger as a kid? (That tells you how old I am!) As hard as you tried to avoid getting flattened by those damned logs, they always ended up winning in the end, right? In the game, everything started getting more congested and moving faster and faster until you couldn’t keep up — and finally every single frog succumbed to its fate. Splat.

Fast forward to now. No one wants to go splat. In fact, we fight it with every ounce of our being, and we work as hard as we can to stay healthy, slim, trim, and wrinkle-free. But here’s the frustrating thing for every single one of us: no matter how hard we fight, our bodies WILL tell us when they’ve had enough…and they will MAKE us stop. (I recently tore my gastrocnemius muscle because I was pushing my limits. It was not fun. I happen to know it’s true that the body will simply STOP when it’s had enough.)

When the Positive Turns Negative

I have a lot of friends who are really smart — and really fit. They’re also well-intentioned. They have people’s best interests at heart, but what they don’t have is chronic pain. Chronic, debilitating pain. The kind of pain that makes you cry, makes you grumpy, makes you feel like you’re…