When we get older we often look back at our lives and find things we wish we had been told about earlier, or things we wished we had learnt or realised earlier. This series of short articles describes my top 'Life Lessons' and they are presented here for anyone open to the possibilities. One of the most important lessons I could have learned earlier in life was to listen to my body and respect my body. I never did anything too extreme but often pushed myself too far, for too long, without considering the consequences. I never broke any bones but even feeling sore the next day is a consequence. You may think that feeling sore the next day is nothing and that after a day or two everything is back to normal - but is it? We think that it is okay to push ourselves hard then have a day of recovery, and we do feel normal again, but does it really end there? Is it possible that all these events where we push ourselves too hard and end up feeling worse for wear have a cumulative effect, or catch up with us in older age? The medical world knows a lot but it does not know everything, and we are all individuals with different physical capabilities and qualities. My point here is that I wish I had known when to stop and not kept pushing on to the point where I was super tired, fatigued, worn out or just plain sore and sorry. Actually I did know as my body would have been telling me but I chose not to listen and chose to over-ride that feeling. This is the point where I could have and should have been more discerning, respected my body saying time to stop, and actually listened. An example might be getting sore arms from lifting heavy objects; I could have either stopped the activity, or got somebody to help, or used some mechanical assistance of some sort. But no - more often than not I would have pushed on until finished or found it impossible to continue.
Our bodies have so many ways to tell us when things are not right but we rarely pay too much attention to them or just blatantly ignore them. Sometimes it is an image thing where we don't want to appear weak or soft, that's a big one for men, other times we are in the grip of time and an imposed deadline we feel we must fulfill. Often the deadline is an unrealistic one we have set for ourselves and hos no real basis for existing at all. So, in summary, my No.1 Life Lesson is: 'Listen to your body'
1 Comment
Christine O'Brien
11/8/2020 06:53:20 am
Great tip Francis, I am on the side of age where I too can look back and agree I over rode messages from my body. Messages that like you've got to keep going or you won't for fill a certain picture or outcome I'm striving for. The only problem is my delicate body is suffering now where by I am limited in what I can do physically.
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AuthorI love to understand things, how they work, why they happen - I'm always learning and keen to investigate... Archives
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