RE: Forget running, I LOVE Obstacle Course Racing!
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
Well... you'll be pleased to know that the ninja competition community isn't inherently competitive with each other... it's more like everyone against the course, which is something I really love. People that you're supposedly competing against will give you tips on how to tackle the obstacles. There's a real sense of "if I help you, and you're successful then we all win" so I think it's such a good place to be a big softie!
I think there are a couple of leagues going around, but here was one of the more popular ones for this year (https://ultimateninja.net/schedule/) you can see in the International Qualifiers section that there was one in each Aussie state.
Hahaha, my left elbow has been the main thing that has kept me from monkeying around... but lately I've been having issues with my shoulder and lower back. I think really that I just need to learn how to manage various injuries and find a way to carry on without making anything worse. Thanks for asking though! Super appreciate it!
Oh good! 🥳 That sounds perfect for me. 😉 I love it already. 😍
I shall click through and check it out next! Ta! 🙏🙏🙏
And elbow... plus shoulder... and lower back. Got it! All on the same side?! 🤔
Checking in: you're welcome. Big softie over here, as you said. I want everyone to move-well-and-win.
Curious: have you heard of the Feldenkrais Method? It's an incredible system that uses an understanding of neuroplasticity to help teach people how to move correctly again, from the beginning. As in, correcting movement patterns that cause the injuries in the first place.
I don't know heaps about it - learning more in the coming year as I study with trauma specialist, Irene Lyon - but it suddenly came to mind as I read your update on injuries.
!HUG
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @consciouscat.
(2/3)
Thanks! I've never heard of the Feldenkrais Method but I found a practitioner not too far from me and so sent her an email - so hopefully I can organise a session in a week or two and let you know how it goes.
Elbow and shoulder are same side, on my left (my less dominant side) but my lower back pain is in a band across the back, pretty much around where a belt would sit.
Yay! That's excellent! Hopefully, she teaches you how to do stuff you can actively practise at home as I think that relearning movement patterns can take time (and you wouldn't want to do it all 1:1 with a practitioner). Definitely ask for homework if she doesn't offer it.
Left side/less dominant.... Do you want to know why I asked, i.e. what the mental/emotional aspect is that you can look at here? (Feel free to say 'no' or ignore this if you'd prefer I didn't offer further insights/suggestions).
!HUG
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @consciouscat.
(1/3)
I'm already doing about an hour of stretches and rehab exercises per night, so I think I can easily add in some Feldenkrais homework too.
I'm super curious to what the mental/emotional aspect I can look into for my left-side shoulder and elbow issues... what do you think I should be thinking about?
Ah, good. Yeah, the longer I work in this (healing) field the more I see that quick fixes are rare and what it often takes is small actions taken consistently to create change over time.
Cool. Brave man. This stuff can be scary, so be gentle with yourself as you ponder and inquire.
So, the basis for this work is understanding that every time we experience anything stressful that we don't have a chance to fully feel and resolve it lives on in our bodies. The stress doesn't disappear just because we "got on with it", it went somewhere.
With everything I've learned in the last decade, I now 100% know that when someone is facing long-term physical issues--even when there was an obvious physical mechanism of injury--there is a component of it that is the underlying--and unresolved--mental and emotional stress of something that happened in their life.
Where an injury or illness occurs in the body depends on who we had the issue with and our individual genetic makeup (i.e. where we have inherent weak points).
In your case, with the left side, I'd be looking for issues in your relationship with your mother and/or yourself as a child (or with your own child/ren if you have one/any. Do you? I had guessed that you didn't but maybe you do?)
Our non-dominant side is known as the "mother/child" side of the body.
In the privacy of your own space Adam, ponder this question (Doing this with one body part at a time.):
Just before this injury occurred what was happening in my relationship with my mum (or child) or did something happen to remind me of a very painful experience when I was a child?
Hopefully, you'll find something interesting or surprising that you just hadn't put together. If you find something super painful (which can definitely happen) then be very gentle with yourself. Let yourself feel whatever you're able to feel and then deliberately nurture and soothe the mental/emotional pain in whatever way feels best for you.
Next layer: elbow and shoulder.
Think about the body and its parts figuratively. Consider the sayings we have about those body parts. Let's use the shoulder as an example:
In English, we talk about shouldering the burden and I have a weight on my shoulders. It's often about responsibility. So, if I was working with you I'd be exploring those two together - mother/self as child/your child and responsibility and where there was a problem or something stressful that happened in relationship to these.
Because we barely know each other Adam, let me say this:
It's rarely the case that the thoughts and emotions we're feeling (or have trapped inside of us and don't realise we're avoiding feeling) are the entire cause of an injury. I'm not suggesting that you just "feel your anger" or "feel your sadness" and the injuries you've been dealing with for god knows how long will just magically disappear.
I am suggesting that it's very likely that the mental/emotional piece is one part of a larger puzzle. And my hope is that by taking a bit of time to explain this stuff to you you'll have enough info to do some self-inquiry and be able to uncover (and resolve) one more thing that's stopping you from having a well-functioning body that will let you play on obstacle courses (and just move around like a healthy, happy human) again.
Hopefully, this all makes some sense - even if it's weird (which it is, because we're not used to viewing the body in this holistic way). If anything is unclear, let me know. May you be climbing on stuff again sooner rather than later. !LUV
Not only does this totally make sense, but my physical therapist actually suggested some very similar work I should do... and is intending to ask another of her clients about an emotion/trauma therapist that they might refer me to.
I'm very lucky that my work has free therapy/mental health services that may assist here... but even if they didn't I'd be happy to travel down this path. I don't think I have a ton of trauma, but (like almost everyone) I don't think I've ever learnt how to process and heal from the trauma that I do have. I'm not particularly emotional which does make me wonder if I learnt at a young age to repress things well.
We don't have kids and have no intention to have any, but my relationship with my Mum has always been complicated. Growing up she was super emotionally inconsistent... she would blow up (seemingly) randomly and be furious for days. I've kind of always felt like she was a bit of a bully, and of our family of four, felt like I was the only one able to stand up to her, which obviously strained our relationship. We're perfectly cordial and have been for decades, but I haven't spent much time with her since I was a teenager and definitely don't trust her.
I'd definitely like to work on all of this and when I move back to Australia put in a bit more effort mainly because she's in her mid-70s now.
I know you didn't ask for the details at all, and I'm sure the specifics probably don't super matter that much, the important thing is that there are definitely areas I need to work on, and if they help heal my body, or not, it's all still worth tackling.
Excellent! Glad you have a way to explore this through work. That's awesome. It's incredibly rewarding and productive work.
Oh, and the specifics total matter though they'll be most useful for you and the therapist you work with to be aware of. (They're simply interesting to me).
And collectively there's a lot of misunderstanding about what the trauma actually means. My current understanding involves a much big set of experiences than I used to think ten years ago.
You feeling unsafe with your Mum, the exact person who is supposed to provide your (then) growing nervous system a sense of safety and co-regulation is in and of itself traumatic.
And having lived through traumatic experiences doesn't mean one has to identify as a victim (I think a lot of people shy away from this term because they don't want to see themselves this way). It simply means:
Some things in my past were less than I ideal. I wish they were different. I know I can't rewrite the past or change the other person/people. But I'm an adult now and I can help my body to finally process the things it lived through.
I look forward to hearing how it goes as you learn and unlearn new things.