The Fail Safe

A couple weeks ago I tried this new craze called Zumba. It's Spanish slang for "move very fast and have fun." They're not joking. It's a hoot.

I used to teach Latin dance in college. Zumba is akin to an hour with a 15 piece brass marimba band and zero inhibitions. Loved it. I went all out.

This was after spending three straight weeks at my PC, first with the hellish preparation for an IRS audit (more on that another day) and then ramping up with a new project helping folks who've recently been laid off. Just a tad of stress necessarily veiled in a certain degree of calm.

Two days after my Zumba escapade, my back went out. My not-so-exercised muscles tightening around my already gnarled-from-stress muscles causing my SI joints to temporarily stop supporting my weight.

I forgot one of my own rules. In times of extreme stress, the mind may keep going, but the body will eventually say, "whoa." The chiropractor tried to put Humpty back together again. It didn't work so well. "You're a knotted mess. You need massage."

Another great chiropractic quote... if you ignore your stress long enough it turns into a pain in the neck... ignore that long enough and you'll have a large pain in the butt. Ignore that and you'll soon be immobile.

No joke.

After three days of extreme pain, alternating between icing/moist heating, a very great (albeit painful) massage and lots of Quasi Moto pacing, I started to laugh at myself. This is not a design flaw, you dork! It's a fail safe.

If you don't take care of yourself, things will begin to fail. If you ignore the failures, you will have pain. If you ignore the pain, you will have more pain in more inconvenient places. If you ignore the big pain, you'll get taken out at the knees until you have little choice but to care for yourself.

See, fail safe.

I share this with you because it would have been far easier for me to listen and make some changes at "things beginning to fail" stage. That would have taken a keen sense of knowing my body AND truly believing I deserve the care in the moment. Although I knew my body well enough, I chose to wait until a "better time" to take care of myself. Each time became "not that bad" until my body called it quits.

Where is your body failing you? Are you listening to it? What habit could you change today to help your body get back to health?

Do you have a stress valve? How do you release it? How often is "enough" for releasing the stress in your life?

p.s. I asked the chiropractor if Zumba was what killed me. It wasn't. The truth, I believe it may have saved me. (It's my valve!)
Everybody, everybody do the Cha Cha!