"Trial is the school of trust - not always given as chastisement, but sometimes for our education"
- Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the Old Testament
- Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the Old Testament
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"Trial is the school of trust - not always given as chastisement, but sometimes for our education"
- Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the Old Testament
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This year, I decided to see a chiropractor for my back (have occasional soreness after being hit by a car when I was in Boston). I also heard that adjustments can help with headaches/allergies/you name it. Paid $165 for 6 sessions of a 240-pound guy squishing me so that my neck and ribs move back in place. Of course, after each session, I would feel great but after a few days, your bones shift back (apparently due to muscle memory) and you need to go back for another session. I don't have an endless amount of money so I stopped going, but when I was there, the chiropractor gave me a piece of very useful insight. Bad Sore After my back was injured, I didn't go to the gym for about 6 months so that my muscles and bones could heal from the impact. Now I am not one of those people who are very hardcore about their workouts, but going to the gym helps me to destress. After 6 months of lethargy, I was happy I could start up once again but my back was not very happy with me. I think in the beginning I could only do 2 or 3 situps. Doing even 1 pushup was really hard on my back. At that time, I was thinking: wow, this is not good - I must be really out of shape. Need to push myself harder! No pain, no gain, right? Eventually, I could do around 15 situps and 7 pushups before the soreness kicked in and forced me to take a break. Then I would rest a bit and do more. It wasn't until I went to the chiropractor that I found out that those exercises were actually preventing my back from healing. I was not allowed to do any forward-bending exercises/stretches until my back recovered. While I thought I was helping my body to move past the injury by toughing it out, I was actually keeping the injury fresh, long after the initial point of injury. Also, wearing heels is bad for the back as everyone knows. I definitely stayed away from heels for the first 6 months but I think I went back to them too soon when I started working. Good Sore On the other hand, there are times when soreness is good, but unfortunately, I avoided all of those situations because I thought I was saving my back from strain. The soreness that comes from stretching backward is supposed to signal the brain to send additional nutrients because there is an injury there to repair. Also, sleeping flat on your back is supposedly the best and healthiest position because your spine is neutral and nutrients can flow freely. Because it makes my back sore, I usually slept on my side or if I slept on my back, would put my knees up. My chiropractor said that sleeping with my knees up would cause it to take 10 times longer for my back to heal. Beyond how my back was affected by all this, the difference between good sore and bad sore seemed applicable to other areas in life. Sometimes you force yourself to push through when you really don't need to. It could be better to rest for a time and face the challenges/difficulties ahead after you are once again strong and healthy. Wounds heal after you give yourself the needed time away to deal with them, whereas they fester and split open again if you don't stop to treat it.
But there are also times when we need stressful/unpleasant situations to help us to work through important issues and get us where we need to be. In those cases, we need to courageously dive in and accept the suffering because the result at the end is worth it. Our first instinct may be to run away, but avoidance does not improve the situation or make it get better. So how do we know when the soreness is good or bad for us? Nothing is that black and white but prayer and wise counsel always help in determining the best approach. |