I remember those days… and I still have those days. But I also acquired some powerful wisdom that changed my life. I think these can help you too.

Photo by Andrew Neel: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-gray-long-sleeve-shirt-sitting-on-brown-wooden-chair-5255996/

Six years ago, I was 38 and had a major life consequence. Multi-level lumbar disc degeneration, two major nerve impingements, radiating pain that ached, throbbed and made the joints of my leg feel like they wanted to explode. Loss of sensation, muscle strength, and muscle mass. I was depressed and hurting.

But, I did learn some powerful lessons while on that painful 7 month journey. I now feel most people will have some major life consequence before their 40’s. It won’t be easy, and won’t be fun, but it is essential to collate your life experiences and integrate you into a better person.

It’s usually not as serious as you think.

In a car, when that light goes on, we drive to the mechanic and ask for help and guidance in finding the problem. “Hey, they check engine light is on, can you find out what is wrong and fix it?”

Isn’t it interesting that when it’s our body, we go see a professional and say the equivalent of, “This check engine light is on, can you change the lightbulb?”

Most “injuries” in the body aren’t “damage” to the body. They are usually like the check engine light in your car giving you the message, “There’s something wrong here so let’s figure it out together.”

Recovery takes time.

For me, it was 7 months of Hell. There was no way to hurry it up. No rehab, or medication or exercise was going to speed this up. You need to be strong for the duration of time it takes and when you just know you can’t do this anymore… the pain eases and goes down a notch. This was an amazing realization that brought me to the final mindset shift.

You haven’t learned what you need to learn yet.

Life consequences are hard times, but quite often, our mind-body-soul has been screaming at your to slow down and listen. This painful incident was some innate power saying, “Ok, you won’t listen? I’ll make you listen… and teach you what you need to learn the hard way. So pay attention now.”

Life is always about lessons, but sometimes we forget our part in the world and focus too much on our perceived wants and needs. We sometimes forget that we are here for a reason: to make a difference in the world.

Sometimes, we need a reminder that it’s not just about us.

Acute pain is an overwhelming teacher who works in a compressed period of time. As long as the pain is unyielding, the lesson is still being taught… you are not done yet!

This is your mind-body-soul maturing you into the person you need to be, and unfortunately pain is a powerful educator. Be patient, everything gets better, it always does.