BackWords

London was fantastic! I have had a week to recover from the trip and from my jet lag. I will have some more posts from the trip and some other goodies later this week.

Last week was the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the States, and I though it would be a nice time to be a little reflective. When you are walking around in pain, it can be hard to feel thankful for anything- I was in a nasty car wreck two days before Thanksgiving when I was a medical intern, and I know I was not in a festive mood.

I posted a ‘what are you grateful for?’ post on my Facebook page, and some of the responses were remarkable. I was really happy to be able to read all of the things which people felt thankful for. I feel like I needed to post this one here on BackWords:

“I an truly grateful for you, Andy. You gave me back movement and reduced pain. You helped return my youth and restored hope for days of less pain. And you did all of it not just with technique, but with patience and compassion. ”

-Colleen

I wanted to cry when I read this. When I first met Colleen, she had just began to recover from  pretty terrible accident, and had serious doubts about whether she would ever feel better again. I am am so grateful to be able to help people to feel better. It is truly a gift that I receive almost every day. Thank you, Colleen, for reminding me of this.

Now, back to the idea of feeling grateful…

When you are feeling pain pretty much all the time, it can become the focus of your life, and it can be easy to forget about all of the positive things you may have going on in your life. Friendships, family, work, other experiences- all may be providing benefits to your life which you can lose site of because of your pain. During this holiday season, I will ask each and every one of you to take a moment or two out of each day, and focus on the things which are going right rather than the things which aren’t- which in this case, if you are checking in on my blog, may be back pain. When those feelings of pain are compounded with all of the other stressors which can effect you during the holidays, it can make matters worse.

Sometimes simply bringing some of those positive ideas back into focus can help you to feel less pain. Just something to consider.

I have had several requests for information about pregnancy and back pain- look for some video tomorrow.

Have a great holiday season, and BE WELL!

-Andy