Pain, Suffering, and Resilience Three Women's Friday Stories
Yesterday was a day of experiences for me - a family member suffering greatly with a mental illness brought me to compassionate tears. As I spent time with my loved one and worked with skilled and caring nursing home staff trying to help sort out this latest crisis, I was once again reminded of many life lessons - among them, the importance of caring for not just our physical body but for our mental, mindful, and spiritual self as well. To teach our children and all young people the importance of nurturing our minds as well as our bodies; and when we hit a dangerous curve that we cannot navigate alone, to reach out for help to others of wisdom to help guide us.
I then went on to see a client (also a long-time friend) who I began working with just two months ago. She had experienced a traumatic, debilitating health crisis which left her with very low functional ability; using a walker for 10 steps was extremely fatiguing. She expressed her goals in our initial meeting - one of which was to regain her movement independence so as not to have to rely on adult children to care for her. As of yesterday, she is completely functional - able to walk without an assistive device (no walker, no cane), able to climb stairs, able to prepare food. And she looks forward to her Corrective Exercise and traditional programming every day because "it feels good". I once again found myself brought to tears - this time because of the resilience of the human body and spirit. I was honored to have worked with this woman to reclaim her independence.
Each and every one of us has a different path to travel - we are all trying to do the best we can with where we are at the present moment. Pain, suffering, and resilience are all part of the human condition - sometimes we simply have a little more of one of them than the others.
Honor your mental health, your physical body, and your spiritual nature this day . . .
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