My back is in pain once again. After a busy past couple of weeks or months, a 3 and a half hours flight carrying 4 pieces of luggage as well as my daughter, after a day sitting uncomfortably at my desk, after a long drive home and finally after picking up my daughter from her bath, my back said “what the fuck are you doing? Why are you treating me this way?” and went on strike.
Everything is stiff and painful.
“Your back went into spasms” said the doctor. Whatever that means.
It is also due to the fact that I usually have bad posture, do not use my core, and overcompensate on one side of my back because of a degenerated disc. So my back needs to readjust sometimes apparently.
What is the solution? It’s the same one as 7 years ago when I started having back problems: exercises, stretching, core work, strengthening the back, exercises, stretching, core work, strengthening the back, etc.
Have I done that consistently over the past 7 years? Of course I did not.
I find it hard to do something when I don’t see immediate benefits. Guilty.
I don’t think long term and I don’t consider the delayed gratification. What a surprise! I am a human being! Plus, I procrastinate, lose motivation easily and think I can stop once I don’t feel the pain (big mistake!). So am I doing anything different this time? Yes maybe actually.
I am building on my experience of meditating everyday, trying to write everyday and not drinking (which I described in this blog as something similar to a daily task). All of these experiences seem to be helpful for this new challenge. As if I had train my brain to do daily task in a constant and durable way, focusing on the long term benefits.
Plus, I downloaded an app this time because my brain seems to work well when tracking things (I track my meditation practice via an app and my writings on my phone). Why does my brain work this way? I don’t know but I know I am not the only one. Human brains like seeing a visual representation of progress. Which is why all these types of apps have been developed. Tracking things makes it more likely that we will do them.
Until when? Good question!
It has been a couple of weeks now and I hope it will keep going.
I will keep you posted and then maybe I will add “dailybackexercises” to the title of my blog 🙂
A Year With Daily Meditation And No Booze 