martes, 5 de agosto de 2008

Simplicity! (the bane of our existence?)

About two weeks ago I had a sharp nagging pain in my upper back, on a spot just next to my right shoulderblade. It's the kind of pain that makes you notice your body. In fact it made me not just notice my body, but in fact it made me wonder that "hey, it's been a while since I had a pain this sharp and nagging, and obnoxious enough to make me stop what I was doing and notice my body for several days straight".

It got to the point where I seriously questioned whether I was causing permanent damange to myself through some aspect of my work. "Was it the worrying?, the not feeling that there was enough recognition or equity in the distribution of tasks?, was I not minding carefully enough how much I was carrying on my back?... or was it maybe the rythm of the driving through bad roads and sleeping in even worse beds?... was I not taking enough time off to exercise, or was I not physically releasing enough frustration?... did I need to get to a dojo and start kicking sandbags immediately, if so... how was I going to manage this with a bad back?

The point is, the drama was taking over. But I wasn't just sitting in anguish, for three days I did EVERYTHING I felt was in my power... carpet stretches, rolling around with the arm on the side of the back pain held behind my back, so the shoulder joint would readjust, I climbed onto my inversion table -which I have barely used in the three years since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, Jenny even gave me two or three hours of massage every day for a couple of days...

So, I HAD tried every artifice in my bag of tricks, to no avail. I was beginning to have solid proof about the unsustainability of my worklife.

Gladly, the next thing after trying EVERYTHING by myself was to ask for help. And the next person in the list to ask for this help from was Shihan Edwin, a karate master who was also our household acupuncturist/physical therapist. Mercifully, Monday was a holiday, and Edwin was indeed working on that day.

So, long story short... I got treatment from Edwin, who IMMEDIATELY diagnosed what I had as weak lung chi, and went on to confirm his diagnosis through pulse and kinesiology.

I got direct treatment, Toning, Source and Mo points for Lung and Short Intestine, I also got the first spine adjustment I'd had in well over 6 years.

The pain wasn't gone straight away after the treatment, but I came straight from the acupuncture clinic to bed and slept over 10 hours. Then I showed Jenny how to give me moxa on the Lung and Short Intestine IU points the next night.

Driving to the workshop, on day 3 (after the acupuncturist visit) I had only a little pain. On day 4 I treated myself with the same points Edwin had used.

On day 5 the pain was gone. I only felt a little ghost sensation wanting to come over me when I was driving, but it went away quickly.

For a few days after coming back, it still got a little tender if I slept on either side. I had to try to spend at least half the night on my back, for the sensation that there had ever been any pain there to go away.

But the fact is, that two weeks later, it's hard to recall that nagging pain that had me wondering... when's the last time I felt anything like this?

I have no doubt that it was set up to be one of those lingering things... those things you don't make time for, don't deal with, but that erode your sense of confort and of being in control of your life. It certainly was taking away my choices about posture and comfort and intensity of work, and mostly, what to think about.

Even it it was not a miracle cure, in the sense of here right now, gone the next second, it WAS miraculous... because it overcame the limitations that I felt coming on, about how I could live my life, and use my body.

Mostly, it was a simple solution. Simple diagnosis, simple treatment. It was simple because someone had the answer I needed handy, and I went to ask him in time, and in the proper way, in the way in which this person was happy to help, happy to offer me the solution he had.

What tortures me now, is...

How many other of my problems have such a simple solution waiting for them...

Finding a job, mine is over in a few weeks....

Finding a house...

Finding some joy I've lost in life...



How many simple solutions are out there, that I haven't listened to the nagging questions nor found the right persons to ask about....

How much of my life am I making complicated because I can't find simple...

I life much of my life as an investment, make this effort, it will come back to you...

Today, what haunts me, is... maybe I am not investing enough in simplicity...