Life Well Lived

Hi friends!

I wasn’t sure exactly what to blog about today until a tweet fellow Denton blogger Mandy sparked an idea (funny story, she grew up in the same town as my college roommate and used to live in Boston too – small world!)

She suggested I write a Life Well Lived post, as this is a tradition for Wednesdays!

Life Well Lived was created by another Denton blogger, the amazing Kelsey – whom I absolutely adore. The point of this series is to focus on experiences you’ve already gone through that were amazing and life changing, instead of always being so focused in the future and what goals you want to achieve later on. She calls this the “other side of the bucket list.”

Today it just so happens I have a good news to share that is also under the criteria of Live Well Lived.

Today my friends, I finished physical therapy.

Physical therapy and having a stained hip in my tendon, in general, has been a major let down for the better part of the last year.  I bitch and whine and moan about all of it, especially doing my PT exercises. However, as of today I can say that I have been injured, fought said injury and am on a good path to recovery. Today is ultimately the first big step of that recovery – finishing 13 weeks of physical therapy.

I actually went in today not knowing it was my last day. Probably this was for the better, as I tend to stress and over analyze anything that is changing in my life. I went in, I did my work, was re-checked and sent home with a home plan and the knowledge of how to continue my recovery process on my own.

I literally hugged my physical therapist as I left, saying thank you over and over. I’m so grateful for her and everything she has taught me in the short time I’ve known her. Being injured is truly difficult both mentally and physically, but having someone invested in getting me better means/meant the world to me.

So much that I want to make a short list of the things I learned and am thankful to have learned in my 13 weeks of physical therapy:

• Stretching is important (haha had to say it)
• Putting small efforts in consistently over a long time produces change – for example, I am ridiculously more flexible than I was 13 weeks ago and I can only get more flexible as I continue on my home plan!
• Sometimes, rest is more important than pushing yourself
• How to eat more consciously, because I’m so restricted in my activity I’m allowed to do
• That I am capable of getting better/accomplishing something if I just keep trying no matter how much I feel like I should resist
• That believing in someone else can give them the motivation to keep going, even when it’s difficult
• That hope is strong enough to pull you through a difficult spot and make you better
• When your heart and your brain are competing each other, let someone else act as your brain to tell you the right things to do

I absolutely cannot convey how emotional I am about ending physical therapy today and I know I’m not doing it justice in this post. And while I’ll never be happy that I injured myself and am still injured now – today was a reminder that there are still some silver linings on my clouds. I’ve experienced something that will forever change me and the way I approach exercise and the help I want to give to my future patients, the way my PT has done for me.

I still have a long road ahead. I have another orthopedist appointment next week, which will officially mark 9 weeks since my first appointment and the original “prescription” of no activity other than biking or swimming. I was told 8-12 weeks recovery, which means sometime in the next month I should be able to start adding back activity that I had to give up. Even though it will be hard to start back slow and delicate, I know if I put in the time I will achieve the end goal of running races again. I know that because Physical Therapy taught it to me!

But today was a reminder of how my Life is Well Lived, even though the rough patches.

Tell me how your life is well lived??