Shape Shifting
Some people believe you can transform into something else, like an animal, a vampire or a mermaid. It's called shape shifting. I don't believe in shape shifting. It seems as likely as the Pope marrying.
But I do believe in emotional shape shifting. I've experienced it. It's real.
Emotional shape shifting almost always happens after you injure yourself. It seems as if you lose something, a part of your logical, rational, reasonable self gets swallowed up by something unknown and mysterious swimming around in your brain, smiling, licking its lips looking for a logical thought to devour like a hungry eel on the prowl. You make silly decisions like walking around all weekend at a local mall with a painful, swollen knee then wonder why your knee still hurts. Or, if you're like me, you try a short jog around the neighborhood with a stress fracture in your spine. Yeah. I actually did that.
It doesn't matter what type of injury you have or, who you are or, what you know. At anytime of any day, an otherwise bright person with great common sense shape shifts into a dullard like a werewolf on a full moon. I know. I have lost many good, logical, rational thoughts to the hungry, illogical beast and then find myself spending several days in the hurt locker nursing my wounds.
Knowledge helps but without acceptance, you're doomed. While I was jogging around the neighborhood with my dandy little spine fracture, I willfully disregarded the truth. Why? It was too painful to accept. If I accepted the truth about the injury, I had to give up certain things like basketball and jogging and working out. I would have to limit how much I could sit, traveling would only be to and from work, and it would be several months before I could really be very active at all. I knew these things. I teach these things. But, decisions are made from the heart; not the head. You choose based on emotions then justify with logic.
To control emotional shape shifting, you must do two things: conduct an intellectually honest review of the facts and accept those facts. Reviewing the facts is easy. Accepting them is not.
The facts in my situation were that I had a fracture of my spine, it takes about six to eight weeks for bone to heal, and in the mean time, I would have to stop those activities that made the pain worse. Well, I didn't accept the facts for several years. I fought them; tried to bully my way through or around them. Eventually, the truth won. It usually does. I found that my resistance to accepting the facts was rooted in feeling like I was quitting, giving up, or saying goodbye to some part of my life. But, by accepting the truth, I wasn't quitting or giving up, or saying goodbye. I was just at the starting line.
I know many of you have experienced emotional shape shifting in one way or another and I hope that you can face the truth, accept it and arrive at the starting line of the next phase of your life.
The Next Phase
Last week I mentioned that this would be my last post for The View from Sports Center. The site will continue serving as a resource for people with injuries or over coming a surgery. We have over three hundred articles covering a wide range of topics that people from all over the world discover each day.
And, what will I be doing? Well, good question. I retired from the world of clinical practice and am beginning something else. It's not entirely clear yet and for now, that seems ok. You can catch me at http://www.heartstringsaustin.com - a new "blog for the creative hearts." I'll be writing about writing, music, books, life - stuff that makes me feel alive, happy, and may make you feel that way too.
Cheers and remember....make today count.
