In a happier place – 8 May 2019
This morning I caught a glimpse of the person I used to be 5 or so years ago. The positive, proactive and energetic version of me that has become completely overshadowed by the fatigued, pessimistic and defeatist version. I feel as if I have been dragging myself along everyday and reacting to my life rather than leading it. For the first time in a long time I feel as if I can actually improve my situation rather than just exist in it the best that I can, which is the headspace that I have been operating within for some time now. The optimistic part of me that was going to turn things around and fix things gave up long ago…
I do not think that it is a coincidence that my feeling this way comes just after I have just had my third session with the new BeActivated practitioner. The professional one who is also a trained physio and who doesn’t swear at me, bully me or hurt me. See blog post from 20 Feb :
http://www.optimisticlu.co.uk/2019/02/20/beactivated-or-deactivated-20-feb-2019/
According to my eldest nephew, my posts are too long and people don’t have time to read that much so I am going to try and be more succinct. That would also suit me as they might take less time to put together. So with that in mind, BeActivated is great, everyone should try it. The end.
There we go, that should appease him. For anyone is interested into what it is and how I think it has helped, hang around.
I go and see a lady called Sue Mills in Romsey and she is wonderful – kind, positive and seems to really care about helping people. In fact, I have decided to make her a member of my inner circle of carers who keep me functioning.
SO WHAT IS IT?
Neuromuscular Activation is a technique that stimulates the nervous system in order to improve the connections between the brain and our muscles. It interrupts existing bad neural patterns that have become established in the brain and “re-sets” the correct ones. Muscles can then return from a state of tension and pain to normal length, strength and function.
I have been for 3 sessions now and I have exercises to do in between which take 5-10 minutes a day. The sessions consists of a number of strength and balance tests, massage of the activation points (not painful) and a re-run of the strength and balance tests at the end to gauge levels of improvement. Which are often astonishing. Particularly in my ability to resist certain movements.
For the first few days after a session, I am more balanced and confident for sure. My back pain is more manageable and is not preventing me from doing the things that I want to at the moment. This morning, I got up and went for a short walk (approx 1.5 miles). On my own. I have not had the confidence, energy or balance to go out on a walk like this on my own for some time. I really enjoyed it and that is when I glimpsed my old self. I really think I may be making positive steps. I don’t expect to get back to where I was, but I think I may be able to get a bit more from life than I am at the moment…
I am going to need my energetic and proactive self back as I have decided to throw in the towel at work and I need to make plans. Teaching is just too tiring for me. It is tiring enough in the first place but these days it is not enough to just teach good lessons and engage children. You also have to be a subject leader, keep mind bogglingly detailed pupil tracking data, train up in a myriad of other specialisms, run exciting lunchtime clubs, arrange amazing trips etc etc. I certainly cannot keep up so I am going to focus what energy I do have elsewhere. Where that is at the moment is still in progress but I am excited. I think… maybe I am confusing it with the feeling terrified…. oh well… something will come up. It always does…. (See! Look at me being all optimistic….)