Self Care

I’m not a fan of self care. I think it’s a silly term and whenever I hear someone use the term I roll my eyes just a bit. Not enough so that anyone might notice, but it happens. Well, the other week I had a bit of an episode, an eye opener, that made me realize I need to invest in a bit of self care. 

When I was a kiddo I had back pain every so often. It was debilitating for short times. When it hit, I was down for the day. Never figured out what it was, but when I joined the Army it seemed to get a lot better. Was it all the front leaning rest building the core? All of those flutter kicks? All the workouts? The rucking? Could be, probably was. 

Not once during my time in the Army did I have a back problem. 

Then when I got out, things seemed to tighten up and come back. I went to the doctor. After the MRI she said I had several bulging discs and dot her problems with the back. She prescribed Celebrex and said she’s see me every few months for the rest of my life. 

I didn’t like that treatment plan. So I started doing yoga. Every week for one year I hit yoga during lunch. Either yoga or Pilates. Without fail for a year. Didn’t need Celebrex anymore, and with light stretching and massages every now and then I have been good. 

50 hit at the beginning of August and boom, back pain. Just about debilitating. I remember the workout I was doing when I thought, “What am I doing? My back shouldn’t be like this?!?!” I was right. It jacked up my back. For almost three weeks! 

I self-diagnosed and my massage therapist gave me some advice too. Stretching, heat and cold treatments, massages, but she diagnosed rest most of all. It was hard but I did it. I made myself chill out the past few weeks. 

I’ve been reading a lot about Yoga lately. I think I’m gonna start doing child’s pose, not along with my stretching routine when I workout, but as it’s own thing on my own to get away from life. 5 min of chill out and open the hips. Gotta be good right!!?!?