Hey, Listen! Your Body is Talking

I'm back, dear readers. Thanks for the encouragement, comments, information and questions so many of you passed to me through the blog. I love to hear from you. Sorry for the brief absence, but there are times when one has to pause for the cause.

My body was strong on Monday, but shut down onTuesday. The challenges of dealing with acute arthritis, diabetes and sleep apnea.

I do not know why my energy sources are depleted at certain points. One minute, the batteries have a full charge.  Usually, the cycle is high at sunrise and burned out by sunset.  As the energy levels run down, sometime I can switch to auxiliary power - a couple of squares of dark chocolate, a hand full of nuts, or an apple or banana - to take me a few more hours. Then there are those times that come with age and my condition when the body launches a complete system shutdown.

That was Tuesday. I felt a little weary, reclined about 10 a.m. for a short nap and awakened around 5:30 p.m. Welcome to my world. The heart wants what it wants, but the body does not even ask. I do not get a vote.

I got used to weariness, and accept the lapse in energy as a legitimate aid to health. I do not believe in energy drinks or coffee for a quick boost, or to fight off the warning signals that flash in the recesses of my brain, when "Lola," the little silent voice impassively informs me, "System shutdown in five...four...three...two...one." Lights out!!!

Anyway, this is my way to say, listen to your body. The little signs and inklings that are around you are ignored at your peril. Yield when you experience an imbalance or a sense of dissonance in the body's response. Whatever you think is such an emergency - other than kids or a pot on the stove - will still be there tomorrow, or someone else can handle it.

Now, there are probably some hard-driving careerists, medical people or athletes that see my advice as far too wimpy for consideration. They subscribe to the Arnold Schwarzenegger School of Thought. "The mind is the limit," he once said. "As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."

Well, Arnold,  on Tuesday I believed 100 percent that I would fulfill the days schedule. My body did not. "Lola" does not debate.

I am more a disciple of the Indian actress Kajol, who says: "The best thing you can do for your body is sleep. It's simple. Cater to your body as much as to your mind. Your body, after all, houses your mind. You have to pay attention to your physicality as much as your mentality."

Wednesday was a blur of doctor meetings, but I was back in the rough. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to write about Tuesday. Thursday was taken up in meetings with other writers and errands with and for the grandchildren. Nonetheless, I could not let the week days end without the expression of this one insight about the need to respect and submit to the body.

Parting thought - Bernie Siegel, retired pediatric surgeon and author of popular health books during the 1980s and early 1990s, such as says the New York Times bestseller Peace, Love & Healing: BodyMind Communication & the Path to Self Healing, casts the messages from your bodily spirit as a dialog. He once wrote, "Your body loves you, but if you do not love your life, it will end it far sooner, thinking it is doing you a favor."

The Will and The Way

The pleasure of the crisp freshness in the air outside my body at 7 a.m., when I began the morning walk held a strong contrast to rotten pain in my knees. The 60-some-degrees temp here in Orlando was not far in its feel from 50-something i used to feel in Rochester. In fact, the weather chart says that is about how the weather there began today. Nonetheless, weather is changeable, yet my knee aches are a constant.

To use a doctor's measure - how much does it hurt on a scale from one to ten - most of every 24-hours the knees are a nine or ten, while the rest of the joints are a solid eight. This morning, the right knee was a 12, and the left fought hard for first place. That said, with a few pauses and a lot of time, I made the three-mile circuit around the neighborhood.

As Victor Hugo once said, "People do not lack strength, they lack will." Not to be dramatic, but there is much to be said for the force of human will. I willed myself in the sporadic trudge of my footsteps against the concrete sidewalks to not turn around. I allowed myself to sit a few times on the benches along the way, but not to turn back. I felt a little embarrassed as the joggers and other walkers looped me, but remained determined.

That is fate for those who want to fight the effects of rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes. We have to fight against the forces within our minds and hearts that tell us that the pain is larger or stronger than the will a human can muster. We have to resist the deceptive inner voice that whispers, You will be better off and pain-free in the comfy chair or bed.

In the quiet of this Sunday morning, I found the pain to be pretty big and fierce in its appearance. The inner voice came up with at least a half-dozen sound excuses for me to relent, but the will kicked in. In moments when the hurt was so severe that I almost saw the logic in compromise with the excuses, I reached out to The Way - God.

I mean, we say that God is bigger and stronger than any force that can come against us, right? I shut down the whisper with a silent plea to God for the strength to enforce my will.

When I reached the halfway point, the right knee, which is bone-on-bone, was warm and swollen. That is my body saying, "Danger. Danger." For those who do not believe in talking bodies, it is like driving a flat on the rims. The left knee, which makes a sound like loose change, just throbbed. Again, the left knee yearns to best the right, and not come off as wimpy.

Well, after a rest at the halfway mark, I stood and slowly shuffled one foot in front of the other. There is no heroics in that. If you wish to walk, you have to step. If you want to beat back the effects of arthritis, you have to move. If you want to kick diabetes, you need exercise. If I wanted to get back home, I needed to start. As the feet moved closer toward the goal on the ground, the gospel music in my ears lifted my spirit. The sights of the rising sun, palm trees, ponds, greenery and various kinds of wildlife, from squirrels to flying heron gave my mind a focus that pushed past the hurt. I even took the long way around, instead of the shortcut, to the front door.

I am no superman, yet I am also not devoid of The Will or The Way. I will use that knowledge as the months and years of this effort continue. I found no small coincidence in the fact that as I entered the last block to the house, Hezekiah Walker's choir sang, "Every praise is to our God." I sang along.

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