Day 7 - short hike :)

Hey everyone, I did a short hike today, just under 20 minutes, maybe 200ft elevation gain - first time in over five months. It felt great, and I feel very encouraged, and ready to face any increases in pain (because, I now believe, the pain is not the point, it's the fear, the anxiety).

Just wanted to share a photo of me up there, as I'm very excited. You'll see me listening to Claire Weekes, the one I put in my signature.

https://s6.postimg.cc/mmf5cgtep/Recovery_hike_September_2018.jpg (Recovery_hike(September 2018) — Postimage.org)

Wishing you all well in recovery!

 

Woohoo! Well done. This is a huge step forward for you and very encouraging for everyone else as well.

Thanks for the photo too. It's really nice to put a face to a name.

 

Congratulations and well-done! I hope you rewarded yourself in whatever way makes you happy to acknowledge your accomplishment and to urge yourself on to keep doing it.

 

Thank you both! I woke up in more pain than I have in the past week, and I took it as an opportunity to talk myself through all the different things the pain might be :
- Maybe new sensations from exercise, like expected muscle soreness, that my brain is reading as damage
- Maybe my brain sending me danger signals because it's processing the fact that I just did something that for the past five months I was convinced would have wrecked me

Either way, I'm responding with much *much* less panic than I would have even ten days ago. So that's a big success for me : )

 

I'm sorry to read that you had an increase in pain after your hike @Free of Fear; the fact though that you're less panicky than you would have been before is indeed great progress. I too keep challenging my TMS with movement despite the pain and when the pain increases and 'hangs over' for a day or so, I've taken to shutting my eyes and visualizing myself doing the movements, step by step, instead - just to keep the momentum going with challenging the TMS. It's something that - for me at least - helps keep my anxiety down and the movements often feel a little bit easier when I do go back to actually doing them again for real...Anyway, just a thought. Keep on keeping strong!

 

Thank you! I like that, visualizing it to keep the momentum going.

 

Hi again Free of Fear. I'm guessing that's this is where Outcome Independence, as per Alan Gordon's programme, kicks in for you, and it reads as if you understand this. The pain you felt the following day does not take away from the fact that while you were doing the hike you felt great. Just let time pass, as Claire Weekes says. It's very natural if you haven't been exercising for a while for the muscles to complain a bit when you do. Keep going!

 

Thank you westb. Yes, I thought of outcome independence. It's maybe the newest idea for me, or the toughest one to incorporate. I'll say, when I AM able to think in terms of outcome independence, I feel the most free, most confident, and most excited. : )