Go inside and listen to you body, because your body will never lie to you. Your mind will play tricks, but the way you feel in your heart, in your guts, is the truth. ~Miguel Ruiz
Listening to your body is not commonly a strength of most men.You’ve been taught that when you experience pain or illness to suck it up, push through it, be a man. I can tell you from my past experience that's never ended well. In fact it has prolonged my recovery and was detrimental to my health and well being.
This was evident in 2005 when I contracted Lyme disease. My first reaction was anger, it took away my ability to exercise, something I’ve loved to do since I was a child. I continued to test my physicality to know avail. I experienced set back after set back eventually after six years I was able to resume my workout routine. I believe my return to exercise would have been shorter if I listened to my body, I should have rested.
In 2022 I was infected with COVID. After about a week of recovery from my initial symptoms I began running again. I was keeping my mileage low and was vigilant about my rest days in between runs. Then I decided to run back to back days, the second day was a seven mile run. The next day I felt that same old malaise I was acquainted with in 2005. This time I listened to the signals of my body and took time off from running. This expedited my recovery. I focused on the activities I could perform, walking and moderate strength training. I got plenty of rest and ate nourishing meals. I also got back into my yoga routine. It seems that I have learned from past experience. My mindset was focused on the positive and I was not angry. I have to admit I was a little disappointed at first because I was so looking forward to getting to my new home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to begin training for my first Ultra marathon trail race, but I let that go rather quickly. Since then I’ve been able return to trail running and because I listened and respected my body I have not had any setbacks. For that I am grateful!