The Willingness in Wellness

When you look at people who are well, and people who are not, and look at all the variables that might account for how they are, it seems to me that willingness has a big role to play in wellness. Willingness to try something new, willingness to commit to the things that help us but which require effort, willingness to change the habits that are doing us harm. There is a little part of all of us which wants to believe that something from the outside can be brought in to fix us. A trip to the doctor, a new pill, a quick procedure.  It was in this frame of mind that I recently found myself at the doctors. Too much health reading is not necessarily a good thing, and I had myself convinced that some lower leg pain, combined with tiredness and some other symptoms meant I had an underactive thyroid. So off I went to the doctor to have blood tests. The doctor listened patiently, examined my imaginary neck swelling, took the bloods and patiently asked ‘Didn’t you say you used to run? That kind of leg pain sounds a lot like shin-splints. Do you think that maybe you just need to go for a run’? And because the doctor told me to, I did. The very next day.  And the pain disappeared.  I know for a number of years that If I run I will be well, and if I don’t  I will have chronic pain. It’s very simple. I want to run like I want a hole in the head. But it’s a cheap, effective solution so I do up very good playlists with which to coax myself down the road and I do it. Twice a week is ideal, and I feel great. Once a week is still a great benefit. I’ll even get away with once a fortnight. If a month passes I’ll start to seize up and have to drag myself out and start again. Last year I began learning Tai Chi. Again, an excellent routine for body and mind, but do I fit it into every day like I should, like, as a Tai Chi-correctly- practising-friend describes, brushing my teeth? Nope. I’m too busy with mundane everyday stuff or I’m sitting on my ass scrolling FB on the phone adding further injury to my troublesome neck. And so it is with everyone. We all know that if we eat certain things, carry out certain activities and avoid others, we’ll be well. But we resist being as well as we can in prioritising less important stuff. I know that if I treat myself once or twice weekly with very simple four point acupuncture prescriptions, I will feel great. But I’m more likely to spend that hour cleaning or tidying something that will be a right mess again tomorrow anyhow.  And so it is with people who try out acupuncture.  Those who commit to a regular course of treatment will benefit. But there is a natural resistance to changing how we feel which gets in the way of using it properly for so many of us. By the way did you know that there is an acupuncture point for tuning up will-power? Might just be worth a try.....

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