Well. Last post, I left you with a bit of a teaser. Let me tell this story. If I’m being honest, I’m still not sure if I got my answer from the Universe… but maybe you can be the judge.
For quite some time now, I’ve been dealing with several forms of body pain. Let me be clear—none of it is severe. But it’s there. It hurts. And it’s annoying. My neck is regularly stiff. My hips hurt when I stand up. And my hands… I’ve had some pretty bad pain in my thumb joints, plus general stiffness in my hands and wrists when I wake up in the morning.
You guys. I’m only 42. In my very humble opinion, my body shouldn’t hurt like this. I’m a pretty healthy person—I exercise regularly. I eat pretty well. I’m not perfect, but still. If it feels like this now, what will it feel like at 72?!
I’ve tried a lot of different things. Exercise. Diet. Chiropractors. Reiki. Massage. Fish oil. Turmeric. Magnesium. Drinking more water. Amber jewelry. You’ll notice I didn’t say anything about pain medication. And yes, I’m one of those annoying people who prefers not to treat pain with medication. If my psoriasis experience taught me anything, it’s that I need to find the source of the pain to heal my body—not just medicate the symptoms.
So all of this leads me to the “answer” from the Universe: crawling. Yep, you read that right. Crawling—like babies do—on the floor, on my hands and knees.
About a month ago, a video popped up in one of my feeds talking about how the body mechanics of crawling are exceptionally good for you. (If this post is convincing you to try it, you can watch it here: Crawl daily to stay young (10-min routine).)
For some reason, I watched the whole thing instead of scrolling past. Something resonated, so I figured I’d give it a try. Babies learn to crawl before they walk. Easy, right?
WRONG. Ha!
My wrists hurt so badly the first time I tried crawling that I could barely make it around my couch. I honestly didn’t realize how bad the pain was until I tried it. But I crawled again the next day. And the next. And just like that, crawling became the physical (and maybe spiritual) practice I picked up in March.
Each day, it’s gotten a little easier. And each day, I’ve noticed my body hurts just a little less. The pain isn’t completely gone, but it’s noticeably better.
This isn’t the one-week fix I experienced with my psoriasis “answer from the Universe,” but I actually think that’s part of the lesson here. There isn’t a quick fix for body pain, and real healing takes time. I’m also learning that the way I move my body may need to change permanently if I don’t want the pain to come back. If it had disappeared in a few days, there wouldn’t have been much of a lesson.
So for April, I’ve decided not to pick up anything new. I’m sticking with crawling—seeing if I can build the habit and (hopefully) eliminate the pain for good.