Hello and welcome back! If you are new here, I’m so glad you stopped by. I hope that after reading this post, you may go back and read more about the Humbly Courageous journey in previous posts.
Well, I made good on my promise to myself after my most recent stem cell treatment last week. I rested my body, slowed down a bit, as much as I could with a household and teenager to take care of! I took over a week off from my workouts, which I have not done since I put my therapy pool in three years ago. And I can tell you, I missed it like crazy! I did some stretching to keep my muscles from getting sore. Also, of course, the normal everyday household activities, which is like a workout in itself, living with a disability that affects my strength. I managed to let some things go, which is hard for this obsessive I want everything in its place type of gal!
The gift of movement, if you have it, no matter how you have it, should be cherished, used and you should be thankful every darn day for it. It is a GIFT, today, not promised to anyone tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I’ve found that also trying to practice living in the present has been really helpful to me recently. I found that I was, understandably, having a lot of anxiety when I felt my body getting weaker. I would take those feelings and speculate as far ahead into the future as I could, which of course, I have no control over. It wasn't usually the happiest of futures I had going on in my mind, for my physical body at least.
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| Up before the sun! |
Those feelings were really taking over last week. In my experience, the stem cell treatments make me feel very tired and weaker for a few days. I realized more than ever that my workouts are definitely more than helpful to just my body, but now I also realize just how valuable they are to my mental health as well. I usually “run” on my underwear treadmill for 20 minutes. It’s a great time of releasing whatever negativity I may be holding onto, and devoting those minutes to my creative thoughts, or whatever it may be that comes up. Sometimes, I pray for others that are hurting, or think about what I could blog about that may help someone. I try not to utilize that time to go over my to do list for the day.
The last few days I’ve felt more energized, which is definitely my favorite benefit of these treatments. It just takes the edge off of the frustration I can have when physically, everything feels so hard. Managing the frustration that stems from my muscle weakness, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things about my disability. It’s always there under the surface, and can take over in an instant if you aren’t managing it well. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, it does take over and I’m mad at everyone and everything. Managing it just means I can reel those feelings in quicker because I know they don’t serve me or others around me well.
I’m excited to start challenging myself again and see what I can do with my upcoming workouts, and how I can change things up a bit to see what kind of progress I may see with treatment #5. It takes humble courage to keep moving when it’s hard. We all deal with that in one way or another, physically or mentally. We are allowed to have bad days. The important part is to not let those bad days turn into a bad life. You have to keep fighting to live your best life with what you've got. 💚
P.S. If you are following our training for the upcoming Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November, our team, Humbly Courageous, is now up to 45 members strong and still growing. So amazing! Check out our journey to completing our 3rd marathon together as a duo team raising funds for the MDA, over on my Instagram page @ashinneman. It’s an exciting journey and happening in just a few short weeks!
So glad you are still getting good results from stem cell you are a hero
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