For those of you that may not know, when I am not chiropracting (new word!) I am a hockey coach in my spare time. I coach the Concord Carlisle High School boys team and a girls team out of Bedford, called the East Coast Wizards.
One of the main points that I am constantly stressing to my teams is the concept of momentum. Either we have it and are trying to keep it or the other team has it and we are trying to take it from them.
Wait, this isn’t a hockey blog!
Believe it or not, momentum is huge when it comes to health. Have you ever noticed that one good decision tends to lead to another good decision? We work out on Monday, work out on Tuesday and boom next thing we know we have worked out 4 days in a row…momentum!
Conversely, bad decisions tend to lead to more bad decisions. The first person that hasn’t taken a couple of days off that morphed into 4 months off can go ahead and sit down.
Momentum is very powerful and very real.
Let’s take a look at back pain, a common symptom that leads people into my office.
In the first couple of visits, a person is hurting and will literally do almost anything to get out of the pain they are in. I tell them to drink water, stay active and ice a couple of times a day and it gets done like clockwork.
Then a funny thing happens…they start to feel better. That is great news right? Well, mostly yes, however, this is where I see people lose all the momentum that they had.
See when people start to feel better they think the problem is gone and more often than not they go back to doing the bad things that got them so out of whack in the first place.
While someone wouldn’t dream of scrubbing the floor when their back hurt, the second they feel better they are carrying a double load of laundry up the stairs while balancing a baby on their hip!
I have said a million times, “it is easier to stay well than to get well.” For reasons that I cannot explain, the message has fallen on deaf ears. People will wait until they are in unbearable pain before they will do something about it.
Well going forward my new message is one of momentum.
Whether it be exercise, diet, mental attitude or taking care of yourself through chiropractic, once you get momentum going, do everything you can to keep it.
Your body will not just thank you for it…it will reward you with energy, vitality and radiance and I think that is pretty cool.
