So this is me, at 53. Seven years in a back brace, three spinal surgeries, weeks in a neck brace.
I am sharing this because since I was a little girl, I was told all the physical things I couldn’t or shouldn’t do. I was in a back brace, so my parents were a bit justified in saying some of what they did.
As I grew, I continued to replay the story, “I can’t do this or I can’t do that.” I believed I couldn’t, so most of the time, I didn’t even try.
I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 51 – TRUE STORY! I learned because at 50, I decided to change my mindset.
I was recovering from my cervical fusion, studying for my Feng Shui certification, in a neck brace and thought, “Well, I have always been afraid of getting hurt. I have said no to so many things and I still ended up here!”
I decided then and there to really think about the stories I had been told AND told myself since I was a child. Are the stories REALLY MINE? Are the stories REALLY TRUE? If they were true, DID THEY STILL FIT ME NOW?
Once I honestly answered these questions for myself, I realized I had lived the first 50 years of my life being afraid of so many things. That made me very sad. I decided to pivot and promised myself once I was out of the neck brace and recovered from the fusion (it takes time for the actual bones to fuse), I was going balls to the wall, or at least my version of that!
I learned how to ride a bike, took up Pilates, started hiking and doing Bikram hot yoga! I have said YES to so many things, not all of which work, but at least now I can say I tried!
I invite you to ask yourself the same questions. Really think about the stories you tell yourself. What we say to ourselves matters – in fact, it matters greatly. If you are always saying, “I can’t, I am a loser, I am a chicken…” then that is what you are telling yourself to be.
Change your thinking. Change your life. I did. You can?.
