There are literally infinite ways to injure yourself.

I have spent over thirty years as a physical therapist.

Most of those years were in outpatient orthopedics and if I learned one thing it is that there are literally INFINITE ways to injure yourself!

But despite the myriad and varied reasons that people have wound up in my clinic under my care, I have learned another lesson that is even more poignant.

There may be infinite ways to hurt yourself..

but there is really only ONE way to get better.

The path to healing begins in the mind.

It begins by visualising a future of health and wholeness. And those first, early tentative steps involve clearly stating your desired goal. “I want to walk up the stairs to my grandson’s bedroom.” or “I want to be able to walk when my daughter gets married.” or even simply, “I want to go back to my life and forget this ever happened.”

And so before I ever take any measurement, or view any wound, I always ask the question, “What is your goal in coming here today?”

Once that goal has been established, the path toward healing takes a turn inward and asks its own pressing question of you.

“What are you willing to do in order to achieve that goal?”

Because every gain, every achievement and every triumph comes at a cost. And that cost isn’t always what you think. It isn’t always sweaty gym sessions and pumping iron.

Sometimes that cost is following directives and instructions that you may not want to follow. “Don’t pick at those staples” or “Elevate that leg to keep the swelling down”. No, you can’t go swimming with that open wound. Yes, you have to wear that sling for the full six weeks.

There is an element of surrender to healing that makes many people uncomfortable.

And sometimes the cost of healing is a complete restructuring of the framework of daily life. Suddenly every day revolves around sets and reps and exercises that would have been easy before the injury but are now unthinkably difficult…until they aren’t anymore.

The rocky path to healing requires intentional and focused listening to what the body is saying. The recovering mind is an antenna, tuning into sensations and feedback from the body and discerning the difference between pain and effort, between too much and just enough.

But often, the steepest climb on the path to healing is on the hill that requires you to acknowledge that life is not fair. That hill asks you to recognize that perfectly wonderful, smart and careful people get hurt sometimes for no good reason. It demands that you acknowledge that there are times when a person can do all of the right things and still get that awful diagnosis.

For some, healing demands radical acceptance that life does not play by our rules but instead it is we who are subject to its capricious whims. Because to do anything other than to accept this is to stumble off of the path of recovery and into the verge of despair.

And then the path to recovery takes a delightful turn. Because sometimes a person can learn what they are capable of when the body and mind work in concert with one another. When patience, time and effort converge and progress is finally made.

An injury or a diagnosis can be a terrifying, life changing, anxiety inducing event. But those events can occasionally be fertile ground for growth. They can be opportunities to witness the miracle of healing, of growth and of human resilience. They can be a chance to learn that yes, awful things happen but eventually we can be okay again.

The path to healing begins with acceptance of human frailty but it can end with the realization of the profound power of human beings to overcome.