I want to share a story about one of my daughters. We adopted our little girl when she was two and when we adopted her, she wouldn’t talk to anyone and she was afraid of all men, especially me. She had a hard first two years of her life and I’m so proud to say that now as a preteen, she is a smart, beautiful special part of our family.
As soon as she could talk, her first words were “mine, and no”.
We worked on this with her a lot trying to help her to share and have peace with the people around her.
But it’s a consistent battle that even today as a preteen, her biggest fear is that someone is messing with HER stuff.
It wouldn’t even be as big of a problem if it didn’t sometimes paralyze her from moving forward with a project, or family fun or activities with friends. She worries so much about HER (insert item here)
Connecting the Dots
Why am I talking about this? Because sometimes we identify our pain, our discomfort and our illness process as OURS.
We take ownership of that pain. It becomes part of us.
• We make decisions based on our arthritis,
• My neck pain.
• Our conversations revolve around it.
And I promise, as your chiropractor, I may be the only person who wants to have conversations about your pain.
It takes over your life.
However, don’t get yourself caught up in the ownership of your pain cycle or you may never get yourself out of it. People who associate pain as “theirs” have a statistically greater chance of their pain becoming a chronic lifetime issue. And you know you don’t want that. A simple mindset shift that you begin to take now will give you greater results.
Back to my daughter.
We have to convince our daughter that the toys that she has are something that she is enjoying right now, but anyone else can have it and she will let it go anytime. That it’s not hers but it belongs to the “house”. That God owns everything, or her parents own everything and she gets to enjoy it and share with others.
Doesn’t Belong To You
When you’re dealing with pain, you need to realize that it’s something you’re currently experiencing, that today you have, but it doesn’t belong to you, and that you don’t belong to it.
This simple mindset shift will change how you think about and process everything. From the activities you engage in, to the things you eat, to the way you speak, to the people around you.
You are more than your pain.
Realize that and you’ll have more power to improve it. Ask yourself today. Is there anything that I’m taking ownership of that I shouldn’t, like “my fibromyalgia”? I challenge you to identify it and really let it go. That’s the first to becoming as healthy as you can be.
I’m Dr. Emil Tompkins, Chiropractor in Tucson, and I wish you a healthy life, beyond the pain.
