"Balance is not something you find, it's something you create"

What do a balance-beam, a see-saw, a set of scales and a person’s life have in common? a search for balance.

A common clinical presentation

In this post I am going to draw parallels between a common problem I see every day in my line of work with how I manage to balance my life.

The common problem I have chosen is called a tendinopathy. Simply, it’s a presentation when a tendon is irritated. A tendon is what joins a muscle to a bone.

In my practice, commonly patients have had a period of rest and then have returned too quickly to an activity and have caused an overload on their tissues. This has made their tendon ‘grumpy’ as such. There are lots of factors that can contribute to this.

A continuum

Tendons have a continuum. For the acute tendon, if you overload it i.e. do too much for it’s capacity, then your tendon is what we call reactive. If you address the factors that have led to it, the tendon can return to it’s usual state. If you do not address these factors then overtime you can cause what is known as tendon dysrepair which can be quite difficult and in some cases not possible to completely rehabilitate.

Factors

Factors are like ingredients to a meal. They are all of the things that when mixed together can either create something delicious that gets the whole family talking or the kind of meal you want to scrape under the table and hope your family pet will eat it without your parents noticing. It’s also like a set of scales because if you have an equal amount of weight on both sides then you will find an equilibrium or balance. If one side is off just a little? you will lose that balance.

What losing your balance can look a little like!

Control

Some of these factors the individual can control and some the individual cannot.

A list of things we cannot control:

• The weather – funnily enough, people love to complain about the weather but as someone wise once said to me ‘weather is weather’.
• Time-in the day, in a month, in a year, in a decade etc. No matter what you do with your time or how you feel, the time will still pass regardless.
• Other people- whilst you can try to convince people of certain things, you do not own them and cannot control them.
• Ageing-to a degree, there are changes in our bodies that we cannot prevent from happening

A list of things we can control:

• Our attitude-in my opinion, this is number one. Attitude is everything! our mind is our most powerful weapon and our wildest resource.
• What we do with our time-PRIORITISE.
• What we want to achieve and most importantly, the how.
• Compliance to advice- advice is only as helpful as you choose to follow and adhere to.
• Ageing-there are factors to ageing like looking after your health that can slow age-related changes. I call this ‘healthy ageing’.

Applying these factors to the tendon continuum

If we address the factors that we can control early on then we can prevent long-term issues. If we do not then we risk long-term health issues or total burn out. A common life issue is when people “burn the candle at both ends” which means they are trying to do everything and just end up totally exhausted, run down, sick, injured, unhappy or a combination of all of these. This is why it is so important to identify these factors and address them NOW.

The how

What everyone defines as success is so different to the next person. That’s why I ask each of my new patients what they are expecting from me as their physiotherapist and what their goals are. I spend my session(s) trying to work the patient out, what makes them tic and who they are as a person. If I can build a rapport, I am so well on my way to helping them achieve their goals.

Drawing parallels to my life

I love my job, I am very passionate about helping other people. However I learned quite young that I cannot help others if I do not look after myself. I do not live to work. I want a balance and I am so determined to do so.

Success to me is that work-life balance. I don’t love that term as my work is a part of my life not separate to. So I guess I’m after a nice balance with all my factors which includes my work, my boyfriend, my family, my friends, seeking help when required from other professionals, eating nutritious food to keep my mind and body thriving and keeping my own body moving. If I can balance all of this then I feel more healthy.

Enjoying the beautiful views

Riding towards that balance

A brief story: when I was 17 I sent my bike off for a service, it took a week, I could still swim and run but I could not ride, and I felt like an emotional wreck. Riding has been such a source of peace and calm to me. I ride to cope, I ride to explore, I ride to be social, I ride because it’s just so damn fun!!

Riding does help keep all the emotions in check and I feel so much more alive and ready to tackle each day.

Yes sometimes it’s hard to fit in with a full-time job but it’s so worth it.

There is no better day than today

The health benefits of exercise encompass both mental and physical well-being improvements, give it a go and start now. Even if you just find five minutes at the start, middle or end of your day to walk outside, you may just feel that little bit more at ease. Commuting is another wonderful way to create that balance, please follow the link at the completion of this blog to read about how you can incorporate commuting into your hectic life schedule.

I will leave you with this famous quote to finish:

“Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving”

Creating my balance.

For my a blog on commuting to help find your life balance, please follow this link  www.laridley.com/my-q-time/commute-way-better-life-balance-2/