08/07/2025
A "Yin" reflection on recovery....
B Oakman - " Body expectations judgement. I want to cascade endlessly, I want gravity to walk me home."
I think I've learned something recently! It's about the interface between responsibility and blame, between fear and recklessness, between striving and letting things be....
I'm 7 weeks into my rehabilitation from dominant arm cuff surgery, and I expected to be back at work by now. I'm in more pain than than I thought I would be, although I know now this is fairly normal., and my consultant thinks my progress is in the top 10%! However, I went with the prescribed process and ignored my intuition, which told me to listen to my quiet inner voice (my yin self?), the one that tells me to be mindful and take each step with curiosity, humility, self respect and openness. My Yang self said ""go for it" , "follow the instructions", "you may be wrong", "try harder" and "don't quit". My pain got worse, and then it got worse again....🏋️ 🚴 🛌
Sometimes when I'm out cycling and fatigued there's a way of "letting the bike do the work". It doesn't make sense immediately but with the right cadence and power you can spin the legs and recover while still eating up the kilometres. I am entering a period where I need to "let the bike do the work", or to "let gravity take me home". My body needs to recover from the surgery and hard rehab protocols, and now I need to "spin my legs" for a little while and as my physio puts it, "let my biology catch up." There will be a time for Yang energy again, as metaphorically yin and Yang are in a state of constant flux. So we don't always expect things to be perfectly balanced, but sooner or later, we must allow this to happen ☯️
All being well, I'll be taking my tentative first steps back into clinic from the 21st of July, taking returning clients only for several weeks, as there are limited slots while I phase in intentionally with my yin self initially calling the shots...
