"The Big Hurt"

Wouldn't you know it, the day of my appointment with the orthopedic guy and my hip isn't bugging me as much. I ran two days in a row and although I can feel it, its feeling pretty good. I contribute it to one of two things...the hip is scared I'm going to the doctor and is behaving or its related to a magazine article I read.

The article, "The Big Hurt" by Benjamin Cheever is found in the August 2009 Runners World. The author is injured and goes through all kinds of treatments before going to a specialist. The specialist, Dr Sarno has written a number of books dealing with back pain and psychological affects on the physical being. The one book I have just downloaded and will "read" is "The Divided Mind". If I like the book I'll share about it in a future blog.

The author goes to a specialist (expensive too) and after the specialist he is cured and the doctor really didn't do anything. The doctor tells him to do two things.

1. When his injury is bothering him to reflect on what is bothering him. Rage collects in the unconscious mind and your brain helps take your mind off what's bothering you by giving you a hurt.

2. Sit quietly, breath deeply and picture himself as a 6 or 7 year old and tell the child that he's sorry he went through a rough life and he (as an adult) is there now to take care of him.

I've thought back to March and can't think of anything in particular that bothered me. In general I think and worry too much so it could be a number of things. What I think the most about is running. Especially since being injured I continually think about when will I be able to run like I want to. I think about if my injury is mind over matter, what I've done wrong to cause the injury, when I'll be able to run, will I be well enough to start marathon training next month, will I be able to train completely and on and on.

Since I've done both the items the author wrote about, I think I should be cured. Instant results is something I'm sure I read about in the article too. HA! If only that were true. Anyways, I'm off to the doctor to tell him my hip was worse when I made the appointment and this magazine article made an improvement.