I’ll always remember the first time Ciara was asked to pick up a weight from the floor - the sheer look of terror on her face was a riveting moment!
I only mention this because we laugh at the memory today - the funny tricks the mind plays on us allied to very real feelings of vulnerability and pain, can be a tough opponent.
Ciara’s backstory is sadly an all-too-familiar one: a love for movement and body expression tempered by an injury that never seems to improve but instead morphs into something else entirely: a complete hold on your mind and body through fear and pain.
Mastering step-ups in studio!
Continuing the good training at home!
At that point of this common story, the fear is that ‘normal’ movement is never going to be possible. You visit several professionals who perform scan after scan often resulting in one of two things: they inform you that there’s nothing wrong with you reinforcing your fear, or they make catastrophic comments about you not being able to do X or Y again. At Restore Human we want to show you that you are not to blame, and that it pays to be a movement optimist!
In Ciara’s case, the combination of knee and back pain had limited her movement to the point of not being able to climb stairs, pick up laundry or get up and down from the floor without agonizing pain.
What’s all too easy at that point is for someone to consign themselves to the ‘pain cave’ for good. But the key thing is that Ciara never stopped believing that there WAS a solution. That determination plus some inevitable quirks of fate brought her to us.
At Restore Human we recognize that complex problems might need a variety of tactics to solve. And so we teamed up with Ciara to explore these ideas:
Language is very important - various neuroscientists are examining the concept that we quite literally transform our physical selves by the way we think. So when dealing with chronic pain we may have a chance to shape a part of our future happier body with positive words and connections...
This brings us to the second key idea: No matter what the game plan, it is difficult to create a cooperative and curious environment without trust and connection. I would without hesitation say I consider Ciara a friend - getting to know her as a person has made us able to tackle some tough sessions.
Hard work is the third idea: there are processes and ways to stimulate better body awareness, movement ability, and resilience in the face of pain, and they usually involve commitment and regular practice—something Ciara has provided unflinchingly!
Next is finding the big ‘why’—for Ciara the ability to go on long walks with her partner, and recently, attend birthdays in challenging places: she was able to walk up and down 437 steps after struggling to do a flight of stairs!
And the final idea is to enjoy the little successes along the way. Pain and challenges won’t disappear suddenly but by gradually developing greater robustness and ‘turning the volume down’ on pain where we can, Ciara is bringing joy and laughter into the fight!
