LISTEN!!

I read an article towards the end of last year that suggested a number of things you could do every day/week to "make yourself a better person in 5 years".  I'm not exactly sure how measurable that is, or exactly how "better person" might be defined (ha, perhaps I understood experiment design and statistics classes a little better than I thought), but some of the suggestions seemed like good little 'challenges' to focus on.  

One of them was to have a computer-free day a week (technically think it was 'tech free', but I'm focusing on the computer/ internet part of that - phones allowed) so I decided to have 'tech free Tuesday'.  I'd like to say I was very disciplined and that's the reason I didn't write my blog on Tuesday night for Wednesday's post, but in all honesty, this news junkie checked BBC news on her phone, then checked two weather websites (that was life-threatening news, a valid excuse - we were experiencing a POLAR VORTEX, and yes, it was 5-layers-of-clothes-FREEZING like I have never felt before), I did read my book for a while and I did not put my computer on all day, but the real reason for no blog (because I really intended to write it after midnight, as I usually do) was because I fell asleep.  In fact, I think on Tuesday, I was awake for 3 hours total. It wasn't too hard not to put my computer on this week...

And there was a reason, so today's tea bag tag I think is a deliberate reminder:

"Listen and you develop intuition"

I was still pretty sore on Monday after my whatever-happened-at-the-weekend pain, but my shoulder capsule was so tight and giving me extra pain.  My physio did some extra stretching - always carefully and gently and with me in control - and then did some soft tissue work to try and free up the capsule a bit and ease the pain.  Lesson not learned.  The soft tissue kneading was sore, but I knew he really wasn't doing it very hard, and although it hurt a bit more than when at rest, it felt like the kind of sports-massage-sore that hurts a bit at the time and then the next day feels so much better..... so that's what I thought.  It didn't.  Actually, I came home from physio on Monday and I fell asleep from about 6pm-11pm - very unusual, and almost always a reaction to severe pain..... also, not really conducive for a normal night's sleep, so then, as expected, I was awake until about 4am.

I will blame that partly on my 'nap' (how long before it's not really a nap?  Can you have a 5 hour nap?), partly on my pain, and partly on the howling gales of an arctic storm that felt like it could lift the roof right off the house.  Rather than go downstairs in the dark and switch my ice packs, I actually just sat them outside on the windowsill for an hour, then brought them back in frozen again.  I think I found the one benefit of the cold weather.  It's nearly over though, tomorrow it has to "warm up pleasantly" - according to the weatherman - to a balmy 33 degrees fahrenheit.  That's 1 degree celcius - 1 degree above freezing. And, yes, it really is "warming up" - that will make it about 20 degrees warmer than it was on Monday, and with no winds - the wind chill made it feel about 10 degrees colder.  Anyway, I did lie awake and listen to the storm for a while, but I did go back to sleep.  I woke up at some point around midday and I always know the pain is bad when it drags me into consciousness; when I am aware of it before I am really aware of no longer being asleep.  Given the weather, I just took my tablets and went back to sleep.  I think I woke up again about 3pm.  Dragged myself out of bed - so sore I was limping on my bad side.... nothing like an injury to remind you how everything's connected.

I had some food, read my book, reminded myself of how much I love Jasper Fforde - and since I'm talking about words, I think I will need to pick a few of my favourite lines from this book and give them their own blogpost, the author's play on words is so clever and entertaining - but by 6pm I was asleep again (NOT a reflection on the book! I love the book!).  Woke up for long enough to get ice packs and make some tea and I was asleep AGAIN before midnight.  Which doesn't make for very exciting reading or writing.... 

So I think the lesson I did NOT learn earlier this week has to be repeated - LISTEN!! My body is screaming at me again.

Especially when a part of it feels like this:  

........................I actually wish my battery was charged that much!  

So the take-home lesson of the week is:

I think that's true!