Henibean is 2 years old today!
I
know I've not been as diligent at writing over the last month... it's
been a difficult time... and I haven't felt much like sitting and
tapping out my thoughts on the keyboard ....but hey this blog is about
balance ... and you have to cut yourself some slack sometimes don't
you?
A
lot has happened in the last two year and today I wanted to
Do you ever get to the end of the week and wonder what you accomplished?
Me too! I often feel like what I've done is just not enough and I end the week with a list of things left undone. The tendency in such circumstances is to focus on what is still left to do, and not give yourself any credit or a pat on the back, for what you actually HAVE accomplished.
These last few weeks It feels like I've not achieved very much... at times like this I have to give myself a talking to and remind myself of some of the things that I DID do and congratulate myself for at least still trying! When I focus on this, I have to concede that even though my progress is not as I would like it to be.... it is still progress!!
During these last few weeks I have enjoyed having some sunshine to be outside and do garden jobs. I have noticed within the last few days that my grape vine (the one I thought I had killed last year by pruning too hard) was starting to show signs of life again...
I have been watching and waiting for a few months, hoping and praying that it would spring back to life. Beneath the gnarly bark, growth has slowly but surely been occurring ... progress that until now, has been largely happening out of sight.
The other day I noticed buds emerging and now the little lime green leaves are appearing and unfolding, growing bigger day by day.
I'm now home after a lovely week in the Lake District and back in to catch up mode. I always love to do a few of our favourite walks while we are up there and take in all the gorgeous scenery. This year we did a few of the usual's.... like Grasmere Lake and Tarn Howes. We did however add some new ones to the list because we had to stay in the southern lakes due to the road up to Keswick being closed.... it had fallen in to the lake! (caused by all the flooding around Christmas)
We did a lot of Tarn walks....which included Loughrigg tarn, (and here), Blea tarn, Little Langdale tarn, Moss eccles Tarn (where Beatrix potter loved to go)... and a lovely walk from Wray Castle down by the side of the lake! Some of the walks we took Heni on and others we did on her rest days. We even got to go back to Lucy's again this year for another meal catered to our food intolerances.
On one of the days, we also took a drive up over the hills to Glenridding at the other side of the pass. To get there you have to go up a 20% gradient road, along narrow stone walled lanes that wind back and forth. The climb covers more than 4.8km of twisting road, cutting through what is a stunning backdrop and the road is aptly named...... its called The Struggle!
I wanted to post some picture that I took on my walk this morning for
you to look at. I love being outside in the fresh air and sunshine,
surrounded by nature and I love the contrasts of the blue sky against
the green trees and grasses ... the feast to the eyes that are around
every corner. It made me think of how important nature is to me and how I
think I would fare very poorly if I had to live in the middle of a
concrete jungle. I'm fortunate enough to live close to the countryside
and have the ability to be surrounded by the beauty of nature within
minutes of stepping out of my front door.... and partake of all its
benefits .As I've been contemplating nature earlier today.... I have
felt the urge to tell you a little bit about something called Nature
Cure!
Have you ever tried to stand on one foot and balance? How was it? A bit wobbly? Or did you manage to stand perfectly still?
Have you ever twisted your ankle and found that it affected your balance....and then after, noticed that you kept on re twisting it?
As a physio I have treated my fair share of ankles throughout the years and have found that one of the most important parts of the rehab in injuries like this is to work on balance. Unless you work on the reeducation of proprioception (I'll explain that in a minute) you will be forever vulnerable.
Proprioception is the ability of the body to sense how it is positioned in space. Within the muscles and joints and ligaments surrounding joints (in this case the ankle) are the nerve receptors that are responsible for picking up signals of stretch and tension. If you are standing on one foot and sway a little, the signals from these receptors are sent to the brain to be processed and acted on accordingly. If the body is swaying to the left it will counter it by pulling it to the right. It does this by a complex relay of information from these nerve receptors, up to the brain and back down to the opposing muscles. It is the ongoing interplay of these signals, constantly firing, that allows for continuous readjustments to position so that we don't fall over... and It's done mostly at a subconscious level.
If these receptors are damaged (in the case of the twisted ankle) the information sent to the brain is impaired and it can affect the perception of how the body is positioned. It can also affect and slow the nerve signals to the correcting muscles...if you are then unfortunate enough to twist your ankle again, the correcting muscles don't have enough time to fire and you end up doing a whole bunch more damage. The ankle gives way, you end up feeling off balance or you fall over.
So why am I talking about Proprioception today?
