pep talk

one of the reasons i love my best friend is because she knows me so well.  here is the 'pep talk' i got today:

Here’s your lecture:  This broken arm is no small deal.  Kids break arms, and it’s mostly “whatever.”  But it’s a whole different story when a) you’re the mommy, and b) you’re 35.  The body doesn’t do the super-efficient healing it did when it was a kid (that you still expect it to be doing).  In retrospect, you realized you pushed too hard and didn’t let yourself heal after JJ was born.  I watched you do the same thing after Noah was born.  I wish I was there to help! 

So day one, you will probably try to take it easy.  It’s day two, day 3, and especially the days that follow that I am worried about.  The point at which your mind tells you it’s had enough of this broken arm silliness and you  need to get on with things.  See, I can relate to this in an interesting way.  It took two weeks for that stinking poison ivy to go away, and it was astonishing to me how long two weeks seemed.  I felt like it should have started going away after 3 days.  After a week, I should have been 100%.  Why on earth was I still dealing with it?  We just have some preset in our brains that tells us after a few days things should get basically back to normal.  You are going to have to work against that.  Try and take it easy; not only on your arm, but on  your whole body, which is tired because it is working to heal  you.  If you can believe it, my body felt tired from fighting the poison ivy.  For your own mental and physical well-being, try to spend at least 2 weeks giving yourself lots of breaks and lots of rest.  

Okay, there is my lecture; I’m sure your mother is giving you the same one and your husband is probably not going to be as on board with it as he should be (mine would do the same thing).  But sometimes someone besides your mother (who becomes exhausted just imagining your life) has to tell you to slow down and take it easy before you will actually allow yourself to do it.  It is OKAY to think about yourself and be a little selfish in the name of allowing yourself to heal for more than just a couple of days!  Thus sayeth the Best Friend.

Alayna Lindamood, Esq.
Reference Attorney