Change. It is amazing how just one word can send either chills up your spine or a welcome sigh of relief. Oftentimes, change can do a little bit of both, whether you have sought out the change yourself, or were handed change on a silver platter by someone or something else in life.
Certainly in the upper Midwest, we can’t embrace change enough when it comes to the changing seasons at springtime. While we whine and complain about our very long winter, I would bet we all would be quite bored with Hawaiian weather of 80 degrees with a trade wind every single day. While change can be very scary, it also is the very essence of how our bodies survive and thrive, growing stronger with each new and changing physical and emotional threat. If embraced, we emerge from a change in life stronger, healthier, more resilient, and smarter about the world and ourselves. If dodged, we just may unintentionally become stunted in our growth as intellectuals, professionals, parents, teachers, coaches, and students of life.
Consider the athlete. No matter how great the desire a teenager may have to excel at a sport, if this individual always participates in drills, games, and practices that are always easy, how would this athlete improve? If given a weight training program of light weights that could be lifted with his or her eyes closed, behind the back, and over the head, did they just waste precious minutes, days, weeks, and years of time when they could have been taking that same amount of time to be challenged and grow?
As a parent, we face these issues all the time. Do we bring up a challenging topic with our child, their teacher, or their coach? Or do we let it slide by, so we don’t ruffle any feathers or upset the apple cart? Do we do the easy thing, because who wants to bring up any potential issues, or do we buck up and do the right thing when the obvious choice is before us? Tough questions, I know. But by not saying anything, we are stunting both our own potential for growth in inter-personal communication, but also the individual with whom we would have that tough conversation with will not receive the feedback he or she needs to know to continuously improve.
Change is inevitable. It is up to us to respond to the challenge from within or without to make the best of every opportunity that comes our way. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” As we embrace the warm spring sunshine this month let it remind us that while change can be scary, it can have some golden rewards as well.
Happy Spring!
Jill
Jill Murphy
Owner/Physical Therapist
MotionWorks Physical Therapy
P.S.:If you follow MotionWorks on Facebook, you already know how excited I was to attend the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting in Indianapolis last month. It really is a unique learning environment where you can learn things from all of the highly variable sections that make up the physical therapy branch of rehabilitation in America. From PT’s who specialize in orthopedics, women’s health, hand rehabilitation, oncology, neurological rehab, geriatrics, pediatrics, aquatic therapy, federal (military) physical therapy, research, sports therapy, administration, private practice, and so many more sections, you can learn just about anything about everything that you find most interesting.
Of course my own interests lead me to presentations on subjects for which I would like the most up to date information based on the clients I am seeing, past and present, and who I hope to see in the future, so I can provide for them the very best and most updated, evidence-based care. While I can provide the research title and names for all of the clinical synopses I have written below, I am intentionally leaving them out, because they would be so numerous that it would inhibit your reading. However, please contact me if you would like the research information on anything listed below (because I have them all right at my fingertips!). The articles I have written below are some highlights that I thought would be of most interest to you, the healthcare consumer. Enjoy!