By: Tracey
Happy New Year to each and everyone reading this. Who am I kidding we all know it’s probably just my husband and my mom but worth a shot right? New year, New you… Welcome to 2024!
What is it with humans? We feel the dread of the end of the year, the clock strikes 12 and suddenly we are revived and fresh to start a new year, filled with a new hope for the prospects of what is to come. Personally, I find this so bizarre. Gosh, all doom and gloom and it’s not even in the middle of January.
How was your 2023? Did it meet all your expectations? What are your 2024 goals, dreams, and ambitions?
When answering these did you take a second to include your physical and emotional state in there? No, I don’t mean getting bikini-ready and shedding the Christmas belly… I mean really giving your wellness serious attention and thought? Did you know that all life’s stress, trauma, and anxiety are carried not just in the heaviness of our emotional wellbeing but this emotional load too affects our physical state? The shoulder tension you feeling… ask yourself when does it feel worse? When you are lying on the beach with a cool beverage? Or when your mother-in-law arrives for the Christmas festivities?
The trap here is that for most we push the anxiety and stress to the side, life goes on as it well should do but, in the meantime, our physical state is affected by our poor emotional state and a spiral to the end of the year unravels and then boom 2025 and we feel “better” because yay new year, new me, WRONG.
What I am trying to get at here is that a clock striking midnight doesn’t make it all better… it’s a matter of what came first the chicken or the egg… an injury, turning into emotional dysregulation causing chronic physical pain or vice versa.
As a physiotherapist we play vital roles in maintaining and ensuring physical wellbeing and from my experience I advocate on the daily for emotional well-being to be addressed in conjunction with our hands on approach. We are always going to be a listening ear and we are always going to assist you in the best way we professionally can, but we are not psychologists. If you are dealing with emotional turmoil and its manifested into a physical complaint please don’t get offended when we gently recommend the intervention of a psychologist. In the end, your overall well-being is our priority. Here’s me hoping that you will place your emotional and physical well-being at the top of the list of priorities this year when it comes to your New Year’s resolutions.
Are you battling with a physical ailment let us help you this year or better yet before it gets to a chronic state seek us out first. If you are battling with chronic pain let us guide, you in this journey with our team of physiotherapists and fellow colleagues to make your 2024 a year worth remembering. Because a happy you = a happy life. You deserve it.