5 MINUTES

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It is day 11 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m still here. It’s remarkable since I’m finding 5 minutes of doing nothing a hell of a long time. I’m trying to rehab my left plantar fasciitis. I’ve discovered that the root cause is my body alignment is out of whack – for many years. I’ve been clenching my whole left side forever and a day. I have left sided discomfort from my face down to my foot. I’ve been like that so long I kind of gotten used to that until my left heel pain was so excruciating that it was hard to walk even a few steps. It stopped me in my tracks. I had to give it some consideration.

I bought a few pair of shoes and different gizmos to put inside them. They didn’t really worked. I looked online for a fix and a body shop and found the pain academy. Or rather it found me. In this case social media was very helpful. When I googled heel pain, all kinds of things pop up in my Instagram feed, including Vinny from the Pain Academy. He shared many exercises that I thought would help me. After doing them, I realized that they were similar to the ones from my mobility class at the YWCA.

The first exercise was to rest the body for 5 minutes to get it in a neutral state. It is really restful but 5 minutes is a long time to stay put on the floor with your legs up on a chair at 90° angle. I started fiddling and squirming within seconds. And my mind went crazy, darting all over kingdom come. I’m doing a little better now with some practice. It’s a good exercise to do to let go of the tension in your body. I never realized how much till now.

Well, this is more than 5 minutes now. I have to stop. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. But hey, I think my heel pain is going!

BOXING DAY 2023

It’s a beautiful sunny Boxing Day afternoon. All is calm. All is bright. It’s 5℃ out and 6.2℃ in the greenhouse. I’ve seeded a small tray of lettuce greens in anticipation of our present weather trend of warm temperatures and no snow.

I’m deeply immersed in reading A Thousand Acres. Did you know it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1992? It was hard to tear myself away to write this post. I’m on a streak of showing up now every day for a week. I don’t want to break the cycle and end up in a slump before January. I’m practicing discipline and succeeding.

I’m not doing as well rehabbing the fasciitis in my foot. It is a very slow process. It is very discouraging since I am faithfully doing the exercises every day. I’m learning patience and forbearance. I have to remember that Rome was not built in a day. And I have been careless and abusive with my feet since summer. So now I have to put in the time to heal it. I have numerous resources on treatment besides YouTube. One thing for sure is there are no quick fixes.

There are no quick solutions to lose some of the holiday fat either. It’s another slow and discouraging process. It keeps coming back again and again like a bad penny. But that’s something we can talk about tomorrow. I have to get back to my book. It’s calling me and I have to get up and move.