There was a song I used to sing when I was much younger that went something like this; “The foot bone’s connected to the…knee bone, the knee bone’s connected to the… thigh bone”. I would keep on going until I reached the head bone. I never learned the real lyrics and I probably sang them differently each time, but I knew the basic idea. Every part of our body is connected.
I sometimes joke that running will make you really healthy if it doesn’t kill you first. The truth is that unless you are blessed with the perfect build and form, injuries come with the territory. A while back, I had a nagging knee pain that just wouldn’t go away. Although it didn’t stop me from running, it meant that I walked around after running in a rather uncomfortable position. Additionally, bending down to pick up one of my children was quite painful. I started poking around on the internet searching for a way to get rid of my discomfort. Nothing seemed to work. Then, I came across an article that suggested that most knee pain can be eliminated by strengthening the…hip muscles. “Hip muscles?” I wondered. “What does that have to do with my knees?” I read on. The author explained that knee pain is often an indication that other muscles are not strong enough and that the knees are working too hard to pick up the slack. Turns out that while running is great for certain muscles, other ones don’t grow stronger, leading to an imbalance. Left alone, this leads to injury.
This article got me thinking about where else there might be an imbalance in life. Often we concentrate on the areas in which we are strong while letting the other areas further atrophy. For some of, it might be emphasizing our relationship with G-d at the expense of our relationship with other people, or even ourselves. For others, it might be the reverse. Some people run to do things for others, while neglecting to take care of themselves. While it is good to work on our strengths, we must be sure not to neglect our weaknesses.
As for me, each time I go to the gym, I spend a few minutes strengthening my hip muscles. The knee pain is long gone. I’m trying to work on balance in my own life as well. As there doesn’t seem to be a machine at the gym which helps with that, I guess it’s all up to me.
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I found this to be a well written and amazingly salient piece, for everyone. I was just thinking about this - how some people have neater work areas than I do, but less creative ideas. On the other hand, I thought, the fact that I'm creative is not an excuse for being messy as I believe that cleanliness and orderliness (much as i don't always want to admit it) is - as the hackneyed saying has it - next to godliness (G-dliness).
ReplyDeleteThere is a concept of working on one mitzah - religious act in a concentrated way as your speciaty mitzvot. People often think that the best choice for most focused mitzvah is the one they are inclined to over others. i learned that the opposite is the case. We should pick the weakest one, our least favorite, to be the mitzvah we make out number one.
This piece gave me a lot of food got thought. It reminded me of the rabbi who once put in jail on false charges. His cellmate was a tightrope walker from the circus. The rabbi asked the tightrope walker to share his secret to success in his craft. He said, "The key is to only look forward and to keep my balance."