Years ago, long before I began helping people correct their posture, I was suffering from chronic daily headaches. I used to think nothing of taking daily aspirin, and I did that for a number of years.
One morning in college (many years ago), while listening to an academic present a provocative speech on health and well-being, he asked us if the medication we take, knows how to find the headache – or, did with think the medication might possibly affect our entire body? Although seemingly obvious, I hadn’t thought of it like this before. I didn’t want chemicals affecting my entire body – I just wanted to be rid of my headaches.
Further Reading: The 7 Biggest Posture Mistakes
Imagine that you are driving along a long stretch of road, late for a meeting one afternoon, and the oil light comes on in your car. You think that you haven’t time to do anything about the oil, so you stick a piece of tape over the light. Now you can’t see the light and you feel better. Don’t you?
Oil acts as a lubricant and prevents metal engine parts from coming in contact with other metal parts. If you didn’t change your oil or oil filter in your car, dirt would accumulate in the engine and the oil would lose its lubricating qualities and eventually the filter would stop working. The metal parts in your car would experience premature wear and eventually your engine would seize up and break down.
Our bodies are a little bit like that. You can only ignore the warning signs for so long. When we take medication, we temporarily feel better because we don’t feel the pain, but the problem still exists. Don’t be fooled into believing that pain medication cures anything. Pain killers mask problems. Eventually the medication stops working and it becomes difficult to restore health. When we medicate, we fail to address the cause of the problem and therefore face the possibility of premature wear and chronic health issues.
It’s tempting to medicate when we have pain, because of the hectic pace of our 24-hour lifestyle. Don’t wait for the pain. Start addressing your health and posture right now. Don’t mask your pain when it comes; and it will come! Learn to trust your body to heal and better still, ask for help. It isn’t easy at the beginning, but over time you can reset your pain threshold, until the once 8/10 headache becomes a manageable 1/10 headache, that has you listen and respond to your body’s everyday needs.
Further Reading: The Posture Doctor (Chapter 8 – What About My Pain?)
