A short story of self-improvement, perspective, and retrospection…
In August this year, I contracted Chikungunya-like symptoms. What followed was a series of painful experiences I didn’t know existed 😅. In Chikungunya, one experiences severe and debilitating pain in the joints of the hands, feet, knees, hips, and shoulders, along with other symptoms like headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, rash, nausea, and vomiting. I slowly recovered from the rest of the symptoms, but the joint pains were unbearable. Every joint in my limbs (legs and hands) used pain and it almost made me cry at times.
To add to this struggle, after a while, it became clear that no medication would solve this for me, and getting used to the pain was the only way through. First — This made me humble, thinking of so many people around me going through much more severe physical pain. Second — This made me happily re-realise that life is quite unpredictable. (Remember, a saying goes — You plan, God laughs 😀)
I kept thinking of ways and means to alleviate the pain and hoped to be able to come back to some level of normalcy. One fine day, as we were travelling, I was sitting in the backseat of a car, and my daughter was dishing out songs from her playlist. (Yes, a 7-year-old has her playlist! What was I doing at that age?! Maybe struggling not to wet my pants 😂) For some reason, she had Believer by Imagine Dragons in her playlist. (I doubt if she even understands the lyrics of the song 😬…maybe she does!).
As the song played, a stroke of lightning hit me. The lyrics rang through my ears and consciousness at the same time
Pain! You made me a, you made me a
Believer, believer
Pain! You break me down, you build me up
Believer, believer
And just like that, I had the answer I was seeking. Poison cuts poison, pain cuts pain I thought…
From the very next day, (almost) every morning, against all the (most probably false) indicators my body/mind was giving me, I tried getting up from my bed. I went outside and started running. My limbs cried hell, but I attempted it nevertheless.
Day 1 was hardly a decent walk. The next day, I could limp through one KM, the next day, it was 1.5 KM. During this walk/limp/run, the limbs would hurt like anything. Slowly, my body became aware that there was a bigger pain than the Chikungunya one 😬
1 KM -> 2 KMs -> 4 KMs -> 5 KMs happened through the next weeks.
Last weekend, I ran a 10-KM, and it felt like an achievement. Moreover, the Chikungunya pain felt like a remnant of the past 😎
I’ve done quite a few half-marathons (21Ks) earlier, but for some reason, this 10K felt like an achievement. It helped me revisit the definition of progress 🙂
Looking forward to getting back in shape for 21K (half-marathon) in days to come 💪🏽 ( and also attempting an aspirational full marathon sometime in the near future 🤞🏽)
Lessons learnt through this experience
- Pain is relative. The happy realisation that experiencing (and/or empathising with) bigger pain makes the original one seem insignificant 😇
- Similarly, maybe even challenges are relative! Whenever one feels depressed/demotivated by the current challenges, maybe seek to tackle bigger and better ones. In the process, the current challenges would feel like a cakewalk 🤩
- Pain (and challenges) impart the first principle lessons of failing, falling, and getting up to contribute to something worthwhile
Peace ✌🏽
