PLAY THROUGH THE PAIN

PLAY THROUGH THE PAIN

WEDNESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

You know sometimes you may allow yourself the luxury of self-pity and wallowing, but I say most times PLAY THROUGH THE PAIN!

I play netball matches every Wednesday, I started this year. This particular Wednesday I had a

headache. Not just a headache but a seriously pounding, side-splitting, make you not think straight kind of headache. Not

wanting to let my team down, I drove slowly to  our game and got there an hour early hoping to sleep

it off before the game. By the time it had drawn near to the match the headache hadn't

relented.

 I went inside to tell our team captain that I would be sitting the game out & explained my

headache, she just looked at me and said  we were short of players and my position was needed.

 I took the uniform and put it on, coaching myself through the pain to stand in court and

block balls jump, yell etc, Netball is an aggressive sport.  I got to the middle of the game

and realised I had stopped thinking about  the headache and had rather focused on the game, and

winning.

When we finished the game, my head hadn't stopped pounding or rather I noticed my

headache again. We lost that game, but I'm glad our captain asked me to play.  I confirmed a very

important lesson: MOST OF THE TIME YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE DECISION TO PLAY THROUGH THE 

PAIN!

I once heard of a dancer who broke her toe or was it her ankle during a performance, and she caried on perfoming through the pain. When the curtains went down at the end of the show, she then collapsed in pain, and an ambulance was called. She had the injury half-way through the show! imagine dancing half-way through a show with a broken ankle?! At an actor's workshop I attended, there was a famous actress who related a part of her life. She said  her husband was telling her continuously at night before sleep and in the morning before going to work how fat she was, and how ugly she was. She would go to the bathroom and weep.  Then go straight to work and play the strong, loving, powerful woman she was expected to play. I simply left my emotions at the entrance of sabc she would say.

I read an inspiring story of a woman who had wanted to quit heroin, so she started walking and hiking as a matter of fact she wrote a book.

Here is the lesson: the situation won't always be right for you to do what you have to do, but discipline will carry you through. I also run and walk in the morning and sometimes believe me I don't feel like it or the weather isn't condusive, but most times I make the decision to leave the house and walk or run anyway. People always say I'll start in Summer, it's too cold, or it's too hot, im scared of crime etc, but the world doesn't make the circumstances hunky dorey for you to do what you have to do.

 South Africans when it rains, they stay indoors-well if you lived in Belgium you would never leave your house as it rains nine months out of the year! And guess what people carry on with their lives and whatever it is they have to do anyway.

I love the example of athletes, they force themselves to train through the most gruelling circumstances, come rain, hail, snow, headache, break-up, tiredness, pain, so that when the day of final race or competition arrives they have prepared  to endure through the worst.

My goal is to be able to swim 5h30am through all seasons, I did swim through this winter, but then it wasn't 5am it was more like 8am. So ill update you.

Mind over Matter, Mind over matter!