Has Anyone Told You Lately, “You’re Good Enough”?

I had a client the other day who was in extreme pain attempting to stand up. The symptoms: right side, difficulty standing up. I found it was flexion of the knee causing the pain, which was pulling on tendons or ligaments connecting the sacrum, ilium (hip) and femur. From my studies, I knew there was a complex web of muscles, tendons and ligaments in that area. He reported having pain attempting to stand up. I had him try hip rotation, which didn’t cause him any pain. Another thing I noticed was once he fully stood up on his feet, the pain was non-existent.

I tried a couple of things, troubleshot with him for a while doing extension, flexion and rotation of the hip: nothing. I attempted some stretches. The only thing that caused him pain was flexion of the knee, which he explained felt like was pulling on his lower back/sacrum and was the only piece of the puzzle that we were able to find. Lesson: Like any other system, if you troubleshoot and attempt to re-create the issue, normally, you can eventually re-create the issue and come up with solutions. It is only until then, until you fully understand the problem or issue that you can be aware enough to find out how to go about “solutioning”. So many times we’ve been conditioned to find solutions before actually realizing what the problem really is. Isn’t that something?!

Warning! Feeling Alert: I felt defeated. I didn’t feel adequate. This was about the most inadequate I felt since I broke my left finger. This same person I was helping, helped put my finger back in it’s socket after a volleyball accident spiking the ball. Now, it was my turn to help him.

I did the best I could in the moment with the tools and knowledge I had, including some compression techniques with my forearm to loosen up those areas. I did some jostling, rocking and some polarity therapy type movements. I gave it my all. I knew if I focused on the intention of helping him ease his own pain, that was the best I could do. He didn’t see improvement at the moment and I felt like I didn’t do anything for him. I asked myself, was it that I didn’t have enough knowledge on the kinesiology of that area? All of this self-doubt-talk had me going in circles and I couldn’t break it for a day or so!

Couple days later, he let me know that what I did really, really helped him and that his pain had subsided, He is now able to stand up without any pain!

Now — I don’t claim to heal anyone, but I surely can say — if I help people produce the correct conditions for helping themselves on their own, I can definitely help make long-lasting improvements in their lives. From my own direct experience, I realized the desire to fully understand the value I provide, I mean, who doesn’t? My own self-doubt had me feeling super inadequate.

My recommendation to people feeling inadequate is to keep on trying to do what you feel is right at the moment. Help reinforce positive qualities about yourself that you value and want to keep building, build off those previous positive experiences.

Trust yourself to know that you are doing everything you need to be doing, in any given moment and that the solution will present itself eventually. It is this kind of focus that will help produce success and I encourage people to be patient enough with themselves to be aware of the problem/issue you want to solve, to be kind enough to yourself, to trust themselves enough that you will find the solution you need, when you need it!