# 37 - Is Your Body Holding You Back? Discover How to Reclaim Your Strength and Vitality

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Does your body seem to let you down just at the point where you seem to be getting momentum,

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you just seem to be getting things going well again, and

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then you get sick, or you get injured, or something gives you a real setback, or maybe you're at that point where you've had these past injuries and you can't go and do some of those things that you used to so I'm going to share some of my experience, but also the lessons that you can then take forward for you to change that story and change your future results. I'm Ian Hawkins,

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and this is sport. Is life.

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The purpose of sport, as I see it, is to see your vision become a reality, find your voice, create strong connections, and learn to trust your body. I did,

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if your body continues to let you down, you continue to get sick or injured when things are going well well, then what's happening is you are running a repeating pattern that is just going to continue until you bring in a circuit breaker. So there can be any number of things that create this pattern. Sometimes it's a pattern from a very young age where you used to have a need met by this pattern of injury or illness. I know for me that I had a moment where I wanted my dad to be going to more of my sport, he was going to more of my younger brother's sport at one point. And I asked my mum, why is that? And she said, Oh, well, your brother's been quite unwell. He's just going to make sure he's okay. Now, my brother had a burst appendix. It's pretty bad, and that was natural as a parent. Now I totally get that, but for a young kid who wanted more time with his dad. That didn't make sense. So the pattern was that an injury or an illness equals attention. Now I then ran that pattern for about 30 years of using an injury to get attention. I never wanted to be one of those players that during a game, walked off when they still had more in the tank, that limped off when really they could have pushed on.

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But then I would complain afterwards,

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topped until I met a coach in: 2013

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Then I heard about acupuncture.

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My mother in law was getting something. Had got incredible results not having to get carpal tunnels, uh, carpal tunnel operation in her hands when that's what she'd been told she needed. She'd gone to acupuncture and had no had no problems in the hand ever again. Well, not no problems in her hand, but no problems in terms of a carpal tunnel. But different other, different things have shown up. And that's also a product of a lifetime of particular type of work and other things, patterns and so on going on as well. But at the moment, at that moment, sorry, learning that acupuncture would create such a change, I was like, Oh, wow. I need to find out about this. And four sessions, I've never had pain in that part of my foot ever again. It was amazing, because the three seasons previously, I was training two nights a week. I'd

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play the game Saturday. I'd

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limp till Tuesday, was just starting to get good again. I'd train, it would be sore. I'd limp till Thursday, just start to get good again. I'd train, and then same thing, limp till Thursday, and then by game day, it was it was good enough that I could play. Just repeated the pattern. Then after this was like no more pain. And then I started questioning everything,

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do I need orthotics?

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Is there something else going on that I can improve? And that led me to a path of finding out about being able to remodel my running so it stopped breaking bones in my feet, and I didn't need to do some of the other things that other precautions I was taking, because what was really happening is that I hadn't learned to use certain muscles in my body. Once I did and I had my my running rebuilt, I started to use my hamstrings and my glutes, that were such an important part of running, I've never learned to use them from a young age. Once I started doing that, then my buddy responded better, and suddenly I'm running and and I'm playing football and doing all sorts of things that I've been told that I probably shouldn't do. I highly recommended that I that I should give them up, because I was finding these new solutions. Now, no one person that you go and see is going to know everything about everything. So if you keep an open mind and you decide you want things to be different, it's amazing. What will show up. Solutions will show up.

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I remember

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at a conference once, and these, these a couple, were talking about these long distance runs they were doing, and that my age, which was in the 40s, and I was like, how are you doing that? Like my body just couldn't go through it. And they said, Oh, try, try this toe running. Well, what do you mean? So they recommend this book. I read it, and that set me on a path, then that where I ended up with the person that helped me to remodel my running. But these things came randomly. But the important part was I had to focus on what I wanted the future to be. So had that clear vision for where I wanted to go. And when you have that, the solutions will start turning up and your body won't keep letting you down once you take the action that shows up for you. Like, I remember running not so long ago, probably about two years ago, and I wanted to lift my lung capacity just wasn't happening. I started to think about, like, am I trusting my body here? Do I really trust my lungs to do the job that they're meant to do? And the answer was no. And I wondered why. And I was thinking about my dad's passing, which had been nearly 20 years ago now. So it had been a long time when I was having this conversation with myself, and one of the challenges he had was with his lungs. I started to think, I wonder if there is a pattern playing out, where, after watching my dad go downhill with trouble breathing, and whether I had built a distrust of my lungs just by watching something like that. So I started to tell my body that I trusted it, and then, and I did believe that had the capacity to take in more and and I started to improve, and I started to get better results. Now I'm giving you the short version of that, but the important part for you to focus on is to question what you've been told. To question your lack of trust in your body, to think about what might have played out, what is playing out. What is the pattern that's still looping and giving you the same results might not be exactly the same, but you're finding that you end up back in the same place things were just starting to go well, then you have a setback. It's time to introduce the circuit breaker and to. Build a new pattern, one that, instead of looping on itself, it spirals outwards and allows you part of me to improve. And it starts with having that vision for what you want, what is it you want, and then looking at how can I, curiously look at this situation different and be open to alternative solutions showing

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up for me,

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and you have to have that open mind, because if you continue get down a path where you just like, This is what I've been told, this is the diagnosis I was given, that is it? Then that just keeps you stuck. It becomes a belief system. But if you're open to the fact that that was true at the time, based on what that person who gave me the diagnosis knew, you can then be curious about what might else be out what else might be out there that you didn't know about, that they didn't know about, that can help you. And over the time of this podcast, I'll share other stories of parts of my body that I've healed because I had this openness to find new solutions, to not settle on one opinion, but to see what else is out there. The strength in my body I have, now not physically, not like hugely muscular, but the strength I have in my body to know the things that I can do that. I can run five ks flat out. I can run longer than that. If I choose to, I just choose not to, most of the time, to to be on my feet all day, and sure I'm tired, but I don't have a problem feeling like my body's going to let me down. I've gone back and played football. I played about five or six seasons after got told that I shouldn't. I've gone back and played basketball. Couldn't play golf for the longest time because I had so much tightness in my back. But I'm able to go and do that at a level well beyond what I thought I'd be capable of, and particularly with that flexibility, the flexibility I have in my body, like I can get my palms on the ground when I get to touch my toes, because I've been able to continue to find ways to improve, start to have a think about what is the pattern, set that vision for the future, and then be open to new solutions and new possibilities showing up for you, and when they do, take action, try them out and see where it leads. I promise you, you'll start to find a new level in your body that you didn't think was possible at the age you are in now, the age you are at now, enjoy this process. Make sure you record the wins along the way, and let's see where you can get to and how much more you can get out of your physical body. You've taken the time to listen to this whole episode. Now it's time to take action. Commit to one thing you've learned today and make it happen, and to avoid any obstructions, join the sport is life movement by clicking on the link in the show notes you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai