Coming back from a day out, we found ourselves in a huge traffic jam on the highway. At first, we had no idea what was causing it. Then we saw smoke. Black smoke. A lot of it. Hubby perceived that it was a car on fire. I didn't know. I was afraid to commit to anything. Fire trucks roared past us on the side. By the time, traffic started moving again and we passed what had been causing the blockage, this was all that was left to see. All that was left of someone's vehicle.
With a car, it's relatively simple. It gets towed to a mechanic and assessed for repairability - which I'm guessing - or should I say perceiving? - in this case was not going to happen. It either gets repaired or replaced. If the owner is lucky and has a clause in their insurance for a rental vehicle, they will be on their way to wherever within a few hours of the incident. Incident over. At least the physical part of it. Trauma from the incident is another thing. As is trauma from workplace abuse.
With trauma, PTSD, workplace abuse, things are never so clear cut.
The time out at Myrtle Beach did me a world of good emotionally and spiritually. I still was extremely fatigued and had to ration my energy vigilantly.
However, coming back home, I now had a course of action to pursue.
I had received an inheritance a few months earlier and decided to use part of it to pursue therapy on my wrist as it was still extremely painful and limiting. That became my first priority on the road to recovery at that time.
Arriving home, I looked up the firm my doctor had recommended and booked my first appointment.
My therapist was brusque but very, very good. Also very, very competent. She knew what she was doing. She also knew that she had to cause pain in the short-term in order to alleviate it in the long term.
The first step was to work on the muscles - or whatever - in the wrist/arm area manually. This meant bending it, squeezing it, massaging it, causing intense pain.
I had already learned that I have a very low pain tolerance which I had communicated to her early on in our first meeting. It didn't take her long to realize how right on I was with my assessment/perception re: pain tolerance levels.
At our second session I think it was, I said that maybe I should take a heavy duty pain killer before coming. I think I said that after I yelped - again - in pain.
And my therapist said something I have never forgotten. Something which continued the theme of debunking the lie of perception and assumption.
She said:
You need to be able to perceive pain.
Those were her exact words: you need to be able to perceive pain.
I had wanted to keep my past out of this present piece of my road to recovery; however, when you're in a cubicle with someone who is causing you some of the most severe pain you've ever experienced in your life in order to recover from an energy - a physical injury - you start to get personal. And when they said something as dead on to what you're currently dealing with as that, it's hard not to say how it related to my situation.
What a nugget that one simple sentence was to me on my road to recovery.
Thus, began a new facet on the road to debunking that particular lie about perceptions, especially my perceptions, being bad. My physical therapist ironically became a key component in this part of the emotional journey. As she worked on my wrist, I worked on my other issues.
I learned that you need to be able to perceive things. Going back to the original definitions from my trusty, dusty dictionary: you need to be able to feel. You need to be able to see. Both of those are part and parcel of perceiving.
I was perceiving pain because I was feeling it.
We were perceiving we were in the correct place to find the earth cam, because we were seeing the flags, the boardwalk, the exact view we saw from our computer in Canada.
Perceptions are good.
Perceptions are needed in order to safely navigate through life. There's nothing wrong with them. We all have them. We all use them on our individual journeys through life.
What if I had ignored the tremendous amount of pain I felt - or perceived - that day in the bathtub?
What if hubby had ignored the sight of my wrist in an "s" curve that day?
I perceived I'd broken my wrist because of the extreme pain as I'd once heard someone say that a broken bone is one of the most painful experiences a person can ever have. I was experiencing a pain that was not calming down after a few moments. So intense, I could not move the rest of my body. I had to have help getting up, getting dressed, even going into the emergency room that day.
Hubby perceived I'd broken my wrist not because I told him I'd broken it - which I had - but because he saw it at an angle it should not have been.
Perceptions and assumptions.
It appears they're good things to have on the journey.
Never leave home without them.
As this picture was taken looking down on a path we'd walked earlier, the perspective of our walk was different. We were seeing the things we'd experienced from a totally different angle.
So it is with writing this blog especially about this time of debunking the myths, the lies, about perceptions and assumptions.
I'm writing this looking back on the experiences which helped me start to move forward. To start to realize that this was indeed a lie. A lie that was holding me back.
However, pieces I've written, such as that perceptions are common to all of us is something I'm still realizing and internalizing. I'm still as I write working on this.
As I write these posts, internalization, realization and healing continue coming.
Thank you for joining me on my journey.
See you tomorrow when we continue the journey ....
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