"Pushing Through" is NOT a path to Health

"Suck it up and push through". Maybe in some context this is useful advice from a traditional view point(?), but in our health it is actually COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE in my experience.

Too often we are "pushing through" our day(s) for the sake of "looking strong" maybe? Or being seen as a "warrior" perhaps? Well, I hate to tell you - It doesn't work! Maybe in the short term, but it won't serve you long term for certain. You may get away with pushing through a day or two here and there, but when "pushing through" becomes your actual approach to your health, you're in trouble.

When do we often feel the need to push through? To name a few...

• When energy is LOW

• When we DIDN'T sleep well the night before

• When we've had a LONG, HARD, STRESSFUL week at work

• When we have too much ON OUR PLATE

• When we have alot of STRESS in our personal lives all at once

• When we just had an INTENSE exercise session or activity a day or so before

• When we don't feel up to it "but it's on the plan"

Every single one of these examples actually requires the OPPOSITE of "pushing through". They require RECOVERY. RECOVERY requires being mindful of HOW YOU'RE FEELING, rather than ignoring it.

RECOVERY is NOT the same as "doing nothing". For example, laying on the couch watching Netflix and/or doom-scrolling social media is NOT recovery.

Recovery is an INTENTIONAL action. For example, if your body is a bit stiff, sore and/or fatigued from an intense activity or session the day or two before, choosing lighter intensity exercises, maybe swapping a run for a walk, doing a shorter duration of your activity of choice all can be forms of RECOVERY for the body. Of course, other means of RECOVERY may look like...

• Focusing on getting a good quality / quantity of sleep

• Focusing on getting good nutrition throughout your day

• Gentle movement such as walking, hiking, yoga, mobility exercises etc

• Getting a massage or other form of body work

• Foam rolling, stretching, breathwork exercises etc

• Cold/Heat therapy using a hot tub, cold tub, sauna etc

"Pushing Through" is NOT going to help

Your body is trying to tell you something when you feel the need to "push through". This in itself is a practice - Learning to LISTEN to your body and work WITH it, rather than "pushing through" (which is working AGAINST it).

The feeling of having to "push through" is telling you there is stress on your system in some and/or several forms. This means we need to bring the stress DOWN, not add more! Adding more stress does two things:

1) It feeds your EGO perhaps

2) It adds MORE stress to your system

If you're looking for one or both of these, then please ignore this post. However, I feel like most of us are only trying to put our head down and push through it because we don't know ANY OTHER WAY.

If you've taken this path over several years or even decades, and still are "searching for answers" in your health ... Maybe consider that it's time to start down a NEW path? If throughout several years or more, you've been "pushing through" and just ignoring everything your body is telling you for sake of "looking strong", "because I should" or due to some ego boost you may/may not get, it's probably a good time to try something NEW. Try listening to your body. Try HELPING your body instead of FORCING it to DO MORE, when it clearly doesn't want to in this moment.

The Myth: "If I don't push through, then you're saying 'don't challenge myself'?" Not at all. We can "challenge ourselves" in a helpful way. We can also "challenge ourselves" in a counter-productive way.

The more we learn to listen to our body and learn to ADJUST to what our body NEEDS / WANTS on any given day, the more we can understand just HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE we're up for today. The difference is, society and the internet tells us "we should be up for a challenge EVERY DAY, ALL THE TIME", whereas NATURE doesn't work like that. We certainly CAN challenge ourselves (within reason) at times ... FOLLOWED BY a period of RECOVERY. NOT "pushing through".