HEAD FIRST - Facing Change Head On
I still don’t remember exactly how I fell. I’m sure if I’d captured it on video, I could have witnessed my first - and most likely only ever - somersault. Thinking about it still scares me. Not knowing and not remembering isn’t easy for someone who likes to always be in control!
When change is thrust upon you it can feel scary and uncomfortable. Having something unexpectedly come about that forces change can disrupt your way of life and be very challenging to cope with.
Many things might fall into this type of change criteria - a sudden family bereavement, an accident, job loss and a pandemic - like what we’ve been facing over the past 18 months.
In the last two years I have faced all of these things, and actually, a few others that were maybe not quite as severe, but still brought with them significant change.
One year ago today, I chose to work only my second day in the office since it was very suddenly and unexpectedly closed on 2nd March. I didn’t need to go in there, but the company were allowing staff, with approval, to work from the office. My daughter had not long started back at school after what seemed like months of homeschooling, and I was craving normality - and contact with real people. So I thought I’d go into the office to see some of the ‘real people’ who’d I’d spent more virtual time with than my extended family over the past 6 months!
Being in the office was odd after all those months in my little home office staring at the screen 9 hours a day! Talking about change, the pandemic brought the most enormous change for most of us and on a global scale that was like nothing experienced before. Being forced to work from home without any end in sight, adjusting processes and ways of working to adapt to the new virtual world meant lots of change. Not getting up and jumping straight into the shower, dressing and putting on makeup to then drive to the office was a pretty easy change to make initially. But after a few months, I kind of missed the familiarity of that morning routine. And I definitely missed the people, the camaraderie and general office banter.
So there I was, working in the office, wearing a mask to go the bathroom or kitchen, following the one-way system and having a socially distanced 2-metre chat with the few colleagues who were nearby.
It was a gorgeous late summer day and I’d taken my walking shoes with me to go for a lunchtime power walk, choosing to head off on my own through a little track and into the nearby woods. Listening to a podcast with my favourite, The Body Coach aka Joe Wicks interviewing Jamie Oliver, I was loving the sun on my shoulders and walked my usual fast pace, aware of the tree roots sticking up, carefully picking my way along the track.
And then I catapulted.
Change. Thrust upon me in the most sudden and damning way. It really did happen so fast that I still don’t recall exactly how it happened or which way I flew through the air. I remember the pain and the shock, and I also remember my first thought when I felt the pain. If the experience wasn’t so life-changing this thought would actually be funny - “I won’t be able to exercise for weeks and I’ll get fat”.
That’s the way my mind worked. I panicked because I knew I’d hurt myself badly and wouldn’t be able to do burpees or mountain climbers, or maybe any exercise for weeks, maybe as many as four weeks as it felt pretty bad. Despite the pain and shock, my mind in a matter of seconds had fast-forwarded through the cycle of no exercise, not moving, emotional eating, getting down about how I felt about myself, being fed up, eating more….my mind was programmed to default to this thought immediately above anything else.
My injury was much worse than I’d initially thought, even after I managed to get myself up and realise I’d fallen badly and knew it hurt like hell. I didn’t expect what came at the hospital. I needed surgery to put a metal plate in my wrist and would be in a cast for weeks. Recovery would be months, not weeks.
What I didn’t know, and was never made aware of by any medical staff until many months later, was that my break was so severe I might never regain full use of my wrist. I might experience ongoing pain and have long-term mental side effects. But this isn’t the story for today!
What I did do, and in retrospect should probably not have done so soon, was face the change head-on. I knew I needed to keep my body moving for my sanity (and the body fat - although I since realised I was crazy to have that as my first thought!) so I found new ways to move. It took a while to regain my confidence walking outside on my own but I got there. I found ways to get outside, despite the incoming winter covering up my cast. I ordered a spin bike from Amazon and did lower body and low impact HIIT type workouts.
The biggest mistake I made was cycling on the spin bike with my new cast on, and realising a bit too late that when your heart rate rises, so does your blood pressure! I thought my arm was going to split the cast open it pumped up that much!
I’m not saying change doesn’t impact you and that it can sometimes leave you with scars (mine is a 3 inch one on the inside of my left wrist) because it can. It can alter your mind and life considerably. But we all know that change is inevitable. It’s the only constant in our lives. It’s going to come your way, and the older we get, the more change we seem to have thrust upon us.
The best way to deal with change is to face it head-on and control it. If you can, be proactive, not reactive. Plan what needs to happen to navigate the change, what can you do to make the transition smoother, how can you build a new process and adapt?
Having the mindset to be flexible will help offset the fear of change. Acknowledging the change and knowing you can adapt and work through it will give you the strength to steer the right path through it.
Go easy on yourself during the transition, accept that your mind is dealing with something big and it’s natural to feel off-balance or lose your grounding. Give yourself assurances that you’ve managed change before and can do so again. Accept the uncertainty and uncomfortable way you might be feeling; it won’t last.
I’m still finding new ways to keep my body moving with my ‘new’ wrist and the lasting ‘scars’ of my accident. Even now, one year on from this big change, I’m still working through what happened and the impact it’s had on me. I had no control over falling (or somersaulting), but I did manage to stay in control afterwards by owning my journey through it. I set realistic expectations of how navigating the transition might be, I set goals so I had small steps to work towards and achieve, I let myself feel stressed and overwhelmed and spoke kindly to myself when I did.
The path you take to manage sudden and unexpected change is in your hands, and the one you take will determine how you come through the other side.
If you’re interested in learning more about overcoming life’s challenges and navigating change, here are a couple of podcasts which I found helpful and motivating that you might enjoy:
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