The rain is incessant. It’s almost like the UK now has a South Asian climate – complete with monsoons.

There is something immensely off-putting watching coverage of the fires in Australia when it seems to be raining 90% of the time.

It reminds me of an old adage attributed to a Scottish man – if you can see the mountains it means it’s going to rain and, if you can’t, it’s raining already.

I certainly do not need seaweed to tell me whether it’s going to rain – my damned wrists and ankles tell me perfectly well…

Actually I’m making my SEO a bit complicated as the “free” version doesn’t treat rain/rains/raining as the same word/phrase so I’ll need to watch out on my keyword strategy.

Mind you

Why anyone Googling about rain would suddenly think “I know – I’ll get a business coach” is beyond me but what the heck!

At the risk of worrying readers I’m going to have a slightly serious section next. If that upsets you just move on to the next less-than-serious heading and continue from there…

Have I previously mentioned chronic pain?

Ah yes. Rather longer ago than I was expecting, so

to recap.

Around 20+ years ago I had a disagreement with a motorway crash barrier.

Needless to say, it won and I didn’t.

Being a bloke (yep, just checked) I just assumed the aches and pains would go away.

After a year I finally got to thinking that maybe they wouldn’t. By which time there was scarring in deep muscle tissues and it was basically never going to get properly better again.

No one to blame but myself.

For most of those 20+ years I’ve worked with computers and the bad posture one can generate in that time is impressive!

Especially as – while not being hyper-mobile – I can sit in various postures that look strangely uncomfortable (but I might not think they are).

So – with increasing age – comes increasing wear and tear and I probably have as many RSIs as some championship dancers.

But not necessarily the same poise or elegance.

Better than the average chap I have to say but being realistic…

Soooooooooooo.

For many years I’d worked out my own mindfulness-ish technique and could overlook the pain much of the time.

The pain didn’t go away (I don’t think) but it wasn’t in the centre of my consciousness.

But age creeps (or positively gallops) on and what used to work then doesn’t always seem to be as successful now.

So you get achier and achier and there’s only so many pills you can take in an average day without rattling.

And as a business adviser/mentor/coach you’re not expected to admit to feeling crap.

I’m fond of saying I take about enough painkillers to stop a rhino which, while not being completely correct, is probably not so far out as you might think.

But two of those painkillers are addictive and while I’ve not experienced any habituation (I’m taking the same doses as several years ago) I’d like to have the option to go cold turkey every once in a while. But not enforced.

There was a nationwide shortage of one of the pills a year or so ago so another was substituted but I found myself getting seriously tetchy and jumpy until the original was restored.

Upshot was I got myself referred to the local persistent pain team.

Went to the briefing session absolutely ages ago to assess suitability and got accepted.

So just before Xmas I got a call saying a place was available on the next series of sessions.

But I had to commit to turning up for the next 10 weeks.

Which is where the epiphany happened.

I could decline as it would take out three mornings in tax return season (plus a load more in Feb and March).

Or I could put MY health ahead of my client’s wants.

Seems stupid to admit when you write it down that you had to think about it.

Without my health I won’t be able to fulfill my client’s wants – not for any serious length of time anyway.

But I still had to work through those arguments.

Actually, it’s the same “bloke thing” mentioned above that got me here in the first place!

Burying your head in the sand is all very well but it ain’t necessarily gonna give you the right outcome.

Why that was written with a mock Country Music accent I’ve no idea.

So this morning was the first session.

And one thing we could all take away is that persistent pain is real pain.

Glib I know, but things you OUGHT to bear in mind are:

• It doesn’t mean you have (real) damage or anything another person can see
• It is the outcome of your body’s response to a perceived danger or threat – which may no longer be there
• Your nervous system goes into overdrive and doesn’t switch off when the danger or threat has passed
• Your pain reflects the mood around you, your’s, your family’s and your work/outside world
• It results from real physiological processes, it’s NOT “all in your head” and you CAN’T “just snap out of it”

And everyone reacts to pain and its precursors in their own way – what YOU perceive and what someone else perceives will not (usually) be the same.

Which sort of makes it like mental “illnesses” in a way.

And unsurprisingly (as far as I am concerned) the presence of one will often lead to the presence of the other.

A mentally “crappy” (technical term there) day will make your aches and pains ten times worse than a bright and sunny one with everyone being nice to you.

So there we have it.

Apologies – never got back to the silly me this time.

Let’s look forward to him returning next week!

I put it down to the overactive need to share I seem to be acquiring.

Well this week’s verbal diarrhoea is now approaching 1,000 words which is a bit alarming.

So just a quick thank you to Kevin for saying he actually LIKED the last slightly serious post and let’s see what he has to say about this one…

Maybe the rain has stopped??? Image by analogicus from Pixabay