BlogDogIt Note: The following is reblogged from Level Up Health, the recovery journal of my good cyber-friend Lucas. We recently added Level Up Health to the "Friends - Link Exchange." It was my pleasure to honor his request to do so. Lucas has a very special way with words that cannot help but inspire and uplift all who follow his frank, honest and often humorous observations on his very real struggles while recovering from a severe spinal injury. I am hoping he does not mind my "lifting" of this article. Please won't you visit his website I think you will be glad you did.

The article below recounts the moments of a monumental success for Lucas in his process of moving forward (and taking us all with him...)

How to Roar like a Hamster to Receive More

I am happy beyond belief and I thought I would cry at this moment, but I am in no circumstance to. Not knowing if I would be able to walk again, and now being able to run again is a huge success. It is like a blind person gaining x-ray vision along with their sight. I thought that if I’d ever be able to run again, I’d cry, but being on the treadmill with pain trickling down my nerves, and exhaustion exfoliating through my body, tearing up would be a whole new skill set to learn. Plus if I tried and lost focus, I could potentially fall and end up part of the machine. All the other hamsters would laugh at me, and I’d be known as the hamster that came close, but never made it.

[ Read on please...]

One step for me, one giant leap for my legs. Here I am placed on this machine, with the belt looping as I consciously lift my knees up, land my foot down and think of how to counter balance it before the force transfer occurs. It’s overwhelming yet manageable. I’m kind of force to continue through with the action of commitment, when I first stepped on to the treadmill. If I don’t drive my knee up, plan my landing, and know how to counter the force, I will be one with the rotating belt. So, with foot-steady concentration and being forced to perform, I conjured up everything within me from this long road of preparation that coupled me to this mark. I am a hamster hear me roar.

With my body aching and my mind telling me to quit, I stepped on. I had my eyes looking out the window toward the park grounds at where I had trained. I envisioned seeing myself training there, as I did when I was training at the park grounds looking up at the hospital, nothings going to stop me. I run as if a boulder was chasing me, and there was no other way but forward or splat*. In reality I run. I run not from anything, but towards this future I want to build. All it takes is one step at a time… literally, and I’m getting closer.

Like a carrot to my nose we used lots of tricks to teach the body to run. The training drilled me mentally and physically. I was swinging my arms to a pattern, bouncing on a ball for compression assimilation, stepping on a trampoline for force transfer, chopping with a resistance band for external loading, stepping on different surfaces for reaction stabilisation, and a whole hat full of tricks. To achieve the big stuff we must first work on all the small details. Only when all the nic-nacks are correctly executed, did we progress with momentum and massive strides of confidence through results.

A similarity James Bond and an astronaut have, is tons of fun gadgets. A similarity I have with an astronaut that James Bond didn’t have, was an anti-gravity machine. Haha* Mr. Bond. 

Before learning to run I had to first accept the appearance of wearing a tu-tu like attire. The tu-tu was made from neoprene and rubber to form an airtight steal with the anti-gravity machine. The anti-gravity was a massive vacuum entwined above a treadmill. When the vacuum was filled with air, it created negative space, hence lifting the tu-tu model. I had lost a lot of weight since the accident and my tu-tu was loose around the back, air coincidentally leaked from the back. Not having enough junk in my trunk, we tried to stuff the behind with towels, only to shine more light on my lack of derriere.

Although it was a lost of behind, I took it as a sign to the next level. It was treadmill time. I admit it, I was scared. Like a gazelle being born and running for the first time I looked pretty ridiculous, pretty ridiculous, but pretty happy. I felt free, liberated, happy, heavy, and in pain as my back and joints had to withstand pounding force. Every stride I took felt as if the two spiked walls were clapping in on me. It hurt, but I was ecstatic to lift one foot after another.

After my serious injury, my primary goal was to be independent. Today, I now strut with swag and run with humility. For normal patients, if they can walk, the treatment stops there, for me I had a thirst for more, and so received more.

Life might have it, where at some point of time we are challenge and feel like we’re broken down. The matter consumes our mind, spirit, body and even when we dream. There is no sleep, and no peace in the day without its occurrence. This is the time of dedication and time to get our win state on.

Fight to win each mini battle, and that will win the game. Concentrate on what’s in hand and you will achieve what is in front. The victory will give more you than you anticipated. Just focus on the day and beating the moment, try to be the best you can, for what you do have control in. Win all the little battles and I can guarantee you, you will eventually feel better in all ways. Win the little battles and you will win the war. The more effort you put in, the easier it becomes. The more you enjoy something, the less effort you have to put in.

How are you preparing to receive more?