I was walking the dog last week and suddenly became aware of an extraordinary experience. In that moment, my knee felt fully supported by my muscles. No bone hitting bone. No pain. Space in the joint.

And it felt SO good.

Some of you may already know this, but to recap, in the summer of 2019, I was handed crutches, told I was too young for knee replacement surgery, and to keep my weight down.

This “prescription” was in response to the MRI results which showed that I have almost no cartilage left in two sections of my right knee and had developed a bone bruise from walking and exercising bone on bone.

Since that time, I have done thousands of glute activation exercises of various types and mobility drills for my hips, ankles, hamstrings, and back.

Guided breath work has taught me to expand, hold and release my breath in different patterns.

I have even practiced releasing tension in certain lifting positions because it turns out that I am very very good at holding tension in perpetuity whether or not tension is actually called for or even helpful in a specific movement. Who knew that holding tension can actually be counterproductive?!

Along this journey, it became apparent that my quads were freakishly strong, but my hips and ankles had become less mobile than they were designed to be in an effort to support a damaged knee.

The isolation of my quads–doing the heavy lifting (literally) on their own–actually put too much pressure on my knee joint. Over time, this imbalance ultimately threatened my ability to continue lifting weights or even to walk without pain.

My ability to hold tension with the best of them limited my ability to expand and use my breath. Which then kept me from channeling my strength and power to the moments when I needed it the most; having already fatigued myself from the effort.

Fast forward 2+ years and, in a blissful moment, I found myself not only walking without pain–which gratefully happens more often than not–but also being so very aware of feeling supported.

My knee is still without cartilage. But the built-in supports were fully functional, present and active. And this difference was palpable.

It got me thinking about how different our experience of life can be when we feel fully supported (or not). And how our coping mechanisms, when we don’t feel fully supported, can actually be counterproductive (at best) or even destructive (at worst).

In order for my knee joint to be fully supported and to stay functional, I have learned to activate certain muscles that weren’t firing properly, rewire movement patterns, strengthen in some areas and release in others, and come to terms with the fact that impact exercises and I no longer get along.

I have also had the support of professional coaches through this entire process, both as subject matter experts, but also as partners who provided instruction, support, motivation and accountability. Because sometimes I use all of my bandwidth on other things, and having a coach there to help me along the way has been invaluable.

So now it is your turn to consider . . .

What would it take for you to feel fully supported in one or more areas of your life?

Would you need to . . .

Develop new muscles (and not just the bodily kind)?

Rewire certain behaviors or patterns of responding to the world?

Create new habits?

Get stronger in some areas of your life while also learning to release your grip on others?

Leverage other skills, resources or people who are fully capable (and perhaps even designed) to help you carry a certain burden?

Let go of something that no longer serves you or is actually causing you harm?

Give yourself permission to ask for help from loved ones, friends, or one or more professionals so that you don’t have to do life (the hard stuff and the good stuff) alone?

Communicate boundaries?

Say goodbye to toxic situations and or people?

Something else?

If you already feel fully supported in one or more areas of your life how might you translate that experience into other areas?

Before you go back to your busy day, I invite you to write down one micro-step you could take toward living a more supported life, and then either take that step or schedule a specific time to take that step within the next week.

Here’s to living (and working) fully supported.

Love,

Booth

p.s. Did you miss it? The latest episode of the Freedom from Empty podcast reminds us that sometimes the quiet wins are some of the most profound moments along a path of healing and transformation. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean, Spotify and Audible.