“I do everything the doctors told me would be impossible!”
See the movie with the interview here (in Swedish).
One year ago, the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, wrote a series of articles about pain. I had the honor to be interviewed and got a double-sided article about how I have managed to raise myself up and move forward after four different back injuries.
Today I am celebrating 30 years since my first back injury!!! 🎉💃🥂
How can I celebrate an injury that has given me 30 years with constant pain?!
It’s all about mindset, attitude, and the insight that it is my own choice how I handle it. Why wouldn’t I celebrate everything that injury has given me?
All these people I have met and will meet in the future. All the knowledge about the body and the brain made me niche my coaching to help other people manage their pain and share the tools, science, and knowledge I have gathered throughout the years and still keep on gathering through collaboration and curiosity to always learn more.
The things that very few within the healthcare system have shared with me through all these years. The journey with my own personal development started as a 16-year-old girl, where my life went from an elite athlete to a young girl with constant pain within a few seconds. When I early in life got the opportunity to reflect on what is important and valuable for real life.
I would never want to have that parachute jump 30 years ago undone.
Parachuting is still by far the most magnificent experience and the greatest feeling of freedom I have ever felt! 🪂
Before you start to argue about how dangerous it is to go skydiving, it is more dangerous to sit in a car than to skydive! I have also been in a car accident, and I had a whiplash injury since that accident, but I still continue to go by car, and no one ever questions that…
I have been through more tough injuries and experiences during my years so far than many people get to go through during a lifetime.
Am I bitter? Not at all!
I’m thankful! 🙏
Thankful to have the ability to see the small moments of happiness, thankful that I today can share my knowledge with others, thankful that I have chosen life!
I have three choices:
1. I can choose to finish my life and never ever feel the pain anymore. But I would also miss out on everything fantastic that life also offers me. Believe me, the thoughts have been there several times. But my curiosity about life has always been bigger!
2. I can choose to stay on the sofa, being bitter, angry, and sad. It would only increase my pain to be still and wouldn’t contribute to anything constructive or positive.
3. I can choose to focus on what I can do and enjoy life!
I have always chosen number 3!
Of course, I have bad days when I lay on the sofa, crying, I am a human being, not a robot! But I have always understood that it is my own choice to stay there or not, and I have always raised myself up, brushed off the sadness, and moved forward.
It has been a lot of tough years, financially, to be an entrepreneur, yet, I can’t even imagine going back as an employee. For me, the security to manage my own time, sleep, rest, training, and recovery is so much more worth than a paycheck every month.
I have never felt so good in my back as I am at the moment because I have the possibility to adapt my schedule to keep the pain at an even and good level. That is so much worth it for me. But of course, it is really tough to hardly have money to pay the bills or buy food, but I am also aware that I will earn more money as an entrepreneur than as an employee; I have my goals set and working my way up there.
Why do I write about these injuries and the pain?
The work to continue my ebook to Swedish has started, “The invisible pain – my faithful companion” will come out in Swedish this fall with the title “Den osynliga smärtan – min trogna följeslagare”.
Pre-order it here. 🇸🇪
Do you want to read it in English instead? Purchase your copy right here, right now! 🇬🇧
This is a part of me, and I don’t talk about it to get anyone to feel sorry for me because it is not! I talk about it because 1 in 4 people lives with pain! It can be a cruciate ligament injury, arthritis, headache, long-term covid, endometriosis, back injury, herniated disc, fibromyalgia, CRPS, etc. But a lot of people get none or very little help to manage the pain.
Doctors focusing on medication and medical treatment, physiotherapists, naprapats, and similar focusing on physical treatments in the musculoskeletal system and training, and these treatments are of course vital. But very few of the people who daily meet patients with pain ever talk about one of the most important parts of pain management: the brain! The pain starts and stops in the brain, not in the foot, the knee, the back, the uterus, or wherever you feel the pain. That is where I come in; with my knowledge and experience, I complement doctors, physiotherapists, naprapats, etc.
Knowledge reduces fear, reduced fear increases the motivation to movement, increased movement decreases the pain!
This is my passion, my why, and my motivation to keep on working in my own company – to keep on helping other people to take back control over their pain again to start living a valuable and happy life again. ❤️
Read the article in Svenska Dagbladet here (in Swedish).
Have a lovely day and celebrate with me! 🥂🎉💃
With love, Cattis 💕
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