Getting Back on the Horse

Me, to my acupuncturist a couple of weeks ago, as I hobbled into his office: “Sooo… I might’ve fallen off a horse on Friday.”

My acupuncturist: “What do you mean, you MIGHT have fallen off a horse??”

Me: “Ok, I definitely fell off a horse. Yes, I am aware that I am almost 50, that I should have been wearing a helmet, that I’m lucky I’m not in a Mexican hospital right now, and that it’s probably super annoying when your patients go do stuff like this and then expect you to fix it. So… can you fix it?”

So here I sit, propped up on my sofa, writing. It seems I strained a big muscle in my back, and it’s taking its sweet time to heal. I’ve seen the acupuncturist, gone to my chiropractor, gotten a massage, taken lots of hot epsom salt baths… I was hoping for a few days, but we’re on two weeks now, and while it’s gradually getting better (I’m for sure mobile, just not as mobile as I want to be), patience is not my strong suit. Plus, I leave for San Miguel on Wednesday, but I guess that’s what Advil is for…

The short version of the falling-off-the-horse story is this: My last day at MEA, I went riding on the beach with three friends, two of whom are expert riders. I’ve ridden, but it’s been… oh, let’s say more than a few years ago. The wind caught my baseball cap and blew it off, it hit the horse and spooked her, and she took off at a full gallop.

In a movie scene, this would have been wild and exciting and exhilarating, but I’m afraid it was not, nor was I at all glamorous, galloping down the beach. I was terrified.

Of course, had I just hung on and let her run for a minute, it all might have been fine, but I freaked out and pulled HARD on the reigns… so she did exactly what I asked: she came to a screeching halt.

And I went over her head into the sand.

I really couldn’t have asked for a better accident, as weird as that sounds – the last day there after two amazing weeks, soft sand, three friends with me, one who calmly explained what had happened (it all happened so fast that I honestly didn’t know), one who is an MD and made sure nothing was terribly wrong before I started trying to move, and the other who helped me back to campus and got me set up with Aleve and ice… it was a good reminder for me on accepting help.

Most of us are not, as a rule, very good at that, are we? Accepting help, that is.

So I’m thinking about two main things today: as my title suggests… getting back on the horse. (Not literally – that may be awhile for this Traveling Girl – but metaphorically… when we come back from our travels, it’s not easy, is it? “Re-entry”, we always call it)… and the second thing is accepting help. I think they’re related. Stick with me here…

I used to always think of travel as an escape, mainly because I had created a life for myself that was so stressful that I needed to regularly escape from it, and I think that’s pretty common. Now that I’ve worked hard to change that, travel has become more about growth and learning and experiencing new things, not just flying someplace to drink wine with different scenery. (Though that’s fun, too 🍷)

So how do we go about creating a life that we don’t feel like we need to escape from? Isn’t this (hat tip to Glennon Doyle’s recent podcast on this topic), rather than manicures and massages and chocolate, the definition of self-care?

My team and I at work went to a 4 day week over a year ago. We held our collective breath, hoped for the best, and decided to do it. Know what happened?

No one else noticed and revenue went UP.

Remember our new mantras, traveling friends. Why not? Who says?

We have also learned to ask each other for help. We do this at work, I’m learning to do this more and more with my friends and loved ones, and it makes ALL the difference. I am, little by little, moving from not only just accepting help when offered, but actually (gasp) asking for it.

So the questions I have for you today are: what can you do to make your “real” life into one you don’t need to escape from? And who can you ask for help to make that happen? We genuinely love to help each other, so consider giving someone the gift of letting them help you.

Thank you, thank you, to my friends who helped me that day ❤️ Let’s do something different on our next vacation together 😉

In love and adventure,

Traveling Girl