Do You Push Yourself to "Push Past Paralysis "?

As I said in one of my earlier blogs, there are many forms of paralysis; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. My previous blog can be found here:

http://marissameleske.blogspot.com/2016/09/push-past-paralysis-physically-mentally.html

What I didn't address in that blog was what goes into pushing past paralysis. It's pretty simple and self explanatory actually; you push yourself. I physically push myself in my wheelchair every single day, but I also have other ways in which I push past my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual paralysis every single day.

Let's start with the most obvious form of paralysis, the physical kind. I push past paralysis by moving around. The wheelchair is not attached to my ass! I've had people ask me if I shower and sleep in it?! Hell no! First of all, there's fur on the seat and back which would be gross if it got too wet. Second of all, on a serious note, sitting for too long can kill you. No, really, a commercial said so. After my initial "oh shit, I'm screwed" reaction, I thought about the ways around sitting for someone who does not walk. I think the commercial may have been slightly wrong and as long as you don't sit in one position for too long, you're good. So I switch it up. I'll sit in my wheelchair for meals or when I'm going somewhere, but I'll transfer to a chair or the floor and, even then, I'll switch positions. If I'm sitting on the floor, I'll go into some yoga poses to keep the blood flowing.

Pushing past emotional paralysis can be quite tricky. You really have to know yourself and your emotional limits. What may be emotional paralysis for a more emotional person may not be emotional paralysis for a less emotional person by nature. But we all have emotions and must be careful that we aren't blocking them and causing the emotional paralysis because we are ashamed to even have or show our emotions. What we are feeling is never wrong and keeping them in keeps them there. If we allow ourselves to feel, we will move forward faster. If we hold onto the emotions, they will be in the back of our minds and hearts for as long as we are gripping onto them.

Pushing past spiritual paralysis is often the most personal form of paralysis. Sure, we all think and feel in different ways mentally and emotionally, but even if we worship the same God, it is different for every individual and our own life path. Some people incorporate their spirituality in their every day lives consciously with going to church, having private prayer or through meditation, for example, while others carry their spiritual beliefs but don't necessarily actively do anything daily.  This can be a good thing to have so many ways of pushing past spiritual paralysis, however, it must come from within you and what you're comfortable with and resonate with. Listening to others will cause more spiritual paralysis in the end, if their form of pushing past it doesn't fit you.

Most importantly is pushing past mental paralysis. We are our own worst enemies because our thoughts can cause us to remain in fear and in our own heads, creating more fear based on absolutely nothing. So what can we do to stop it? For me, I talk to myself! No, seriously, I give myself mental pep talks, even saying how ridiculous the thoughts I was having are and building myself back up. Meditation is also a great way to quiet your mind and push past mental paralysis. We often think ourselves into a corner and up against a wall and meditation helps to stop that.

If there's one thing I've learned from my physical paralysis, it's that there are ways around everything and there are no excuses for anything. Knowing that has given me the ability to use that same mentality for the other areas of paralysis as well.