We Can Teach This Old Dog New Tricks

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Over the past several months, I’ve had some tight lower back pain which has limited my mobility. After consulting my doctor and stretching, I just couldn’t shake it, so I decided to try something new for me. I’ve started to get a massage every two weeks. My friend Rick is a massage therapist. Before this, I’ve gotten maybe one or two massages in my whole life. After six weeks, I’ve noticed improvements in my back pain and tightness.

Last week, as I began a massage lying face-down, Rick rubbed from behind my right knee down the back of my right calf. About halfway, he hit a spot that made me flinch. My knee-jerk reaction (no pun intended) was to tighten up, clench my fists, hold my breath and grit my teeth.

Lying on the massage table, anticipating my next flinch, I had a thought – why not try to breathe through it rather than tense up? The next time Rick rubbed down the back of my calf, I didn’t hold my breath, I didn’t make a fist and I didn’t clench my teeth. I did the opposite – opened my hands and relaxed my jaw and breathed through the tight spot. I breathed in deeply, did not hold the breath and just pushed it right out through my lips. I still tightened up just a bit as Rick’s hands passed over that spot, but I didn’t cling to my tightening.

As I lay on the massage table, thinking about breathing through things, I realized a parallel between my massage and aging in my last third. In my life, there will always be spots that make me want to clench and grip tight and cling. There is and will be loss and grief as well as joy. Rather than knee-jerk out of habit, I can open my hands and live through the tight spots, the difficulties, and try to experience them in a different way.

Conscious aging affords us the opportunity to live with intention, not just as knee-jerk reaction. We have the choice of how to respond.

Then, as I lay on the table, another parallel between my massage and my aging popped into my head. What a productive hour! It’s not just how we breathe through our experiences, it’s also what experiences we are open to. Life can get better as we age, even with inevitable losses and hardships. If we expect our lives to go downhill as we age, we will be beholden to routine and boredom. Let’s age with the courage necessary to consider new things all the way through to the end. Our aging selves can learn new attitudes, and we can teach this old dog new tricks.