Hey there Reader,
I’ve had shoulder bursitis for almost two and a half months now.
I had a steroid injection a couple of weeks ago. It’s helped, but the pain is still there.
I also have impingement, which means I can’t lift my arm above my head, out to the side, or behind my back. As a result, I can’t wash my hair properly or tie it up easily. For a while, I even needed Ben to help me get undressed.
Sleep has been one of the hardest parts. At the start, I was only getting a couple of hours at a time. Even lying on my other side, the pressure still hurt.
But it’s not just the pain or the restriction that’s made this tough.
It’s the lack of a clear timeframe.
Not knowing when it might improve, or if it will fully settle.
And the effect of that builds.
It’s very easy for things to narrow around it.
🔍 One thing to notice
Pay attention to what’s sitting alongside your life at the moment.
Not something you can quickly fix or change.
Something ongoing, unresolved, without a clear end point.
It might be physical. It might be emotional. It might be a situation you’re in.
And notice how you relate to it.
- Do you put things on hold, waiting for it to pass?
- Do you push through and try to ignore it?
- Or do you start to adjust around it?
🌍 A wider lens
There’s a well-established pattern in psychology around how people respond to pain and uncertainty.
When something hurts or feels difficult, we tend to pull back. We do less, avoid what aggravates it, and wait for things to improve. In the short term, that makes sense.
Over time, though, life can start to narrow around the problem.
In approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), the focus shifts slightly. The question isn’t just how to reduce the problem, but how to stay engaged with what matters while it’s still there.
Not ignoring it. Not pushing through it.
But also not waiting for it to be fully resolved before allowing the rest of your life to move.
That matters, because a lot of things don’t come with a clear timeframe.
They improve slowly. Unevenly. Or they sit there longer than you expect.
And if everything is on hold until that changes, life shrinks more than it needs to.
✔️ Try this
This week, notice what you’re living alongside.
Instead of waiting for it to be gone, ask:
What would it look like to keep something that matters moving anyway?
If you’d like to go a bit deeper with ideas like this, you can join my book club here:
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If you’re thinking about coaching more generally, you can find out more here:
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