Last week I started having some hip discomfort (I say discomfort over pain because I have some clients who I know are in actual pain in their body that affects their daily tasks. This hasn’t been affecting my daily tasks, but since I’m training for a half marathon and getting ready to hike the Grand Canyon it does concern me.)

My first reaction was to be annoyed. This hip of mine was getting in the way of what Iwanted to be doing. It wasn’t really, I was pushing through it, but I really just wanted it to feel good and not be a nuisance.

Then I decided to change my perspective. Things like this always provide me an opportunity to learn something new about the body. I’m forced to do some very basic exercises if I want it to keep working with me and not against me.

The challenges I set this year are, of course, to get me healthier, but I guess I hope to learn something along the way. And it’s important to realize that when you ask you body to do a lot for you, you need to maintain it.

We all probably could give back to our bodies a little more for the things it does for us all day long. Just sitting (let alone running 12 miles) is a strain on the body, and our bodies deserve some special attention.