The Red Chair
Over the past year, I had the distinct pleasure of receiving physical therapy from Advanced Physical Therapy of Alaska in Anchorage. Anyone that has had to go through extended physical therapy will probably agree that it isn’t a pleasant experience at best.
However in my case, it was more than merely pleasant. I learned so much more about myself, my body and my surroundings than I thought possible. Actually I think it should be called “life therapy”, because they changed the way I looked at my life and taught me how to appreciate what I was capable of and not dwell on those things I’m not. It all happened in the context of rehabilitating my body, so the transformation in my mind was simply part of healing my body.
In the last week of appointments, we were working hard on stairs and at the top of the stairs there was this red chair. It had been sitting in the same corner, right next to the top of the stairs for the whole year. I looked at it from time to time over the year wondering why it was there. On this day, I needed to sit down because my legs were in need of a rest, so I sat down on the red chair. After a minute or so, my therapist asked me if I had ever read the message in the frame above my head to the right. I said no, and after another minute or so I stood up and read this:
When we are uncomfortable or troubled about a person or a situation in our lives, we often create ways to avoid them in order to carry on with our lives, safely. We walk around a swift current in the stream, fearful of getting wet. Or, we stop looking or speaking to a person because of the the anger or resentment we feel for them. How often do we realize that stepping into the stream we experience water differently and yet survive? Letting go of the anger long enough to allow the unspoken words of truth to come through may cause barriers to drop away and relationships to grow stronger.
Through life, other situations or relationships may appear. By sitting in them and experiencing them you grow stronger with the lessons they provide. Not moving and avoiding what you know in your heart, keeps you from growing: keeps you from life.
The red chair is a symbol and an opportunity for you to sit in the situation that troubles you, to feel the discomfort of it and to then realize that you will survive it, but only if you experience it first hand. When we deal with the things that bother us, it is only then that we can move to the other side of it. The realization is that the situation is not as bad as we imagined.
Sit in the red chair and experience what keeps you from the riches you deserve.
~Peter Burke 2002
Looking back over the past year, I realized that I had been sitting in The Red Chair on nearly every visit to Advanced Physical Therapy and didn’t know it at the time.
They aren’t miracle workers. I worked hard, followed their directions, and did the home exercises (well mostly). I have to give credit to Dr. Denton and to ForMor Products. Also, I have a very supportive family and friends to give me encouragement or just listen.
The bottom line is that all of those other factors by themselves would not have been enough without the treatment received from the very fine people of Advanced Physical Therapy. They were a difference maker
The purpose of writing this is first to say thank you to those that were all crucial to the improved health of my body and mind. Thank you all for everything.
The second purpose is to spread the idea of “The Red Chair”. Face up to those things that are hard, difficult, unpleasant and realize that “…the situation is not as bad as we imagined.”
Finally, the take away is this: We all can be difference makers. If we all started each day with the goal of making a positive difference in one person’s day/life what kind of world could we create for all of us? It doesn’t have to be big. Give someone a smile or give them a reason to smile. Or simply pass this along to others and encourage them to be a difference maker too.
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