IS THE ELEPHANT OR THE RIDER IN CHARGE?

All the research for pain sufferers of arthritis, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia reveals that gentle exercise is crucial to control the pain.  Why is it then that most of us resist this fact or at least resist putting it into action?

Jonathan Haidt in his book The Happiness Hypothesis claims that

“our emotional side is an elephant and our rational side is its rider.  Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and seems to be the leader.  But the Rider’s control is precarious because the Rider is so small relative to the Elephant”.

Chip and Dan Heath develop these images in their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. They write, “ Changes often fail because the Rider simply can’t keep the Elephant on the road long enough to reach the destination.”

They make some recommendations how to maximize the strengths of the Rider: “First, follow the bright spots.”

Therefore, rather than worrying about all the past times I have had relapses when I have exercised, I look for “bright spots.”  For example, when I show wisdom, I find that walking doesn’t increase the pain and in fact can sometimes alleviate some of the pain!  When I don’t try to “get in shape” in five days or less but in fact be gentle with my body, I experience less stiffness and less pain.

Secondly, “give direction to the Rider.”

“Send him a destination postcard.” That advice is difficult to implement unless I accept that the destination is not linear. Then I can still state my goal of being able to  walk 3 miles if I acknowledge that there may be setbacks and relapses along the way.

In the meantime, the authors also state that as I give direction to the Rider, I must script his critical moves.  I can accomplish that by stating that every day, I exercise at least five minutes – and it doesn’t matter how gentle the movement is.

Next, how do I maximize the strengths of the Elephant?

The authors give case studies to prove that

“people find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one.”

This step baffles me as I feel like I am in the minuses regarding fitness!  And yet, this step is important as  the authors write, “That sense of progress is critical, because the Elephant in us is easily demoralized.” Perhaps the clue is in the following sentence : “You need to lower the bar.” I could remind myself that I presently do simple movements walking around the house especially going up and down stairs in spite of the pain and fatigue.  Occasionally I have actually put on my running shoes and performed some simple exercises in my basement!

The authors write “if people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you’ve got to break down the task.  Shrink the change.  Make the change small enough that they can’t help but score a victory.”

To create my task of exercise less daunting, I have already decided that any form of movement is acceptable, and I only need to exercise five minutes and only add minutes gradually to prevent relapses.  These authors also add, “Another way to shrink change is to think of small wins – milestones that are within reach.” I experienced a milestone just last week when I exercised at least 5 minutes every day for six days. I not only felt encouraged by my discipline but it seemed easy enough to do again this week.  And interestingly I found myself pleased by my discipline rather than being overwhelmed by how out of shape I am!

I concur with the authors who write,

“When you engineer early successes, what you’re really doing is engineering hope.”

My small milestone of success causes me to feel very hopeful that if I maintain a tortoise mentality –  ”inch by inch, it’s a cinch”, I will experiences more successes. My elephant only occasionally reminds me how long it could take me to reach my 3- mile goal at the pace I am going!!

Next week, I will share what other strategies I find helpful to develop an exercise program while chronically ill as I continue reading the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.   I hope that I will learn how to teach my Elephant and Rider to work together as a team so that neither one sabotages my goal!

 

Picture by Keith Levit