Walk It Off
“Walk it off”---has that ever helped anyone? Coaches say this a lot to injured players. These words certainly aren't magic. They don't cure the broken leg, but coaches automatically go to, “Walk it off,” when a player is injured. Usually these words just provide enough incentive for the injured player to limp to the locker room.
I doubt that the expression has any real value to coaches and athletes, but in life…well, yeah.
Life throws us a lot of curves, and if we don't duck, well, we suffer.
The truth is that we have little or no choice: we must “walk it off” or continue to suffer from our wounds.
“Get over it,” is a pretty close synonym of “walk it off.”
Victims of PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, seem to have real difficulty “walking it off.” They get better but I'm not sure they ever “get over it.” I've been in the service, but I've never been in war; I can only imagine the horrors, but those who have often truly suffer.
When we lose a loved one, it is a great loss: it works on us. We may get better, but we can't just walk it off.
When a pet, also a loved one, is injured or dies, we suffer with them no matter how earnest our walking it off might be.
Most of the problems life presents us can be “walked off.” What “Walking it off” really means is giving it time to heal. You will probably retain your scars, but the open wound will surely heal.
Early on when I took a job teaching, I learned to be patient with problems presented to me. I learned to give problems time to resolve themselves. Usually the problem disappeared without my intervention.
The little problems in life, a broke down vehicle, an overdrawn check, a bad day at work, are solvable. They can be remedied with effort, but some things in life take a lot of walking off. Be patient.
enough