The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back

The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back!

It’s a cold Monday morning, you get up and begin your morning routine. You make your way to the kitchen, feeling the cold chill in the air after the warmth of your bed. You start making your coffee like you have 1000 times before, but this time you drop your spoon. Half asleep, you bend to pick it up and CRACK! There goes your back.

Many may view this as an isolated incident, a random occurrence, something unexpected. The questions will start, “What did I do this weekend”, “Maybe I slept funny”, “I bent over wrong” etc.

The truth of the matter is quite possibly all and none of the above. As the old saying goes, “The Straw that Broke the Camel’s back” describes what appears to be a minor action that causes an unpredictably large and sudden action, because of the accumulative effect of small actions.

Every action for the most part is an unconscious, well-rehearsed process, things we have literally done millions of times before. We seldom stop and dot point out every part of that action…. Look at the cup, extend my arm to enable me to open my hand, grasp my fingers around the cup and apply adequate pressure to hold it. Now lift the cup…. etc.

The day after day accumulation of actions, repeated processes, poor posture, and bad habits will eventually take its toll. CRACK! There goes my back. It was not Picking up that spoon that caused the back pain, it was the result.

What Can We Do About it?

Just as each small poor action accumulates over time to result in back pain, so can small positive actions result in no back pain for example. Trying to identify poor habits, poor posture and repeated bad habits is a positive start. Making changes to these things will not see instant change, in fact we may not even notice much at all, that is until next time we bend to pick up that spoon. Probably wont even notice it then.

So, the next time you are at home sitting on the couch watching tv, don’t tuck your leg under yourself and lean on the arm rest, or when you’re driving, don’t rest your arm on the window, and maybe swap the shoulder you carry your bag on. Yes, its these small, seemingly very insignificant daily actions that may one day go CRUNCH!