A year ago, I was on top of the world, giving a speech at the Kansas City Bitcoin Club with my son Reid. We just made a small fortune in Bitcoin.
 
As good as things appear to be, there’s often a dark side. I suffered considerable pain after the speech and subsequent articles that I wrote about Bitcoin and the people supporting it.
 
The pain was in my wrists, my fingers, my shoulders. For 20 years I had pounded the keys writing stories for newspapers in Nebraska and Kansas. I kept a diary for 35 years. All of this writing and typing was killing my joints.
 
I really believed in the notion of self-reliance, heal thyself, figure out how best to take care of oneself and do it. This form of self-reliance served me well for many years but now I needed help.
 
My doctor x-rayed my bones and saw a little bit of arthritis in my left hip and shoulder but otherwise no need for a new hip, no need for surgery in the wrists or shoulders. Physical therapy will help you, he said. Don’t delay.
 
So I called up the physical therapy place he recommended and met Meghan who took me through the elementary levels of stretching to higher levels of strength conditioning over six weeks.
 
“This is going to be your routine for the rest of your life,” she said.
 
Improvement came slow at first but I kept doing the exercises at least three times a week. The exercises might cause pain, she said, it was a necessary to make the muscles stronger. I hit it pretty hard eventually and things did start getting better. I’d sold all my Bitcoin and gave up all writing assignments, including my diary. I needed to heal. This was rather difficult to accept emotionally because I really poured my soul into writing and now my shoulders and joints couldn’t handle it.
 
I decided to make some radical changes. To go for a morning walk and do my exercises early in the morning and again at midday.
 
I got rid of all red meats. I eat more plants and vegetables. I cut back on dairy and added more fruits and nuts. I gave up on my daily Coca-Cola. I gave up sweets and replaced them with a little dark chocolate. I eat high-fiber cereals.
 
If I veer off my plan, my body hurts. So I have to be ruthless in my intention. Anything that is against me I avoid like the plague.
 
Ruthless means saying no. When I gave up a volunteer secretary job at a local nonprofit for children, my replacement wanted me to cover for her. I was still in tremendous pain and going through therapy. No, I can’t. You’ll have to find somebody else.
 

I loved riding my bicycle, but this also did damage to my shoulders, so I had to cut back on that love affair. Now I’m walking and hiking. Or driving.
 
Finally I learned to write in a new way. By speaking into my phone, in an email to myself, I dictate the entire story. I email the story to myself. Then I copy and paste it into the program where I’m submitting an article.
 
I recognize the impermanence of life. My body is aging. Yet my mind is filled with ideas. I’ve immersed myself into the writings of great philosophers, like Ralph Waldo Emerson. Such reading lifts my spirit. And helps me think and meditate. I discovered the language of the mystic is silence.
 
I’ve become more empathetic and aware of people in pain. At a bus stop I can see people who are in pain by the way they favor one leg. I recently listened to a friend complain about pain in her leg and back. I see another friend struggle with pain yet carry on.

 
My body will never be what it was 20 years ago, but if I follow my routines, I can manage the pain and still keep working.