The Backwards Law

The fact that there is always room for improvement through stroke recovery can be daunting. Engrained in your memory, your muscles, your every step, is the knowledge of how you functioned before the stroke. This is something that would often be helpful to forget, but you just happen to remember it the best.

One thing that came across my path recently was “the backwards law”, coined by Alan Watts. This is “the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place."

This could not be more relevant for stroke survivors through recovery.

Stroke recovery isn’t a job where you get the weekends off or can book a vacation when you need time away from the strain. Every hour of every day is time that can potentially be spent pursuing improvement and thus reinforcing the fact that there is lack. Lack of movement, abilities, independence, etc.

I was reminded of a visit to my naturopath shortly after my stroke. As always, I was keen to improve. She commented that my motivation for improvement could be ironically unfavourable - I could be too focused on what improvements still needed to be made and not fully recognizing what had all been accomplished. I was feeling discouraged because every day I woke up and my mind went to what I had yet to accomplish, and that mindset stayed there endlessly though the days.

I understand the takeaway of Alan Watts’ "the backwards law" to be finding balance between gratitude or contentment and ambition.

One way to bring this into stroke recovery mindset is by holding yourself accountable. Every time you catch yourself thinking of what isn't good enough, is yet to be accomplished, or needs to change in order to feel better, balance that thought with a moment of gratitude. Acknowledge where you are today and have a moment of appreciation for everything that has been done to get there.