Beginner’s Eyes

As a physical therapist, you study movement and anatomy for a very long time. Many hours  are spent gaining an understanding of how things are arranged and how they move. It is said that after roughly 10,000 hours you have become an expert in a given field, but sometimes that expertise becomes a limitation. We look so hard at material we are invested in that we lose sight of some of the most fundamental aspects of it. The ability to maintain beginner’s eyes and to continue to remain curious are foundational in our pursuit of understanding.

 Examining a problem for a long duration can be eye opening and blinding. We start to see details we never noticed before; however, we can also lose sight of the bigger picture. If we happen to bring in a collaborator, they may see something right away that we had either lost sight of or that we never saw. There are times when it pays to step back from a project or a problem and return with a fresh perspective. Not only could we see things we never have, but we might also regain an energy to press on beyond the problem we initially attempted to solve.

In the realm of physical therapy there has been an established understanding of anatomy, physiology and biomechanics. We have identified the primary ways in which we move, and the interventions that can solve most movement related problems, or so it is claimed. Despite the reality that most of our traditional interventions are just as effective as many other forms of movement. As a discipline, we have lost the perspective of a child. One that is always investigating, trying new things and attempting to learn.

The world has numerous perspectives, none of which are exactly the same. There are rich interpretations of anatomy in fields that appear adjacent, like mathematics, but it turns out they are very much overlapping. Math is just one example; there are a number of related fields that could inform better decisions and interventions within physical therapy, we just need to keep looking at them. We must suspend our disbelief and remove the constraints of our current understanding. That understanding has become a shackle in some ways, obscuring our view and limiting our curiosity. The depth with which we can further our knowledge may be limitless, but we must be willing to seek it out.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist