Elbow Update

A few days ago, I was feeling frustrated with the lack of progress on relieving my elbow pain. I had all but decided that I would ditch the osteopath if my elbow/shoulder didn't rapidly improve after this week's appointment. But, as today came closer my frustration ebbed, thanks mainly to my yoga practise. I managed to keep myself from rushing towards the doomsday scenario of neer being able to do upper-body exercises again and by the time today rolled up, I didn't have to worry about sounding excessively bitter at today's appointment. The osteopath said my range of motion had improved, and I should be patient. He asked me to continue the exercises and also taught me some new ones. I left the appointment feeling much more optimistic. 

There was one thing that perturbed. I noticed that I was sharing much more about my life than I ordinarily would. For instance, I told him that my PhD was gong much better now than a month ago, and my supervisor is hard to get hold of. Later, I was flabbergasted by myself. Why had I shared these details with a chatty stranger? Is it because I felt pushed to make small talk because of his chatty nature, and because I was bad at making small talk, I shifted to big talk? I am a private person, and sharing more than necessary makes me feel exposed. Another tendency is to turn small talk into an intellectual conversation. My osteopath remarked how economists never agreed with each other, and I said something about economists' prestige being undeserved after the Great Financial Crisis. 

I am never going to be great at small talk, but I can at least get better at not feeling like an idiot after a small-talk encounter by a) turning it into an inttelectual conversation when the opposite person hasn't shown they will be receptive to it b) divulging details about my life c) trying too hard to banter and ending up saying something stupid.