It’s very common for people to start practicing yoga as a way to recover from an injury. Yoga is a fantastic and effective tool to support and enhance physical and mental healing.
If unchecked, however, your poor habits may lead you towards a new injury or re-injury. To avoid such unwanted outcomes, you must become acutely aware of your physical ‘trouble-spots’ as well as your mental yoga habits. Attention must be paid to proper alignment, breathing and warm-up techniques — all of which will help guarantee you a safe and injury-free yoga practice, for life.
Know Your Aches and Pains
The most crucial gift you can bestow upon your yoga practice, and your body, is awareness and acceptance. Take a moment at home to reflect on your unique physical needs and experiences. What injuries have you sustained over the course of your life? Were there any internal causes or contributing factors to these injuries. Did your brain push your body too far?
Also make note of any pain or discomfort you may experience from repetitive daily activities like driving, typing, carrying a baby or even how you sleep. A great way to create and keep track of this list is to keep a ‘body log’. Take note of all of your physical issues and their associated thoughts and feelings.
There is a deep interrelation between your body and your mind, and that relationship can play a role in injuries. Here’s an example:
Yoga is 99.9% Mental
A student of mine had a rotator-cuff injury that was not healing. I asked him to do a careful scan of his body and notice what emotions and thoughts came up when he was focusing on his injured shoulder.
He realized that he was furious with his injury. He had made enemies with his body. This mental attack was exacerbating his pain, as he would push through his yoga practice in agonizing pain, trying to force it to strengthen and heal.
I asked him to befriend his injury. By working on an emotional plane for 5 minutes in his opening pose, his pain was significantly decreased.
Mind Body Connections
Yoga is the practice of uniting the mind and the body, which in many ways runs contrary to our traditional approach to health and fitness in the bio-medical system. This is quickly changing, as it becomes increasingly clear how our thoughts and feelings influence how we use, or abuse, our bodies.
One’s mental orientation toward an injury can be great source of healing or harm, depending on how we approach it. If you let your mind bully your body, you will likely injure yourself my overdoing it, thereby inhibiting your rehabilitation.
Surrender your Ego
Once you begin exploring the details of the history of your body, and your emotional reactions to each specific spot, challenge yourself to embrace the opposite emotion. For example, if you feel frustrated, cultivate patience; if you feel angry, try to feel forgiveness; and, if you feel competitive or aggressive, try to find a place of contentment.
It is so common to fight with our bodies, especially the aspects that present the toughest challenge; and this is the most likely cause of injury or reinjury. Take the opposite tack by challenging your initial reaction to pain, tension or impairment. A positive sentiment can open up a world of health and well-being.