Injuries as Blessings

What if your injury was a blessing? What if you no longer saw it as an inconvenience? Something to be tolerated until you could “return” to your “normal” life and “normal” practice. If you have been practicing long enough, you probably have encountered an injury and you have probably also encountered the frustration and irritation that often accompanies an injury. What if injuries were blessings? What if they were gifts from the universe to help you focus on a specific area? Stop focusing on a specific area? Or to learn something new about your body or mind? In hindsight, can you glean any gems from past injuries? I have spoken at length on this blog about my hamstring injury that challenged me for almost thirteen years! I can list a dozen benefits from that issue. I also had a neck injury (I straightened the curve in my neck doing inversions incorrectly) that took three years to fix. One of my best gems from that period of time was really taking a fascination to inversions and how to teach them well.

Your yoga practice is about where you are right now, balancing you whether that balance is physical, mental, emotional. When you have an injury your practice is around supporting the issue, helping it heal or release or restructure, whatever is appropriate. When you no longer see an injury as an irritation, a whole new world opens up!