Working Through Injury

One of the hardest things for me as a yoga teacher has been learning when to teach and when to step aside and allow the teaching to occur on its own. It is a constant lesson in letting go. Especially when your students have been with you for a long time, it is difficult when you see them making decisions and doing things that will ultimately hurt them in the long run. I know from experience that many times, if I interfere with the lesson at hand, the lesson will not be learned.

Take for example a student who has injured themselves. Having been there myself, I know how hard it is to step back and continue practicing at the level you are now, not where you were. It takes patience. And perseverance. And you will probably hurt yourself a few more times before you get it. That is the lesson of the injury. The problem steps in when, in frustration, you stop practicing. And the ego begins to tell you that the real problem is not the injury or more importantly, the reason you were injured to begin with... the ego says noooo, it's not you.... it's the YOGA... it's the teacher.... it's anything but the lesson of truly learning to honor yourself and your body. That damn ego. It always wants whatever brings you away from enlightenment... because it's the death of it, you know?

This is hard to watch. Because then the whole snowball effect takes place. People don't always realize all the benefits of yoga. They think it's just about that one hour. You work out, you rest, you go drink a beer. Sort of like how some people handle church... check the box Christians I've heard them called. I went to yoga so now I should be cured. So why does my back hurt? It obviously has nothing to do with the five hundred times the teacher told me to pull my belly in to protect my back and not try to force my head to the floor noooooooooooo.... she must be an inadequate teacher, making me hurt myself like that. Or, I haven't been to yoga for weeks, why am I still in pain, in fact WORSE and why is it that I am getting sick all the time and more importantly, why do I want to kill my family and kick my dog?

Right now, I have quite a few yogis who have injured themselves. Most, not during yoga but they keep aggravating the injury during yoga. It's metal season, our bones are creaking, it's time to cut the practice back a bit... not by not going but by taking it a little easier on ourselves. This is the time that separates the men from the boys so to speak. I have one student from World Gym who is a regular AND I mean, regular... she never misses yoga unless she is out of town or something major has occurred. Poor thing tweaked her knee raking and has really been suffering. She's had to modify all of her poses to accommodate it. She's frustrated but she knows. She's stopped going to the muscle conditioning class before, walking the treadmill instead but she hasn't missed a yoga class. Why? She's experienced enough to know that the lesson is IN the injury... by keeping up her practice, modifying and accepting where her feet are TODAY, tomorrow she will be better. And I can bet you she will heal in record time. I can also tell you she's past 60..... Her doctors are always astounded at her, I am always astounded at her, she is one of my most flexible students...

But she knows. I have some other not so regulars who have been dealing with injuries for months, some even for years. They would be very pissed to read this. The ego would say oh that teacher.... she just thinks she knows it all, lets see her deal with this pain.... Oh. Gulp. That's right, she did. We saw it. Well, she's just lucky-- or worse... she's not really doing the yoga anyway. Such a shame. I feel so bad for them. But I do think they will get it eventually. The problem is when you've had to learn the lesson a few times, the ego fights a bit harder to win. It gets a bit uglier. And it conspires to give you all kinds of excuses why you can't/shouldn't/mustn't practice. Which then perpetuates itself because the longer you stay out of yoga, the harder it is to get things moving again... the harder it is to keep your moods regulated and keep yourself motivated...the harder it is to honor where you are NOW because it will not be any where near where you were. At least for a couple classes.

Sigh. Life teaches hard lessons. I just keep throwing out my seeds. And praying.

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud became more painful than the risk to blossom... Anais Nin