I am 59 years old and have had a daily Ashtanga yoga practice for more than 18 years.
During this time, I have experienced all sorts of aches and pains and have tried to work through them, using those physical sensations as a means to examine my experience and response to it.
I’ve also had to modify my practice due to various injuries, including sprained wrists, bruised ribs, skinned knees, and jammed fingers. My “higher self” seeks to accept each injury as a “gift” that provides me the opportunity to become more aware of my body; of course, I struggle to balance this aspiration with the frustration that follows from not being able to do things that I can do when I’m healthy.
For the past several months, I’ve been dealing with a couple of nagging pains that are bedeviling me and forcing a re-evaluation of what the yoga practice is; I’m not ready to give it up, but I am wondering what my practice will look like in a year or ten if things don’t change.
The first is a chronic pain in my left (bad) knee coming into and out of the lotus (heel to navel) position. Oddly enough, once I’m settled in the pose, it feels fine, but the transition, as I straighten my leg, has been hurting for months. I’m starting to believe, therefore, that it’s in my head, not my knee. I have to stop expecting to feel pain for it to go away.
The other is the result of a sprain I incurred while playing softball. My right ankle remains swollen after almost two months and causes me misery when flexed in various binding poses like marichyasana B or D; it has also rendered janu shirshasana B, where you sit on you heel, impossible. The slowness of my recovery is what’s bothering me most; I can live with the pain it’s temporary.
If this is my life now, though, that hurts.
During this time, I have experienced all sorts of aches and pains and have tried to work through them, using those physical sensations as a means to examine my experience and response to it.
I’ve also had to modify my practice due to various injuries, including sprained wrists, bruised ribs, skinned knees, and jammed fingers. My “higher self” seeks to accept each injury as a “gift” that provides me the opportunity to become more aware of my body; of course, I struggle to balance this aspiration with the frustration that follows from not being able to do things that I can do when I’m healthy.
For the past several months, I’ve been dealing with a couple of nagging pains that are bedeviling me and forcing a re-evaluation of what the yoga practice is; I’m not ready to give it up, but I am wondering what my practice will look like in a year or ten if things don’t change.
The first is a chronic pain in my left (bad) knee coming into and out of the lotus (heel to navel) position. Oddly enough, once I’m settled in the pose, it feels fine, but the transition, as I straighten my leg, has been hurting for months. I’m starting to believe, therefore, that it’s in my head, not my knee. I have to stop expecting to feel pain for it to go away.
The other is the result of a sprain I incurred while playing softball. My right ankle remains swollen after almost two months and causes me misery when flexed in various binding poses like marichyasana B or D; it has also rendered janu shirshasana B, where you sit on you heel, impossible. The slowness of my recovery is what’s bothering me most; I can live with the pain it’s temporary.
If this is my life now, though, that hurts.
No comments:
Post a Comment