How to find your true power through injury

Without yoga ability, I learned

It is through an injury which brought me over my physical edge and left me unable to do my yoga practice and function in my life, that I was able to see my true power and find my true courage!

It was as if I quickly was shown what life would be like without the blessings I currently take for granted: my capable and amazing body. Through a significant injury I questioned, in a desperate way (as if the injury could be permanent), how can it be possible for me to maintain even a basic means of living? I learned how.

Our path teaches us lessons

I knew it was my path. Our path always teaches us lessons. So, I tried to see this injury was a gift and I surrendered to it...

With my neck and twist-intensive yoga practice I've come to rely on periodical chiropractic neck adjustments from an amazing man—a yogi, in fact—so that I could continue to do the yoga poses which brought me to the most spiritual places that were unheard of before I learned how. They truly are the key to me.

One morning this ability was taken away from me though... I woke up with a pain that affected a nerve that went all the way down my right arm, leaving my arm lifeless and unusable. I could not believe it was really happening! The usual remedies (i.e., ice, ibuprofen, massage, chiropractor) did not solve it. And the pain was more intense this time and lasted for days and nights without subsiding. In the nights I had excruciating pain in my shoulder, forearm and wrist. I could not sleep even for five minutes until I started taking painkillers. I was diagnosed with a bulged disc in my neck.

How to cope without yoga?

I was left wondering how to deal with my mental and emotional mind which I had always balanced and maintained with yoga. I was going crazy! With a constant pain 24/7, and/or taking pain meditation, which left me feel loopy, I had to be creative and access the magical side of my existence.

To cure me of this ailment, I knew I just needed stillness. In my agony in this moment I was only able to find it in my yoga practice though. So, I needed to reduce the inflammation. Hence, I was icing my neck all day and loading up on double dosages around the clock of ibuprofen for at least a few weeks. It made me so tired during the day so I was unable to do much. I could not work to make a living (to teach yoga or work on my computer), I could not delve into my studies because I could not type or write (I am right handed), and due to the pain I could not think straight. Moreover, I have a car with manual transmission so this made for a difficult drive, difficult to grocery shop, etc. Hence, it was difficult for me to even take care of my children.

I felt helpless

Basically, I was feeling helpless. I was in fear of permanent nerve damage. It was in some respects a nice chance to rest, but in general it left me feeling depressed. This state of mind frantically put me directly into problem-solving mode, so I told myself I would learn how to deal with my mind after I alleviated the physical pain. But I learned that I needed to face my mind sooner.

I asked for help. I opted against the western medicine approach (MRI, steroid shot in bulged neck disc, surgery). Instead, I trusted my ingenious chiropractor to whom I would visit approximately 6 times over a course of three weeks to get a final, natural solution.

Recovery

After the nerve pinching was released, getting back my normal strength and sensations in my body was not so simple though as nerves take a longer time to heal than muscles. So, I experienced some numbness for at least 6 weeks, including an atrophied tricep that was trapped by the nerve.

Needed to face my mind & spirit

I accessed the spiritual realm for my healing. I breathed my way to relaxation paying close attention to the inhale and its life force, and to the exhale and the whole world to let go of in that exhale. I called up all the resources I had at my disposal: meditation, quiet candlelit nights, hot baths, free flowing movement in water, alkalinizing my body, and engaging in stressfree sleep remedies. I knew peace was in my future.

I learned. The answer was that it was possible to embody the practice without relying on the physical asana. This is how yoga had originated n meditation after all. To find stillness within simply by breathing...

I slowly came back to my yoga practice, building up muscles one day at a time. I threw in some challenging yoga poses every once in awhile to test my progress.

Courage

It shows courage to ask for help.

I learned as a teacher that I was now better prepared to help others with injuries and depression. I also learned the truth of my own personal power. Now I count my blessings that I am healed and have an amazing yoga practice, never taking it for granted!

The benefits of yoga on all levels of being are limitless. I learned this most intensively while injured.

Most importantly I learned how to be at one with the ocean in my own mind....

© 2010 Yoga Robin^®