Injury

My hip hurts. It started a few days ago, and got worse pretty quickly. "But I didn't do anything!" didn't really help. If there's something to point to, like some grievous injury or accident, it's sometimes easier to get through the issue (that's a whole "Second Arrow" conversation we could have, but not today.)

So what do we do when we hurt? It's really simple to say that we should just rest until we feel better. Sometimes that's the best choice, but we're often programmed to push through the pain. Thought-stopping cliches like "no pain, no gain" have been pounded into us for decades and they're frankly hard to overcome.

Being very mindful of the pain as it arises and changes can be a yoga practice in itself. The mindfulness required for it is nothing to sneeze at; in fact, it's quite difficult because it's based on pain, rather than more neutral sensations. Being able to follow the painful sensation without attaching any judgment to it takes some skill (and often a lot of failure) so people most often don't even try. Take the pain reliever, cross your fingers, and get on with your life seems to be the default setting.

I got really curious about my hip. Nope, nothing different about my movement practices (and I have several, not just yogasana.) No accident, didn't bump myself or twist funny trying to catch something that was falling or anything like that. Just maybe overuse. With gentle movement (always to tolerance!) I was able to pinpoint what was going on, and begin some measures to come back to balance. Doctors help too, when you need a little extra oomph.

At this point it's not back to 100%, but it's at a place where resuming some of my usual activities isn't leaving me breathless with pain. In other words, I'm on the mend. I'll have other injuries, and they'll hurt, and I'll go through this process again (and again, probably.) Remembering that injury is opportunity for a different kid of practice can help it be less awful, so don't give yourself a hard time when you have a shift towards more mindful movements or have to forgo movement at all for a little while. Life isn't static, and neither is your body. But it's the first and only home you have, so take care of it as you can.

A diagram of the muscles of the hips. One side shows the anterior view and the other the posterior view. Muscles are labeled