What a Humbling Pain in the ...

Hurting yourself is a humbling experience. Especially as someone who is very physically active, and who uses movement for her profession, its really frustrating to not have the full use of your body the way you normally do.

A few Friday's ago I headed to a yoga class in the evening with one of my favorite teachers. I felt great the whole class. It wasn't until we were done and cleaning up that I joined some friends redoing a stretch that we'd done at the end of class when the incident occurred. Talking about the stretch, I sat down to do it with them, leaned to the side, and  *POP!* 

It was loud and it was obvious. The funny things was it didn't really hurt at first. It just felt odd. As the night progressed, the pain settled in... a dull, throbbing, bruise-like achy pain. Eep.

I skipped all yoga that weekend, I iced and used heat packs. I rested and I prayed!

My body is strong and it is flexible, and I felt betrayed.
Come Monday it was time to teach. The pain had faded, but it still ached and felt weak. So I returned to the teaching style I had started with and what I enjoyed more... I instructed my students to put on their listening ears, trust in their yoga knowledge, and I demoed way less then I ever did before in that class.

It was a good exercise for me and a good exercise for them. And when I did demo, boy was it humbling! My bends were shallow, my leg trembled, and it reminded just how lucky I am with what my body is normally able to do.
It also showed me that I'm more then a little scared to lose my physical abilities.

I gave myself a full week off before taking a class, and made sure to ease back in VERY slowly! I still have some tenderness even now, but am so thankful for continued recovery... and for lessons learned!

Here's to hoping for no more lessons like that for quite a while!

{In case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure it was a strain of either the hamstring muscles up near the tendon that connects it to the pelvis, or a strain of the tendon itself. A pain in the ass... literally!}