My yoga teacher would check in before class "how's the back?" he would ask "the same" I would reply. One day he said with a furrowed brow- "this has really gone on for a while, hasn't it?" "Yes!" I answered in frustration. "Is it backbends?" he asked? "And forward folds and twists!" I responded.
I decided I had to do something drastic- I wasn't going to do ANY pose where I could feel the injury. That decision made me feel like a preschooler having a tantrum - and truth be told I did have tears in the corners of my eyes with the frustration of not being able to do ANYTHING without pain. Then we stood in tadasana, and my teacher asked quietly "How is that- any pain?" This seemed to me a ridiculous question - of course not- I wasn't doing anything except standing still! But something changed in that moment. It was not true that EVERYTHING caused me pain, just MOST things. It took a lot of will power, but I committed for however long it took that I would not do any pose that caused the least irritation to those healing muscles and attachments. I was able to do only about 1/3 of the asanas that day, but "pushing through" and "holding back" were not working. Only complete abstinence from certain poses would do it seemed. Oh, did my ego protest as I set up in the corner and skipped all those poses that make me feel like a Power Ranger and all the pretzels that are so fun to wriggle into. But patience and circumspection finally won the day, and after 3-4 weeks I could twist again.
The lessons are timeless and multiple-
sometimes less is more
take time to heal
when something is taken from you, don't overlook whatever you still have
and the most difficult of all- letting go of that ego.
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