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March 4th, 2011

#Practice 365 Golden Yogi Winner: Carrie Griffiths

My teachers are always saying wise and witty things in class – of which I gratefully take note. I was recently in the middle of a class when one of these said teachers stated, “… better to come here to heal, than to hurt yourself.” While she wasn’t speaking directly to me, this statement did.
I have been fighting an injury since this past December. I did something to my hip. I don’t recall anything specific that caused it or even exactly when it occurred. I just noticed one day that my hip was hurting. Really, really, really hurting. I decided to take a couple weeks off to give it a rest. Exactly two weeks later I was back at it, expecting to do everything that I’d been able to do pre-injury. Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel much better.
Over the years, I’ve become more and more devoted to my yoga practice. I want to challenge myself and see just where I can go with it all. Manduka has sort of solidified this for me. With the gift they have given me, I feel happily obliged to take my practice to a new level. And I’m all ready to do that, except for this hip issue.
In the past month or so, the pain has waxed and waned. Some days are better than others. I keep thinking maybe I can outsmart it. I’ll just let it go, breathe it away, nicely ask it to leave. I’ll transcend it somehow. It can’t slow me down. But it can, and it has. And I’m left feeling quite frustrated.
Then along comes my teacher with her wonderful words, and she’s right. Maybe my body is telling me something. I don’t always need to be pushing myself to the limit. Sometimes it’s necessary to take time to heal. So I’m repeating this to myself at the beginning of every class lately. I think it’s helping. Some days are better than others. I’m just trying to relax and allow myself to take a breather. It will come together in time, I suppose.