Recovery from an injury is about more than just physical recovery; it's also about mental recovery from the trauma. We can put our body through all the paces of physiotherapy, but we also need to overcome the fear of the pain and reinjury.
Overcoming the fear is about learning to trust our bodies again. Beyond physiotherapy and other medical treatment, we need to have faith in our own healing power, learn to trust our own movement again, and accept that the process of full recovery may be long and slow.
Having faith in our body's ability to heal can be difficult since it's not currently a popular concept. We spend a lot of time looking outward for solutions when we should also be looking within. Meditation and yoga principles can help us on that inward journey. Really connecting to your body will keep you get better in tune with it and learn to listen to your gut.
Learning to trust our movement again is a daily struggle. I remember that after my lower back injury there was a long time when I was afraid to bend over the sink in the morning to wash my face because my back was still super stiff and in protection mode. The body is good at protecting, but you need to guide it back to trusting in its abilities … when the time is right on your recovery path. Learning to move properly again is a big step and yoga can help rebuild strength in supportive ways. For example, for the herniated disc/sciatica combo, there is typically a focus on rebuilding core, glute and back strength.
The hardest part is to not give up on a journey that can be long and slow. If you accept half-recovery, then you will stay at half-recovery. It's been over six years for me, and I'm still working on my path. Although I'm currently back doing everything that I love, I know that my body is not at 100% and so everyday I am managing toward that goal. When I would hit a plateau and realize that I still couldn't do a certain activity that I wanted to be doing, I would reevaluate and review my existing pain management/recovery tools or look for new ones, for example, by revisiting my physiotherapist. When I would hit a plateau where I realized that I was bored with what I was doing and falling off on my recovery routine, I would switch up my plan of attack, like yoga vs physiotherapy, or massage therapy vs acupuncture. Once you accept that the path is long and slow, you can acknowledge that a plateau doesn't mean giving up, it means switching things up.
The journey is long and slow and really it's the journey of life. Ask yourself, firstly, what does recovery look like to you? Then ask yourself, what tools do you have available now, what can you add to your toolbox, and what patterns can you break to move forward?
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