I’ve been an athlete my whole life. And I’ve had a lot of injuries. Over the years I learned that the worst thing for my injuries was to simply stop doing the activities I was doing that led to the injury in the first place. That only made things worse, mentally and physically. What most injuries need is blood flow.
Of course I don’t mean to go for a run if you’ve just broken your leg. And of course injuries need time to heal. But healing doesn’t necessarily mean total stagnation. That’s the hard part. The balance between rest, healing, and working through it.
It’s counterintuitive. I’m hurt. How could doing the thing that hurt me not make me more hurt? And this is where knowing yourself comes in. A lifetime of pushing your limits teaches you what it feels like when you cross the line and when you’re riding it. How to ease back in and build back up.
Can’t this be said for most things in life? Love. Relationships. Passions. Writing. Dancing. Building. They all need blood flow. They all suffer from injuries and setbacks. Receding away doesn’t make them better. We’ve got to ride the line to heal. Sometimes going too far. Sometimes not going far enough. The answer isn’t to cut them off. It’s to keep going.
