Maybe you’ve heard this before, pain is our greatest teacher. Mentally, physically, spiritually, however it resides with you there are lessons to be learned. Not just any lessons. The best lessons. The big ones that can transform us for the better if respected. Why? Because pain requires us to examine our kleshas (root causes of suffering). There is definitely something very true about no pain, no gain when examined through this lens.
There are 5 kleshas described in the yoga sutras, avidya (ignorance), asmita (egoism), raaga (attachment), dvesha (aversion) and abhinivesha (fear). As always it’s easier for me to understand these concepts on my mat in asana and I'll use my current situation as an example.
As I’m writing this my right arm is in a cast in a way that keeps my palm facing up because of a pretty bad dislocation and strain in my wrist. I have abnormal anatomy in my right wrist and arm and because of these issues, my wrist sprains/strains easily and it takes extra long to heal. If I’m not diligent about modifying my practice it will never heal. I know this because the first time something similar to this happened I was in my late 20’s and I would not stop using it and in turn it would not stop causing all kinds of suffering on and off my mat.
Backing off of the asanas I knew and loved was very challenging. I figured my practice would take care of it. I would just do what I do and it will resolve because yoga, ashtanga in particular, is magic. Avidya (ignorance) at its finest. I barely modified and I ended up with bursitis in both shoulders and it took about 8 months to get out of that splint (I refused a cast at the time even though it was highly recommended 🙂). This time around I know to get off of it right away and cast it, not that I have much choice, and modify the practice as much as necessary to let the injury forget its decided course of reaction. The expressions of asana that I enjoyed will be there when I’m ready. For now I’m looking forward to working differently based on where I currently am.
When dealing with this previously it took me a long time to alter my practice for many reasons. As mentioned above, ignorantly thinking the magic of yoga will fix it without it being tailored to my situation and EGO! Asmita in my experience is a huge cause of suffering. I brought a lot of ego into my practice space. I came to the practice fairly young and was committed to it right away so it didn’t take long for me to learn the tricky stuff. I looked forward to practicing so I could stick my legs all over the place and balance on whatever. I took pride in my physical abilities. It was really hard to let that go raaga . By the time I changed my practice over to a sequence I could do without pain it looked much different. Certainly less entertaining from an outside perspective. This was very humbling. But it became more interesting from my inside perspective because I was learning in a whole different way.
Once my injury was healed enough that I could start bearing weight on my arms again I was very much confronted with the last 2 kleshsa, aversion (dvesha) and fear (abhinivesha). I was comfortable in my new found yoga space. The asanas I was coming back to were previously exacerbating my pain so I was very unsure of myself reintroducing them. I avoided poses (dvesha) and I had to dig deep to get myself to practice sometimes due to fear (abinivesha) of unknowingly doing too much and aggravating something. AND because I knew I wasn't going to jump back in where I left off prior to the injury. It took a lot of dedication to get there previously. I didn't want to start over (asmita again).
I never experienced fear in my practice before. I had to learn this new boundary, abhinivesha. This internal warning alarm would start going off before I hit any sort of physical barrier, including pain. So this is where I’d needed to stay and breathe until the boundary moved, over time, when my nervous system learned to trust there was not going to be pain. I had to show up regularly and build faith slowly and intentionally. Once I started getting into the expressions of the asana I was doing prior to injury, I had so much more strength and support than I did previously. Every asana gained layers of understanding and in turn I had a deeper understanding of myself in them. This understanding made me realize how much was previously missing. How much more productive I could have been with my time for all of those years. But the lessons come when we’re ready for them. Sometimes in the form of pain.
Pain Gives us an opportunity for growth. It brings new awareness and takes us out of auto-pilot. No pain, no gain is true. It doesn’t mean that pain is the only way to learn or that we should be careless and push through pain. It just means that we can learn awesome lessons from it when it arises.
I’d like to emphasize for my fellow over-achievers that we never want to push through pain. That’s not what no pain no gain means. Please read that again if necessary.
Pain gives us the opportunity to evolve by further developing our self understanding. It shows us our boundaries. Teaches us to tackle pain incrementally, to think differently and problem solve. Expect pain to come back. If it doesn’t come back, great! If it does, we will be better equipped to manage it.
Keep practicing 3rd Sight Yogi’s!
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