Hey, everyone! Hope you are all having a great 1st week of 2015! I am writing AGAIN after my New Years Day post because I need to share something with you that is important to remember when you are starting out your new years' resolutions, especially if your resolutions include adding a new workout routine. Now, for many of y'all, just getting started and sticking with it is the real battle. But has anyone reading this ever overdone it to the point of overexertion, or even worse, suffered injuries as a result?
People, it has happened to me. I've been a little stressed as of late because I may or may not have some health issues that may cost big bucks at the doctor. Money, or lack thereof, always stresses me out, and has become so commonplace to me to the point where I don't even realize I'm actively stressing about it. I've been wising up lately. Once I identified this stress, I knew I had to get rid of it. I was more than eager to get into my 30 days of Yoga routine. I was so stoked about YOGA. I've been doing yoga for a while, but here was a steady program I could grow to love. Here was something I could stick with. I was even ready to try more difficult poses than I had ever done before. My body, at times, was trying to tell me to ease up and find what feels comfortable. Instead, I was so gung-ho about it, I have seem to overdone it and aggravated my old shoulder injury. It hurts. It hurts a lot.
But there is a lesson to be learned here. A HUGE lesson.
I realize now that the whole point of yoga is to learn to listen to your own body. Yoga is not what gave me an injury. It was ME who gave myself an injury. I was stressing too much over things I cannot control, when I should have been paying attention to my body telling me to stop. Stop stretching that way if it hurts. Stop holding plank up if I'm feeling tension in my neck. But I didn't listen. My enthusiasm and my willingness to "just feel better, already" - call it what it is, IMPATIENCE - led to this injury. Not taking my time with yoga, and not taking care in how I positioned my body, was leading to more stress and tension on the body. And because I did it every day, plus worked busy shifts at work, I didn't give myself any time off to heal my muscles. And now, I have to wait for it to get better to even begin thinking about getting on the mat again.
This is why it is important - nay, imperative - to slow down! Anything that is new and more strenuous than your normal routine needs to be managed with care and precision. Otherwise, you end up like me. It is so painful, I had to get someone to pick up a shift for me at work. The time off I could have spent not straining my body is now being borrowed from my future obligations, and that is not a great thing.
But, silver linings and positivity are what I consistently strive for. I know now what I have to do. I need to take this time to tune into my body, meditate, relax, and maintain easy range of motion, as much as I can. I am still going to do yoga today. But I am going to examine my breath instead of contort my body. Focusing on the breath is both a form of yoga and meditation.
I will definitely learn from my experience. Hopefully, soon, I can jump back into my yoga routine. But until then, I cannot stress about it or anything else for that matter. Stress does nothing positive for pain.
Thanks for reading, and remember to always Live for Each Moment!
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