When Being Injured Is a Good Thing: 3 Steps to Recovering Stronger

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Have you ever pushed through something and regretted it later?

Picture this

You have a nagging pain in your hip that comes and goes. Some days you can run easily, and other days it’s really a pain. You’ve tried stretching it, but the relief doesn’t seem to last.

If you’re a runner, you’ve probably been here and what I’ve noticed is that we’re really good at ignoring these aches and tweaks in our bodies.

If you think about it though, most injuries are a result of not paying attention.

How many times have you been on the trail, and not paid attention to the fact that you were tired and then turned an ankle, or tripped on a root and face planted? Yep, definitely done that.

How many times have you not paid attention to that little tweak in your knee, hip, or back that turned into a something worse several weeks after your first noticed the “issue?”

When we don’t face problem, when we’re not aware, when we’re not paying attention to our body… things can get miserable. When we choose not to pay attention, we look the other way. Why?

Often because we don’t want the setback, we don’t want to stop, and we think it’s going to make things worse because it’s going to be hard to deal. Plus, we want control and it could mess up our plans.

In reality, there’s 3 simple steps that can help us always move through challenging times or injuries with ease. Whether these challenges are on the trail, or in our life – the same principles apply.

Awareness

Paying attention is the first step. With every step, we need to be aware of our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, and how all of this is affecting our movement and body overall. When you are aware and not ignoring, you can notice what’s happening, and do so without judgment. Judgment only makes the situation worse, so just notice how things are and work on accepting reality daily.

Flexibility

When you reach down to touch your toes and your hamstrings are really tight, there’s a distance between your hands and your feet.

If there’s a distance between where you are and where you want to be in your training goals, business goals, or another life goal, think about this:

What if you remained flexibility in your methods?

What if there was more than one way to get there?

How would practicing patience change things?

Is there another step you’re missing that would move you to the finish line with more ease?

For example, maybe you need to “warm-up” the muscles before you stretch so you have more flexibility in your hamstrings. What are you trying to accomplish in your life that might require more of a warm-up before you hustle your way there?

Look Forward

When you’re feeling stuck or held back by an injury, you can look back and ask why… or you can look forward and ask what.

Here’s what I mean: If you’ve made a “mistake” and are guilt-tripping over your actions, what would change if you focused on what you can learn from your missteps?

A future-facing outlook will result in an immediate boost to your confidence. When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, ask yourself, “what could I have done differently?” or “What can I learn from this?” Leave the negative self-talk in the dust and blaze forward on the trail. Remind yourself that this is part of the training, and you can not only survive mistakes, but thrive from them!