Push Past the Pain

I had some interesting insight this morning at Bikram Yoga. Let me tell the long boring story.

I started going to hot yoga the first of December and did a pose where I have to turn my hands and plant them palm down under my body.  It huts because my wrists don't seem to believe they are suppose to turn that way. After doing this pose for a few visits, I started to have constant pain at the base of my thumb sometimes running down my hand and up my arm and have been struggling with pain ever since. (whaa whaa whaa)  I was starting to just assume it was arthritis due to an old injury, which is probably is.

Today when I went back again to do Yoga and while doing that pose; it really hurt; and I was convinced that I just shouldn't twist my wrist that way believing it was what started the pain in the first place.

After the session, another seasoned yoga practitioner was giving me advice on my pain. He said that I need to push past the pain because there is obviously some damage that was done that didn't heal properly from the injury, and that pose will help break it up and finally clear it out. He said that too often people start feeling pain and then baby themselves so they can ignore it.

Interesting concept that has application to real life. Sometimes damage is done and the pain gets buried and we try and ignore it, but then something happens that triggers and exposes the pain and it is only when we work and push through it that it might finally break loose and heal. I hope that is the case because this physical pain is frustrating and debilitating.