Stopping Your Practice for an Injury

I am a dedicated yogi. My practice is what I begin the day with before the sun rises.
 
However, on Saturday I somehow hurt my back. Feeding the chickens that morning – I had a spasm in my lower back that produced a shooting pain. I dropped to the ground and waited. I was only able to make it back to the house through the breath.
 
The next 3 days were hard due to having to keep still for the most part and lie down but I felt the loss of my routine and my yoga! Yes, I did the breathing/meditation in bed but the Kriya for Metabolism and Relaxation was put on hold.
 
I am much better today due to a great massage on Tuesday and turmeric and arnica and being very careful through listening to the body which is one of the main tenets of Yoga!
 
I have dropped the kriya from my practice for several reasons: 1) It’s been more than 5 days and my 40 days is disrupted, 2) Maybe it was hurting my body to do so much BOF (breath of fire) and stretch pose.
 
Examine through your daily journal – what is going on with your body physically.
(See Some of the reasons why keeping a yoga journal is an effective tool in the book Keep the Change).
 
Then perhaps injuries can be avoided by either modifying or reducing times or having to change to another meditation or kriya. Don’t be so ingrained in the performance that you miss what is going on.

Here are a few things to watch for while practicing as well.
 
Being fatigued, emotions of anger, your body is tight that day or it’s really flexible, soreness, joint pain or headaches. All signs to Stop and consider.
 
My main lessons from this, I think, are to listen to what my body was telling me, which for me was fatigue, and that letting go is perfectly ok no matter if I was on day 2 or 32 of my 40 days.

​Today I can begin something new!
 
 

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