The picture above is of a regulation 16-pound shot (next to my iPad, for reference).    I use it for various grip, endurance, and power exercises, and was showing some two-man drills to Jason yesterday, much like using a medicine ball, passing it back and forth.  Let’s just say that a mistake was made, and it ended up falling on my left toe.  

 

Yeouch!  The swelling and bruising was a wonder to behold (let alone “befelt”) but that’s not the most interesting thing…

 

I knew I needed a good night’s sleep to give my body a chance to heal. And got a pretty good rest, but when I woke up in the morning…my toe felt pretty good…

 

But my left groin muscles ached.  If I hadn’t seen this before, it would have been a real WTF moment.  I bang my toe, and ANOTHER part of my body gets the pain?  What’s up with that?   

 

Well, there are a lot of things, but the most obvious one is that when you hurt part of your body, you change balance and focus to protect it…putting strain on ANOTHER part of your body.   The pain/injury can “travel” to another part of the kinetic chain, nesting there like a rabid rat, burrowing in and waiting for you not to notice…so that you can get hurt again, and again, bouncing around your body one step ahead of your perceptions.

 

Lasting, deep injury is made of such things.   So in a few minutes I’ll do yoga, because my routine (a single repetition of the entire Bikram series.  Takes about 35 minutes) works the entire body, every bit of the “chain” whether I have conscious awareness of the issues or not.   And when I do that, no matter where the damage “bounces” I’m dealing with it, and the whole thing will fade within a couple of days.

 

The trick is that this works psychologically as well.  Damage, fear, disappointment, guilt, shame…they enter our systems through one door, but then bounce around and break a window in another room.  Your boss makes a disparaging remark, and you take it out on your kids, damaging your relationship.  You get a rejection on your latest story, and become more vulnerable to “road rage.”  You stop smoking and gain weight.   The examples are endless.

 

And you CANNOT always predict where the “redirected” damage will pop up.  This is why you need a “generative” practice of some kind, something that shines light into the entire room, whether you think about that little dusty corner or not.  That corner is where your demons will hide.

 

Heartbeat Meditation, the Ancient Child, pranayama, journaling…there are endless possibilities.   My Morning Ritual covers everything in “Quantum” form, the minimum necessary to check in and step forward in body, mind, and emotions.   The “seed” of all my other actions, so that if I do it, I know that I’m moving, moving, moving, never sliding backwards.  And as long as you are making any progress, your fear level drops. Which increases faith, which makes it possible to take more actions, in a positive spiral that can take you anywhere you want to go.

 

Find something that will have this function for you.  Do it every day, to get those dust bunnies out of the corner.

 

Those psychological/emotional groin sprains are no fun at all.

 

Namaste,

Steve