When symptoms are signposts: the gift of pain

In 2016 I was training for the New York marathon. During my training, I was experiencing significant pain behind my knee every time I went running. I booked in to see a Physio to get it checked. After going through a bunch of stretches and tests, we discovered that the pain was being caused and perpetuated by my running style. ?

?The muscles in the body will do anything they need to in order to complete a range of motion, even if it means hurting yourself or other muscles in the process. For example - If your hips and quads are tight, you will overuse your calves and knees. Therefore, a foot injury can say more about your bum, that it does your feet. ?

?This wasn’t a small problem, or the news I wanted to hear only a few months out from a 42km race. However, it taught me an important lesson that applies to mental health. An injury is an amazing opportunity to rebuild the way you do things. The body gives us signals that the way we are living or coping is not working. We call them symptoms. They are indicators of a problem, not the underlying problem. An injury (mental or physical) is often a good opportunity for us to reassess the way we have previously been doing things and use it as down time to rebuild the way we move… or in the case of the mind, the way we think. ?

?When we are in pain we may feel like it’s a problem, but it might be a signal to a much larger solution. It might take some hard work, recalibration and learning, but the potential benefits of doing the work far outweigh just scraping by. ?

?P.s. I trained hard, and with professional help and staying disciplined with my technique, I smashed the marathon out of the park. No injuries. And multiple people from the crowd yelled “run Jesus, run!”. Lol.

P.p.s. The Jesus comment was from the hair, not the healing. Just to clarify.