Not surprisingly, physical injury or illness is listed in Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras as one of the 9 antarayas (obstacles) on the yogic path. The word antaraya means a gap or interruption, signifying something that has the potential to interrupt you on your path. That is not the same as a dead-end however. It indicates a situation that will likely arise over the course of your life, one which can and should be addressed.
I’ve heard so many people say they have stopped practicing yoga or doing other things they enjoy because of an injury, or because “my doctor says…” and I want to address that here. As a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, I want to cry when I hear this! Yes, an injury can absolutely take us out for a period of time, where rest and total cessation of activity is necessary. If the injury is severe enough it may change the way we move forward permanently. Yes, you should go see a doctor and get their opinion. However, yoga can also offer a way to heal and move forward. It develops your inner agency so that YOU start to take responsibility for your health, for what is and isn’t good for you.
In it’s true form yoga is a practice that unites body, mind and spirit. Asana is not mindless exercise, it is rather a practice which awakens the body’s intelligence. And injury is, oddly enough, a wonderful teacher in mindfulness. How?
Rather than avoiding the injury, you can use it as an entry point for your practice, allowing that to be your object of meditation as you investigate what is and isn’t possible, what is helpful and what is harmful. You might say - I don’t know enough to know how to proceed. Yet even the beginner student has a lifetime experience of embodiment. If you start listening, you’ll discover you know more than you thought.
For example - you manage to twist your ankle pretty badly, making walking and ankle movement painful. We all know that sprains take weeks if not months to heal. So logic dictates that weight bearing standing poses are not going to be your friends for a while. But anything that elevates your legs will be helpful - immediately after injury and for the duration. (think of RICE rest, ice, compression, elevation) Beyond that, you can use your knowledge - however limited - of seated poses, reclined poses and inversions to continue to practice. Curiousity and creativity will be your allies. What about doing standing poses lying on the floor? And of course, one of the poses you can always practice is śvasana - where you lie still and actively stay present to your whole self.
Injury necessitates that you to listen closely as you move, to observe what helps and what hurts. It can encourage you to get curious about what’s happening in your body and what you can do about it. On a physical level - you can ask yourself, what direction did your foot go when you sprained it? What happens if you support the other side of your foot/ankle to compress the side that got over extended? On a psychological/emotional level, what might your injury have to tell you about how your are moving through your life? If you think of how an injury has limited you, and where that takes you - it may offer a clue.
In the beginning there may only be a few poses that are accessible to you. But over time, this will expand if you stay open and continue to explore the possibilities. And by all means, you can ask for help along the way! Letting your teacher know what’s going on and asking for alternative poses will support your growing knowledge base.
The gift here is that you begin to take ownership of your body and your yoga practice in a new way. This builds inner confidence and resilience.
The development of western medical practices in the past century has done a lot to shift power away from the person, and given it to the all-knowing doctor. Most of us are conditioned to believe that we need an outer authority to tell us what to do. I believe that it is time to shift that paradigm. Yoga reminds us of the inner authority that exists in each of us, and that is always available to guide us through our lives in injury and health. We only have to stop and listen.