Pain is temporary...

I’m noticing, too, that in all my years of sport I’ve blocked out certain pains. Maybe its because I was too afraid to feel them, maybe its because I didn’t have time to feel them. These are answers I will never know. However, yoga has helped to make me aware of them simply because my knotted muscles are stretching, lengthening, healing…

I’m in touch with these pains without feeling controlled or hindered by them. In this way, they then become merely something to accept and work with. Again, this is life. The lessons I learn in yoga are entirely applicable to life and 'BEING'. In life, like in sport, or class, or work there are certain aches and pains, but if you accept the pain, it already has less control-- I'm learning to work around it, work with it, and most importantly heal it...

I still struggle with a shoulder pain from a separation I had 6 years ago. In one of the poses (eagle) it involves intertwining your arms so that there is an extremely deep stretch across the back of your shoulder blades. Each time I do this I can feel the tension in my left shoulder release. It sounds so silly, but my increased range of motion is much appreciated. I also have a lot of trouble with my right knee. I don't really know what its all about, but the instructors tell me that hero pose will help this as it slowly rids the knees of scar tissue build up. Till then, I guess I have to work with listening to my body. It’s amazing how yoga has helped me to process pain (in sport and life). They all seem so less limiting now. I think part of that is because I believe I am starting to heal.

No joke, when I get hit by a hard rubber ball that travels roughly 40-70 miles per hour, I can now breathe through the pain. This is essential for a goalie-- I am able to make the pain seriously temporary.

In yoga, I’m learning to send my breath. Areas of (sport and life) tension are starting to release because my breath, my energy, is traveling there. Sound too far fetched for you? Try it, you’ll see.