Taking The Risk

...This lil' thought has been on my mind a lot lately.

I recently injured my knee quite badly and have been laid up with lots of time to think. Given that my knee injury seemed to happen really quickly, without me even realizing it - it's totally taken me by surprise. Since the injury occurred while horsing around with some friends and a few soccer balls, it took me a couple weeks to even admit to myself that something might be seriously wrong. I kept thinking - this is nuts! Why is my knee the size of a grapefruit!? After one of the many hours I've spent in the last few weeks icing my knee and staring frustratingly out the window wishing I was out cycling, it dawned on me!

I'm always trying to teach people about the symbolic nature of their diseases and injuries. Every day, I talk to others about "listening to the body" and about reflecting on what shows up in the body, when and why. So often people go through months, sometimes years, of unfruitful medical diagnosis, invasive testing and medication after medication that don't seem to work until finally they find themselves in my office, or at their local yoga studio, desperate for any kind of insight. I spend a lot of time with people listening to them explain over and over - "I just don't get it. I'm a healthy person. I never used to be this way/have this problem. I'm so confused." To which I always reply - "Well, the body never lies. It's incapable of lying in fact. So lets dive a little deeper and try to uncover what might really be happening." Always, the injury or illness in question is a symbol for something that is required to be acknowledged, learned or changed in order to bring the person back into harmony and balance.

Soooo..... as I sat staring at my throbbing grapefruit-sized knee I suddenly realized exactly what I think is going on. Knees are so essential in helping us stand, balanced, on our own two feet. Something I've been feeling a bit challenged about lately. And also, healthy knees help us to move forward easily in life, taking risks and having the agility to roll with the waves as we face challenges and hold steady, standing firm in our beliefs, while creating our life in the most fulfilling way possible. Injuries to the knees are definitely humbling. And symbolic, for me, of exactly what's been happening in my life as of late....a certain stagnation in a couple of areas that I seem to be getting really good at sabotaging the healing of. I find myself a little stir crazy....as I try to analyze my next steps. Literally. Being stuck here with an ice pack strapped to me knee makes me realize this is something I've been feeling for quite a while. There's been a couple important things on my mind that I've gotten really good at thinking about. But seem to have lost the courage to actually DO anything about. You see, the problem with too much analyzing is this - You stagnate!! Not enough DO-ing is simply not good. A lot of people spend their whole lives dreaming, wondering, pining... but never doing. Then wonder - why am I unhappy? What's missing from my life?

Truth is, not everything works out the way you "plan" all the time. So it's easy (for some of us)to get stuck in the details. You can "What If" until dawn, but ultimately everything involves eventually trusting that somehow things will work out just fine. If there's something stuck in your mind, and you really feel it in your heart, somehow, just jumping in, taking the risk and following your heart's desire has to be the best, the 'right', thing to do....right?