Bringing light to the unconscious (pt 2) - Injuries.

(If you haven’t read part one yet, go there first!)

I definitely don't advise getting an injury but they're a sure slap in the face to show us where we're still not yet fully conscious, where we may be putting our egos before our bodies, maybe we've been focusing too much on the asana and have lost the meditation and energetic practice. They can show us where we've been relying on too much or too little and can open up a whole host of emotions that have been in hiding until then. You could also get into the whole psychology of each body part but maybe that's too much for today. 

For me, I injured my hamstring and that brought up a lot of shame during practice, I wanted to hide myself. Why shame? I felt ashamed I couldn't go to my maximum flexibility anymore, it made me think a lot about self worth, where was I basing it? So much of it was tied up in my body and physical abilities, which, of course, sounds ridiculous, putting so much of your self worth on something so arbitrary and impermanent. 

Noticing things like this makes you really face yourself, you gotta leave your ego at the door when you practice! 

Keep your focus on observing what's going on within - your breath, your thoughts and motivations, feel the movement of your subtle energies. Come back to your meditation. The real practice is internal, the rest is just circus