Not surprisingly, as I prepare to leave for 2 months of yoga study in India tomorrow, my left knee is bugging me more than it has in a while. On the one hand, this is no doubt a product of fairly aggressive practice over the last few weeks, but I’m also pretty sure it’s partly in my head; I’m manifesting this sensation because I’m nervous about what it’s going to be like over there. It’s not exactly an excuse for not being a more advanced practitioner, but it also is. I’m able to blame what I can’t do on what hurts, so I’m giving myself an out even before I’m in.
The mind and the body are closely connected; everyone knows that; at one level, everything you feel in your arms or legs or back is actually in your head, so I do think that if I can notice what I’m doing whether I know I’m doing it or not, I ought to be able to change, or at least reconfigure my experience to some degree.
I’m told that Pattabhi Jois said that “pain is real,” and I guess it is, but so is the absence of pain. To some extent, one can choose whether to feel what one feels—predictably enough.
so very true, i have a 4 inch long screw in my ankle, and every day it hurts, but every day i continue to run bike and rock climb, i tell me self that the pain is real, its nerves firing from my ankle up my spine into by brain, yet its just a signal, it can be ignored just as easily as a text message from and Ex-girl friend can
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