Sports Injury
BMX star Sam Willoughby landed on his head doing a routine warm up exercise. He broke his back and has no mobility from his chest down. He might be asking himself. Why me? Why now? It was a routine exercise which I have done hundreds of times before. What happened? Am I ever going to recover? Am I ever going to recover my original fitness? Am I ever going to ride a bike again? Will I be competitive?
Sports Injury.
Even if you are not an athlete a simple injury can be devastating. Getting into bed, taking off your socks, walking down your street become tasks that are temporarily impossible. There is a before and after. Before the injury your memory reminds you that you did this and that. But then there is a jolt because you cannot do that in the same way now. And in the future. You are disabled.
If you are keen on amateur team sports you have the rest of the team. They are sorry. They wish you the best. Some don’t mention it. Others make a joke about you getting out of training. But the events go on. The race is not postponed. You are replaced. The conversations that you were a part of carry on without you.
Being injured to a non injured person is not understandable. It seems we have only the capacity to fully understand if we are the same – injured or have an experience of being injured that has not been forcibly forgotten. To be open to the emotions of injury is painful.
The psychological impact of injury is as powerful as the physical injury. Interestingly Mental Imagery can help as much as training itself. If you can see yourself in your mind practising and competing this links to the improvement of the physical body. Mind and Body.
All the best to you Sam
Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2017
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Disclaimer:This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique