“Pain is a part of life, but suffering is a choice.”
The quote is a paraphrase that’s attributed to a guy folks look up to: the Buddha. Most people think of, and use, the quote in an existential way, not to deal with a sprained ankle or bum shoulder. But physical limitations often lead to an existential crisis. Feeling like we can’t move, like we’re limited by our bodies can lead to despair and even depression.
For most of us, pain and setbacks are frustrations that derail us from moving forward on the track that takes us to our goals. And it leads to thought patterns that perpetuate our derailment and lead to an all-out stoppage or reversal of progress. The only way to combat it, and fight derailment with resilience, is to develop and maintain the right mindset.
It’s mindset that helps us experience pain and setbacks without suffering.
What are the problems with mindset during injury, pain, and setbacks, and how do we overcome them, so we keep on keeping on.
Limitation Mindset’s Three Musketeers
Over-reaction, thoughts of permanence, and all-or-nothing thinking are the Three Musketeers of the limitation mindset.
Over-reaction causes you to see things as worse than they actually are, thoughts of permanence convince you that everything has changed forever, and all-or-nothing thinking follows up to persuade you that if you can’t do exactly what you’d like or are “supposed” to do, it’s not worth it to do anything. The musketeers are the architects of a destructive downward spiral into the dark hole of a limiting mindset.
Fear sponsors the over-reaction and the thoughts of permanence. You feel the initial twinges of pain, then it hangs on for longer than you expected. Then you wonder if you’re irrevocably altered; your ankle, shoulder, hamstring, etc. will never again be the same. Another version of the same thought pattern tells you that now there’s no way you’ll ever reach your goals. Your current situation has permanently destroyed your progress.
Then the fear multiplies into monsters that lead to believe you’re helpless. You’re convinced that because you can’t go on as you were, there’s no point in going on at all. You believe that any action you take is futile. What does it matter if you train upper-body when your goal is to run a half marathon? What does it matter if you can walk when you want to run?
Does all of this sound familiar?
It’s a normal cycle. Most folks experience something like it when they experience an injury or a setback. The difference between people is how long they stay in the cycle and get their mindset back on track.
The difference is that some people let pain turn into suffering while others figure out how to move on.
Let’s talk about how to move on.
How to Maintain a Solid Mindset During Pain or Injury
The following list is not exhaustive, but it does offer thoughts and actions that help you flip your mindset and approach pain and injury in a growth-oriented way. We’ll start with an important message you must send to yourself. You’re not broken.
You’re Not Broken:
One of the core over-reaction responses is feeling like you’re broken. That’s the “irrevocably altered” part we talked about in the previous section. This thought pattern crops up in our own minds and is often made worse by well-meaning medical and rehab staff. There’s a gap in their understanding when it comes to injury and exercise, so they tell you to just shut everything down and rest. They don’t realize that they are teaching you to think that you’re broken, and that if you do anything at all you’ll make the problem worse.
This, in combination with our own misguided thoughts, leads to hesitation. The amount and length of the hesitation depends on the person. But I’ve seen it in all manner and scale of injuries, from torn ACLs to sprained ankles. Sometimes all it takes is a little stress so that you can prove to yourself that your body can handle it. However, you must get your mind to the point where you’re willing to take that stress on.
The first step is not believing everything that you think. Fear does weird shit to our heads. It makes us over-react and believe in the lie of permanence. So, it helps to stop and ask yourself, “Is that true?” when these thoughts and feelings of being broken pop up. After you ask if it’s true, it’s time to show yourself that it’s not.
The second step is understanding that the body needs stress to get back to normal strength. That’s not a call to totally disregard your pain or injury and jump back in full bore. But the body works as anything else does – it is shaped by the stress that’s put on it. If you totally remove physical stress in all forms, your body loses its resilience.
There is a time to rest and recuperate. But understand that the human body is resilient and there are countless people that have overcome harrowing injuries. You are not broken.
Ask: What Can I do?
This question is your saving grace. It works in concert with not feeling like your broken. Well, it helps you to not feel like your broken.
Unless you’re in a full body cast after a catastrophic accident, there’s always something you can do. If you hurt your left leg, you can train your right leg. If you hurt both legs, you still have a torso and arms. And research shows that training one side, or one hemisphere, of your body helps maintain strength through neural drive to the injured side. So, not only does it keep your head on straight, it helps with healing.
Asking what you can do is pivotal for the physical and the psychological aspects of overcoming pain or injury. You reinforce the truth that you’re not hapless or helpless. You still have some control over your body and you can use it. You can train it. Psychologically, it gets you out of victimhood. Yes, it sucks that you’re hurt. But you don’t have to pity yourself because of it. As Marcus Aurelius said, “If you are pained by an external thing, it is not the thing that disturbs you, but your own judgement about it. And it is in your power to wipeout this judgement now.”
Let Go of Perfection:
One of the main causes of over-reacting, thoughts of permanence, and all-or-nothing thinking is being too attached to an ideal scenario or outcome. It limits our ability to adapt and move laterally when we face an obstacle. And it causes inaction where even a small act moves us forward.
Imagine that you only have 10 minutes per day to exercise. That’s not ideal, but it’s something. You look at it and think, well, that’s not even worth it. But let’s zoom out for a second and say that you have 10 minutes per day to exercise for 300 days per year. That’s 3,000 minutes. That’s 50 hours of exercise. I don’t think you can say with a clear conscience that 50 hours of exercise in place of none doesn’t make a huge difference in your life. It sure as hell does.
Now, let’s apply this logic to our mindset while dealing with pain or injury. We’ll say that you have a little something going on in your shoulder. You don’t know exactly what it is, but some movements hurt. You’re thinking of taking the week off at Beyond Strength to let it rest because you don’t feel like it’s worth it if you can’t train as you want to. But you stop yourself and break that thought pattern. You ask, well, what can I do? Rows don’t hurt, so I can do those. I can deadlift. I can do all of the mobility work. I can ride the bike and row during Endurance class, and Rony or Nate can help me modify what I can’t do. You can’t say with a clear conscience that modifying your training to do something doesn’t help you move forward more than taking a week to rest on your laurels. It sure as hell does.
Perfection is not reality. There will always be some kind of obstacle. Hopefully it’s not always pain. But it will always be something. If we train ourselves to believe that it’s not worth it to act if the situation isn’t perfect, we’ll never make progress. And progress always trumps perfection.
Reframe: How Can I Use This to Grow?
It’s easy to give attention to what pain or injury takes from us. It’s not as easy to consider what it gives to us, but there is always a gift hidden inside what seems to be a pile of stinky butt droppings. Adversity is gift wrapping for growth.
“The true man is revealed in difficult times. So, when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material.” – Epictetus
Take these wise words from Epictetus and distill them into a simple question: How can I use this to grow?
That reframe shifts your mindset from considering everything that’s taken from you toward finding the opportunities in your situation. Each injury, each dose of pain, gives us the chance to work on our mental fortitude. We’re also given the opportunity to learn, to find new ways of doing things we wouldn’t consider when we’re not dealing with a setback.
I’d rather you didn’t experience an injury or pain. But you have to accept the gift when it’s given to you. There’s no choice in the matter other than to decide whether or not you’ll see it as a gift or as a chance to pity yourself.
Accept the gift.
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