When Life Hurts: Good or Bad Stretch?

A Crossroads Not long ago, I was at a crossroads in my life, and as often happens
at crossroads, I felt a bit of pain. Down one of four potential roads
lay strange but exciting newness. Down another, loss, but with
possibility. A third would have required potentially painful growth. A
fourth, complete uncertainty. None would be easy. All would require a
stretch, and with stretching, we tend to hurt. Avoiding Pain When something starts to hurt, we have a tendency to pull back. After
all, hurt is something to avoid, right? But what about taking a yoga class? Don’t you find yourself in poses that are, at once, completely
liberating but hurt like the dickens? I know I do. It’s tempting to
stretch too far- to let your ego get caught up in “success,” while you push yourself beyond safe limits
and wind up with a torn hamstring. So how do you know where that limit
lies? What’s the difference between good stretch and bad stretch? Wisdom of the Body  I’ve found that my body tends to know. There’s a stretch that feels
invigorating. It’s a challenge, and stepping up to the plate feels
fantastic when you achieve it. By stretching gently, you slowly
surrender more deeply into the pose, freeing your mind and unleashing
your spirit. But there’s another type of stretch that just feels wrong.
You tweak something, feel pain biting into you, and get a sense of
dread about what’s happening. One is to be celebrated. The other is
best avoided.  How can you tell the difference? You have to listen to your body,
mind, and spirit. When you’re stretching, you know the difference
between a good stretch and a bad one. It’s when we ignore the messages
that suffering happens.

Resting in Child’s Pose
In my life, three of the possible roads felt like good stretches. One
felt  like a bad one. But I kept standing at the crossroads for a
while, resting, rejuvenating, growing, and getting clarity about what
lies ahead. I came out of that stretching yoga pose and rested into
child’s pose until I felt strong enough, limber enough, to keep
stretching. And that’s okay.

Stretching Out Of Our Comfort Zones
Maybe you’re finding that being vulnerable on the forum is
stretching you. Maybe another person says something to you that stings
and stretches you. Maybe you don’t feel met in just the way you might
wish. Maybe you feel overstretched, like you’ve put too much of yourself
out there. You might wonder if this is a bad stretch. And it could be-
for you. Or it could be that liberating stretch that comes just before
you are set free. Only you can know the difference, and you must honor
where you are in your process.
It all comes back to being true to where you are. There is no right
and wrong. Just like there is no right or wrong road at my
intersection. My body just needs to feel which stretch feels like
growth and which one feels like a pulled muscle.

posted by Lissa Rankin Aug 13, 2010