The Yoga of My Toe

Although I'm not flexible or very strong, I've never had any real health issues inhibiting my yoga practice. Nevertheless, after every single practice I always thank the Goddess for my healthy body allowing me to practice, the fabulous sessions with the catastrophically disappointing.

Then... I opened the door over my toe. Yep, OVER my toe. A yelp and some pretty significant swear words combined with my collapsing face down on the bed clutching my toe brought Andrew running to my rescue. It wasn't long and the sobbing started and when Andrew asked to see my toe he got a big "touche poin!!" (don't touch!).

Yes, I am a big giant wimp.

It's a running joke in our home (and growing up with my family) that I really shouldn't have any appendages left, I stub everything so much. You'd think I would have grown callouses, but no the f-bombs spill out every single time.

This time though... something else happened. Andrew put on the bandaid while I looked away and hiccuped and I limped for the next three days. It was seriously painful and I soon realized that my fourth toe was swollen, bruised and felt weird (I left out that I actually came close to passing out and had to lie down for thirty minutes). It took a full week for me to be ok with actually changing the bandaid myself and I soon accepted the fact that I was (ICK) going to lose the nail (hence the passing out, nauseous feeling).

(I apologize for the foot-phobic readers- but behold the tiniest of injuries that completely halted all yoga practice for over a week!)

It became clear that yoga was out of the question. Most postures included some sort of pressure on the toes and when standing was painful, even a blanket touching my toe, asana took a break. How could such a tiny tiny little part of my body affect my yoga practice so significantly? I took my fourth toe for granted.

This tiny little thing that I thought useless since I can barely move my toes apart at all was effectively stopping my asana. Whaaa???

Over three weeks later and I still have that ridiculous bandaid on my toe and practice still feels a bit weird. Such a simple lesson.

No matter where you're at in your yoga, we are fortunate to just be practicing. Take a moment to thank either your Divine or just as importantly yourself for a body and mind capable of yoga in any form.

Blessings!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com