The dancer's instrument is the totality of being. It isn't different from martial arts. The best dancers (in my opinion) are martial artists, or warriors. These people seek purity and clarity through discipline of Mind, Body, and Soul. Kung-fu teaches:
One of these can get wounded severely. We cope, and hopefully return to our previous levels of activity. However, life is dynamic, we experience aging and time, and we change. The mind can be broken and shattered, and the soul can be poisoned and put away, or exchanged. And of course, it is easy to imagine the body being utterly broken. The bad: one part affects the other... the good? one part affects the other. One part can heal the other parts (or prevent healing).

The basics: Rest Ice Compression Elevation, inflammation is the enemy, don't overwork, you cannot force healing. These are not difficult on their own; we make it hard on ourselves. My own stubbornly-won personal lesson is: Setbacks are there so one can learn. Learning is change in behavior, so that we become better. There is no such thing as random in the universe.

Maybe somehow, we deserve our injury. Alright that's pretty harsh, but I mean it as good-bad, like a blessing in disguise. Without blame, what can we learn? It is a way to take responsibility for our healing. We really can't do much about things that are out of our control, except for our own being. We are waiting on the mercy of luck to get the surgery, and our genetics do the heavy lifting of sealing the wound, but it is up to us to prepare ourselves for such an act. Do we start slamming whiskeys, dope on painkillers, smoke a ton of weed? Plenty of ways to cope, but what takes us away, and what takes us closer to the purpose?

Injuries also give us time to rebalance, make needed changes, and connect to our support system.

My friend Von would say the most important thing is to seek clarity. And yes, there are a million things on top of the injury that we have to deal with, but they are all superfluous compared to the healing. You might be in a worse life position where that is out of the question. Healing is a grateful mindset.

What don't we need?
What do we carry that hampers us? Could be material things or habits
How do we slow or stop ourselves from healing?
How can we get stronger?
What do we need to face? Sometimes we do get crippled and we have to move on, and while that is unfortunate, that is real.
What holes in our learning that we can fill with this time?
What can we do about our emotional inventory? Can we use this time to sort it out?


My friend Pamela says: "anything that doesn't have a limitation, find a way to work it"





Friend Nessa asks: "But what about shit that never heals? I'm like this forever"
T says: Talk to God more. Your weeping will be balanced by your laughter.