Picture a crying baby. Would you ever let it continue to cry without trying to figure out why they are so upset? Are they Hungry? Tired? Cold? Diapers need changing? Or would you put on soundproof headphones and ignore the problem?

While babies haven’t developed an ability to have an intellectual discussion with mom on the merits of breast feeding, they are very clear when they are hungry.  The key is to understand that they ARE speaking to you, and that if YOU pay attention, you can sort the problem out and make sure the little tyke is happy and healthy.

Picture an injured body. Would you let it continue to send pain signals to your brain without trying to figure out why it is sore? Is something damaged? Weak? Nerve Injury? Workout too hard? Or would you just take pain medication and ignore the problem?

While the body hasn’t developed clear language to communicate with the brain on specifically what is wrong, it is VERY clear that there is SOMETHING wrong. This language is pain (and other subtle cues that likely were given beforehand). While there are many different types of pain, it is clear that pain does not equal harm.

Pain is the equivalent to a fire alarm. It is telling the people that there is smoke/fire/burnt supper. All the alarm knows is its job is to tell the people to investigate the source, and then either take the burnt pizza out of the oven, or in more serious cases- get out of the house and call the fire department. The Alarm is NOT the problem. More importantly, if you had a fire, and chose to ignore the alarm, there may be dire consequences.

So while there is absolutely a time a place to take medication to control the pain or more importantly bring it to a reasonable amount, it is an important message that many people chose to not listen to, and that may lead them to unknowingly do too much, thus, perpetuating the cycle. An important time to manage pain levels is especially true at night- poor sleep will lower ones pain tolerance, which again feeds the cycle.

While pain can be scary, when you realize what increases pain, and what decreases pain (physically, not with chemical intake) it helps you narrow the field of what is safe to do and therefore allows you to safely continue to move your body, in addition to educate yourself about your body.

One piece of advice that I will end with is that injuries can be a great way to focus on ourselves, perhaps learn what we did wrong, and make decisions moving forward that can prevent the injury coming back, make us a stronger well-rounded athlete, or to just further teach us about our body…If nothing else, it can make us a better version of ourselves when we come out the other side.

“A knight in shining armor is a man who has never had his metal truly tested” -Unknown-