Trust me: Being injured keeps you busy. There are countless doctors’ appointments, physical therapy exercises, and cross training programs. Add meditation and visualization sessions to that list. When I recently hurt my hip and couldn’t run for three months, physicians repeatedly urged me to integrate these mindful practices into my recovery, suggesting it would help the healing process. With everything else to do, it felt silly to spend time sitting quietly and imagining my way back to health. Was it just wishful thinking? Or was there something to it?
You likely know that your natural response to injury—anger, depression, hopelessness—is not helpful. Rather, it’s the opposite of what you need to be doing. “The Buddhist term for this sentiment is the second arrow: it makes unpleasant experiences even worse because now we’re worrying about it and we’re imagining it happening forever,” says Simon Goldberg, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It adds all this fuel to the fire.” Enter meditation, a practice that reduces stress, depression, and anxiety, while supporting your…
