[Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of past posts, selected from TheSportingSnarf archives, for your continued viewing pleasure. Enjoy, these are the best of the best articles I ever wrote.]
(February 26, 2015)
Since I broke my calcaneous (the large heel bone) in late 2008, I have gone through a transformation in how I see the world.
Being forced to recover for those three months slowed me down, my mind down. And I stopped stressing about my rent (difficult at the time as a student in Ann Arbor) and future occupation so much. In the world of college, everyone is a rat racing to a job and career. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do, but I felt I had to do something. Wrong!
Eventually, I stopped physically misusing my repaired foot and started to completely accept the injury. That’s when I remembered I was the sports editor for my high school newspaper and have loved sports my entire life. I created this website and moved back in with my dad in 2011 (after wandering around for two years on a bum foot playing poker). This surrendering has let me do what I love, watching my teams and covering them, while also letting my foot heal.
It has taught me that there is ultimately no control over these games we watch and love, just like my injury. And this is real, not just a metaphor. If I fight it, the blood will not flow to my foot. Freaking out, stomping around – I can’t do it anymore. That is why I recommend these gurus: Eckhart Tolle and Yogiraj SatGurunath. Resistance to life usually only impairs one in minor ways, but with eight permanent screws and much metal in my foot, that resistance puts me in a lot of pain.
There is nothing worse than watching the Lions get cheated, or the Pistons get robbed. But just like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. knew, the only way to resist was nonviolently. They can take my foot, but they can never touch my soul.
(Yogiraj SatGurunath Siddhanath, EckhartTeachings; Free YouTube Channels)
I learned about Tolle first from my acupuncturist, Stephen Nelson (Tree of Life), who really freed me from my mind. We are so much more than what we think we are, and ultimately letting go of identity will allow you to freely see who you are inside. It sounds corny, and most people don’t care until they are forced to, like me. I’m just trying to share what I’ve known to work.
And you’d be surprised how much it translates to sports. With all the constant ups and downs, the true master is willing to take the loss and learn from it.
“When there is pain there is no free flow, when there is free flow there is no pain.” – ancient acupuncture saying (Nelson’s Site)
Sometimes, there is nothing we can do. My dad taught me that. We are so conditioned by religion to try and hold onto everything for dear life – Yogiraj showed me that religion comes from the Latin religare, which means, “to bind.” We are supposed to be free, even in defeat.
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