Sports and limiting thoughts


I was on track with my training plans, regularly swimming with the FAST masters group in December and January.  One morning, I needed to move lanes during practice.  To avoid getting in the way of the fast, strong swimmers, I pushed myself up a tall wall so I could walk around to get to the lane I needed to swim in. I paused cuz I didn't want to use my right knee to help hoist myself up and fell on my left rib cage.  Once I got to my new lane, I tried to swim ...and swim another day ...and alas it was too painful to breathe.  Long story short - the xray showed I had three broken ribs. 

I was told to take some time off from swimming cuz we use our ribs in swimming.  Walking and cycling were okay.  After two weeks of healing, I tried kicking 2000k on my back, cuz I missed being in the water.  My ribs didn't hurt.  Then I progressed to swimming gently on my belly, which worked pretty well.  It's been 1 1/2 weeks of careful, gentle swimming.  So far so good.  Oh - my doc and physical therapist are supportive of me swimming as long as I continue to not hurt too badly while swimming.

Breaking my ribs is a wake-up call.  I have struggled with "not good enough" for years, and it is a strong,  loud internal voice. It has affected both my athletic and artistic life.  At FAST practices, I carried that thought that I didn't belong there cuz I am slow and my stroke is flawed. I acted as if it were true cuz I found myself apologizing to my fellow swimmers in my lane.  

My wake-up call is that I gave that internal voice of "not good enough" way too much energy and power.  No more!  My new mantra is that I DO belong there cuz I am a swimmer - I may not be as fast and strong as I would like to be, but I am there to work toward my goals.  Besides,   I pay to be there! When I write this, it's embarrassing to admit this.  I am 57 years old for crying out loud.   I am way too old to continue thinking like that!!!

So my point...listen to your limiting thoughts (author Tsultrim Allione calls them "inner demons" in his book "Feeding your demons".  They are old thoughts from family and childhood.  They can tear you down, stop you trying something new, and stop you from living the life you want.  So listen to them - and then push back.  Talk back to them - find new thoughts and mantras to replace those old, limiting thoughts.  And yes - I strongly recommend reading and working Tsultrim's book.

So I will continue to show up to swim practice to work on my goal of being strong and efficient swimmer.  I belong at the FAST masters practices.  























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