I recently injured my foot and many of my plans flew out the window. The dancing and walking I had scheduled needed to be put on hold temporarily as I hobbled due to this injury. It’s just a flesh wound, and as far as I know, there’s not much I can do to speed up my recovery. I think I mostly need to stay off my foot and give it time to heal. The unwelcome injury makes me think about resilience.
I’m comforted by the thought that we’ve evolved to recover and heal. Moshe Feldenkrais defined health not as the absence of illness or injury but the ability to recover. Some injuries start repairing themselves on their own with no mindful efforts or conscious interventions.
This automatic healing brings to mind the superheroes who heal as part of their superpowers. We mere mortals are gifted with many of those special healing powers, though less dramatically. A bullet hole won’t magically repair itself in us like it might in the Marvel Universe.
An extreme example of the ability of someone to recover from unimaginable injury is 52-year-old Avenger actor Jeremy Renner, speaking of superheroes. When he was run over by a 7-ton snow plow in January 2023, he broke more than 30 bones, including eight ribs, his knee, his ankle, his shoulder, his jaw, plus a collapsed lung and his liver pierced by a rib bone. Renner needed multiple surgeries, and threw himself at recovery with singleminded determination, the assistance of wonderful health care professionals, and loving family and friends. To me, he is an amazing example of the resilience of our bodies, spirits, and minds. I have been watching his recovery with admiration and great interest.
Some side notes and fangirl moments about Renner - adding to his real-life superhero status in my eyes - Renner was transported in an ambulance he donated. Renner is someone who gives back to his community and the world. His upcoming Disney+ show “Rennervations” will feature Renner and a team doing makeovers on various vehicles. One episode will show an old bus turned into a fresh water truck for a community in India. In another Rennvervations episode, Renner and team rebuild a city bus into a mobile dance studio for a nonprofit organization in Mexico that serves vulnerable kids unable to live with their families.
Back to his miraculous recovery. Less than four months after his accident in May 2023, Renner was already up on his feet and moving his body. He posted the following on Instagram:
“I’ve decided to push through the pain of progress (this damn shattered tibia) and take the new parts for a tiny test drive. The body is miraculous…. Even though I feel like the Tin Man, needing oil for all my new joints (hips, knees, ankles, tibia, etc). Encouraged after this warm up to press on (don’t tell my PT).”
While I’m not encouraging people to force themselves to do things that are injurious, there are certain necessary post-op movements that hurt to regain mobility. Of course we need to change our lifestyles as we heal from an injury or illness. Over time we hopefully can regain our former way of life but during the healing we need to adapt and adjust. Moshe Feldenkrais said, “In short, health is measured by the shock a person can take without his usual way of life being compromised.” In the short and agonizing months since the accident, Renner has gone from a hospital bed to a wheelchair to a walker to a cane. Renner took about as much shock as a human can take without dying, and he is on his way back to his normal life or a new normal, which amazes me.
I watched Diane Sawyer’s interview with Renner and saw that he draws inspiration, positivity, and love from friends and family to help himself heal. Watching him exercise to music that fires him up shows a great strategy to move himself from disabled to functional. The Hawkeye star displays an extreme example of our ability to recover and appears to me to be one of the healthiest people, not because of lack of injuries and pain, but because of his remarkable ability to recover. Not all injuries are recoverable, but watching Renner inspires me to consider that more recovery is possible than I would’ve thought.
While I am by no means comparing my recent minor injury to Renner’s catastrophic injuries, being somewhat sidelined by an injury brings up questions about recovery and healing. How am I reacting emotionally to the stress of having to adapt my life due to physical limitations? How is my nervous system reacting to the pain? Has my breathing become shallow? Am I clenching my muscles, not just due to compensatory movements caused by hobbling? What messages am I telling myself?
I’m trying to adjust to my injury by learning new options that don’t cause more harm. Our bodies are interconnected. Feldenkrais said, “Learning to inhibit unwanted contractions of muscles that function without, or in spite of, our will, is the main task in coordinated action.” What movement options do we possess? We can learn more ways to move than the habitual way, and experience these new options during a Feldenkrais lesson. When one part is hurt, it can throw off balance and the way we use ourselves. I’m learning to sense how I can soften my knees when I walk instead of stiffening in response to the foot pain.
There are additional blog posts to come about recovery, but in the meantime, click here if you are interested in booking a Feldenkrais session with me to learn more.
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