“You are fragile”
Yoga cues are littered with advice about avoiding movements and transitions for fear of injury or pain. “Avoid Warrior 1 to Warrior 2 or you will grind away your hip socket”, “keep the knee at 90º or you’ll strain your knees” — or our favourite, “don’t do headstand or you may die”. The underlying message is that you are fragile and that if you step outside of the rules there will be consequences.
But is this really accurate? Modern pain neuroscience gives us a different take that is empowering. It teaches that pain is not an input and often not related to tissue damage. Pain is an output the brain chooses based off of how safe it feels.
If your brain is worried about your safety, it will produce pain in an attempt to alter your behaviour to keep you safe. The
