How to handle emotions when dealing with an injury

When we sustain an injury we are filled with a number of different emotions. First it’s sadness that we are injured, then we may be angry thinking why has this happened to me but then there is almost numbness that we aren’t sure what to feel so we almost feeling nothing.

It is a crazy cycle some days. You then start to recover and switch your mindset into a try me or watch me comeback or I’ll show you.

Then we hit a speed hump that slows our recovery and it is almost back to that angry thoughts of why me.

I have learnt this new little trick with handling my emotions better each time I am injured.

I give myself tasks to focus on depending on the emotion I am feeling.

For example:

HAPPY – focus on: doing my ACL rehab

EXCITED – focus on: kicking a football

SAD – focus on: talking to my sports psychologist or a friend

ANGRY – focus on: listening to music and going for a walk

ANNOYED – focus on: Watching a motivational doco or YouTube video

Does that make sense? So instead of sitting there doing nothing productive with my time and stewing in sadness or anger I give myself a task to help deal with the emotion but also be productive to possibly change my mood once I have trained or spoken to someone.