Yoga and Injuries

A few weeks ago, this inadvertent yogini became an injured yogini. To better illustrate what happened, I whipped up this (extremely simple, clearly I'm no artist) cartoon in the ever-fabulous Rage Face tradition.

But ha-ha's aside, what's a yoga teacher/avid yoga do-er/extremely active city dweller who walks everywhere to do when she can't teach yoga/do yoga/be active/walk anywhere?

I'd like to say that after getting discharged from the ER, I crutched my way to the car, bowed my head in meditation, and found comfort in my knowledge that everything happens for a reason. Unfortunately, my reaction was more "FFFFFFUUUUUUUU" than "OOOOOOMMM." But once I worked through the first few stages (Denial: It isn't really broken, it's just dislocated. Here, I'll realign it myself! AHHHHH!!!! Anger: Why do the dogs need stools anyway? Stupid dogs! Bargaining: Maybe I'll heal in only two weeks if I just do more Restorative Yoga! Depression: Might as well make myself a martini. This sucks. Everything sucks. I can't do ANYTHING!), I did finally reach Acceptance.

I decided I should take this time to slow down, literally and figuratively, since...well, I didn't really have any other choice. Ha! I decided to try to practice what I preach and live my yoga off the mat. And that means that in the same way that yoga is about non-striving on the mat (for instance, accepting where you are in a pose instead of cranking yourself beyond your abilities), I could apply those principles off the mat. So after subbing out my classes for the first two weeks, I started teaching again, and am trying to be OK with the fact that my teaching is only verbal right now (as opposed to demonstrating poses the first time), and I can't get around to make as many adjustments to my students. Would I rather be able to demo and assist? Um...YES! But is it OK that I'm not? YES.

Similarly, I am trying to accept that my own practice can be a seated practice for right now and that's OK too. So I've been doing what poses I can within my home practice, and finally, Sunday night, ventured out to my friend Diana's fundraising class for animal rescue, where I spent the majority of the time in Child's Pose with my foot elevated on a rolled blanket. Yes, this was pretty frustrating and I desperately wanted to jump up and be able to do a "normal" practice, but I also think it does a soul good to be humbled once in a while.

So that's the latest. Any thoughts? What have been your experiences with injuries? How have you dealt mentally/physically?