Three years ago, I ruptured three disks in my neck. The injury happened right after my husband and I closed the doors of our restaurant. It was a recurrence of an older injury, brought on by another period of high stress and low self-care.

Complicating things, my black belt test in Okinawan Kenpo was coming up soon. Rehabbing my neck injury while training for my black belt test was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and also one of my greatest joys. The thing that made it work was everyone on my medical team agreed that my best rehabilitation was doing the work of training for the test.

There were a lot of ups and downs, my neck would get better—then plateau. As the date of my test approached and it was clear I would not be fully healed in time, My Sensei gave me a choice of taking the test on time with modifications to keep me safe while also making it appropriately difficult for a black belt test, or postpone a few months and take a more traditional test.

I opted to postpone and take the more traditional test. Nine months after the onset of the injury, I was healed enough to take the test. It was one of the most nerve-wracking yet funnest days of my life.

During this process, I learned that I needed to test with the body that I had and not the body I wished I had. After a lifetime of ignoring my physical needs, I had to finally reconcile with my body.

To honor this journey's anniversary I’m writing a series of six posts to reflect upon and share the lessons I learned.

For this post, I invite you to remember a time in your life when you had to dig deep to accomplish a goal. As you reflect, consider these questions:

• What strengths or qualities did you call upon to push through?

• Where else do these strengths show up, and how can you use them today?

• You’ve proven your resilience—how can it guide you now?

Please share your thoughts and join me as I continue reflecting on my journey. Next time, I’ll discuss how my martial arts training transformed rehabbing a painful injury into one of the most joyful periods of my life—a story so transformative, I’m turning it into a book. 

Part 1 of 6