How to cope with a fresh injury that stops you doing what you love

Marc wrote to me saying: I've just been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and have had to stop running, which is really annoying since there are a few races coming up I was really looking forward to, and loads of my friends are racing but I can't. Can you offer any pearls of wisdom?

Well Marc, yes I can but they might not be quite what you expect...

In addition to physical treatments such as a bit less running for a while, rolling your foot over a lacrosse ball and doing exercises like picking up a pen with your toes, offloading your foot by mobilising your toes and ankles, dealing with plantar fasciitis (and many slow-onset injuries) is often helped with a mindset shift...

Of course injuries that get in the way of us doing the things we love are incredibly frustrating. Often the more frustrated we get, the worse the problem gets and the more we suffer. So here is something that can help a lot with the frustration:

Usually when we get injured we focus on what we can’t do, and the meaning we associate with this is what makes us suffer more than the actual injury itself.

So changing the meaning can often help. This goes for injuries or pain of any duration.