What pain taught me when I stopped resisting it

Last summer, my legs hurt really badly for about a month. For about two weeks, I could barely walk, and I lost sleep every night because of the pain.

Looking back at that time, I realized something.

First, pain grows the more you push it away.
The more I got impatient—"Why isn't it getting better? I need to heal fast"—the more stress piled up and the worse the pain became. So at some point I changed my mindset. Okay, let me hurt as much as I need to. Let me accept this pain as it is. I focused on feeling the pain in detail and finding ways to make my body hurt less. Once the pressure to escape quickly disappeared, my mind became much lighter. And before I knew it, my condition started improving little by little. I felt again that no matter how bleak the pain is, it eventually passes.

Second, pain can leave traces of 'distortion.'
My right leg, which throbbed painfully for weeks, continued to limp unconsciously even after the pain faded, as a way to avoid it. It was like how fear from failure makes the mind shrink. I realized that even if it hurt a little, I had to endure it and find the courage to take proper steps.

Third, 'pain' is a signal your body is sending.
In a book I read recently, it said that sneezing and runny nose are signals that your body is fighting germs. My leg pain might also have been a powerful warning my body sent to prevent a bigger problem. I accepted that signal, looked at myself, and cut out all my bad eating habits, poor posture, the habit of only wearing slippers, and late-night snacks before bed. My body feels noticeably better now. If I keep up good habits going forward, maybe I'll avoid the big disaster that was supposed to come to me.

Now I stand on both feet again, and I walk well on both legs. I didn't know before how joyful and grateful an act walking could be.

Looking back, there's also a gift I gained through that pain.
I shed the bad habits I'd accumulated over a long time and gained new habits to maintain a healthy body going forward. And I gained a deep sense of gratitude for everyday activities I took for granted—walking, taking walks, doing yoga.
The belief that even impossibly difficult times eventually pass if you 'accept' them—won't that hold me together no matter what pain comes next?

Let me listen to my body's small signals just as much as my mind's. Taking care of those signals is what it means to take care of myself.