Injuries are common in athletes in high-intensity sports, they happen ALL. THE. TIME., and at the worst possible times too. It doesn't matter how hard you try to prevent them, they're going to happen sooner or later, and you just have to deal with it.

This summer, one of my old injuries in my hip flexor came back, and it was brutal. I was constantly on my feet 40 hours a week at work, and when I tried to work out for long periods of time, my hip fell into excruciating pain. I knew something was wrong, so I got help.

I healed physically, but even though that was hard, the hardest part is the mental healing. You can physically be okay and free of pain, but that does not mean you are fully healed. Coming back from an injury can be tough, and sometimes your brain just does not think you can do it.

You have to really push through it to get anywhere, but with that, you also have to know when to stop and let your body rest. It's a balancing act that I don't think anyone ever perfects, simply because each injury needs to be dealt with and treated differently.

For example, it took me around 6 weeks after my ankle was healed from peroneal tendinitis to get back into dancing full out, 15 hours per week, and even then, it was painful. But for my ankle injury 4 years prior, I was able to get back into things immediately. With this injury, I struggled more mentally than physically.

I had a lot going on to add to the pressure of getting back into dancing, and it didn't help that my self-esteem was already low. The first time I danced was dance team tryouts, and I left the first night, not in physical pain, but upset because I wasn't picking things up as quickly and my leaps didn't look as good as they had 5 months prior. It felt like I plateaued, and that made things worse.

I really had to focus on the task at hand and focus on my love for dancing instead of the things I didn't think I could do as well as I used to. I had to work extremely hard and still do some days. Because of this injury, I'm too afraid to go for tricks that I know I have the potential to do or I've done in my sleep before, and it's the most frustrating thing. But, it's all in my head.

I know that if I keep working and pushing the negative thoughts out of my head, then I will keep improving and the mental healing will get better. But as I said before, it's hard. Like, super hard. Most people don't realize that you can be healed physically, but not mentally.

Mental healing post-injury requires time, but I promise it will come. It may not come as soon as you would like, but it will come.