Embrace physical suffering, or try to avoid it?

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I have a lot of injuries from high school sports, and I want to get back to playing basketball again and being active. I can be scrupulous at times so Im not sure what to do. If you saw one of my earlier posts I will not do yoga, but I found some stretches and workouts that might help. Should I give the workouts a try or should I embrace the suffering to my body like Christ did? I really don’t want to look for happiness in other places because I know it’s not anywhere other than in Christ.

I should also mention that the injuries can really bothers me at times when I pray.

What do you think? Am I being scrupulous or does God want me to draw closer to him through the suffering ? 🤷
 
Stretch, Heal. Physical suffering from neglect and abuse doesn’t please God at all. Catechism says:
2288 Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
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Any damage to your joints now will come back and haunt you many times over when you get to middle age and beyond. Embrace it all you want then. Right now take care of your body.
 
OK, one thing that I think about is that Christ was willing to suffer for our sake, but he didn’t desire to be tortured to death. He said that he would do not has he willed, but as the Father willed.

So, if you are in a situation where you have aches and pains that are not avoidable, then yes, live your life and then unite your suffering to the suffering of Christ on the cross. That’s very powerful - and given your question, I highly recommend reading some books on Padre Pio.

My opinion is that there is plenty enough suffering in the world to go around, so we need not create additional suffering on our own. If you’d like to play a role in building the Kingdom, then make an offer to God that he should give to you some of that suffering. I suggest that you **not **do something like this without a very deep prayer life already ingrained into your habits.
 
Go and see your doctor and/or physiotherapist who will tell you what you can and can’t do physically. Offer up the sufferings which can’t be helped together with your obedience to your health professionals.
 
I’ve done physical therapy and I’ve tried going to the chiropractor, and nothing has really gotten any better. Trust me, if I could make the sufferings disappear I probably would.

I just don’t know if I should keep trying other alternatives or if I should just offer my pain up to God.
 
Avoid what you can and offer the rest up to God. And thank Him for giving you a way to find relief!

Don’t *refuse *to do exercises and stretching which relieve your pain *because *you want to offer it up–that sort of thing should be done **only **under guidance of a spiritual director by a person very advanced in holiness. If you try to do too much, beyond your spiritual strength, you could get discouraged and fall into despair.
 
I have used this statement before, and I will use it again in this situation: We are a faith of balance and moderation.

Martyrs accept their suferings --they don’t purposely go out of their way to increase their sufferings or avoid reasonable medical treatment.

People in our faith history who endured physical sufferings did NOT go out of their way to avoid treatment or try to increase their pain.
 
alright the consensus is in. I will try to workout again 🙂

May the peace of God be on you all. Thank you for the advice
 
maxdouglas402 said:
I’ve done physical therapy and I’ve tried going to the chiropractor, and nothing has really gotten any better. Trust me, if I could make the sufferings disappear I probably would.

I just don’t know if I should keep trying other alternatives or if I should just offer my pain up to God.
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If you’re not going to injure yourself further (Ie: Chronic injuries) then you might as well get as much merit out of them by offering up your suffering in reparation for sins.
 
Max, remember that the people, including myself, you have been offering you advice are not health professionals and even if they were they would not offer advice re your physical condition without a physical examination. Don’t take our advice as if it were from a health professional in their consulting room. You spoke of going to a chiropractor, do you have physiotherapists in the USA? Perhaps you need a referral to a pain management clinic.
 
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