While running, dancing, playing sports, sure, we are going to injure ourselves. Yes, this is unfortunate, but we expect it. It happens to professional athletes all of the time and it happens to us.

I'm talking about the back strain while emptying the dishwasher, the shoulder strain when reaching for something high on the shelf or that first step after sitting for a while that feels hellish on the ankle. None of these things have any reason for happening. After all, we do them all of the time. This is classic disempowerment.

"Really," we say to ourselves. "I can't reach for something on the top shelf without straining a shoulder?"

This sort of experience often puts us at war with our bodies. As though they have let us down in some way. This only leads to further disempowerment.

"God damn shoulder," we might say to ourselves.

Or blame another.

"Why does he put the fricking salad bowl on the top shelf? I'm going to go give him a piece of my mind."

We injure ourselves sometimes doing next to nothing. This is inevitable. So tell the story to a friend and have a good laugh. Our bodies serve us so well so much of the time, but sometimes picking up a pot when cooking will cause strange, sharp hand pain, and this pain will shoot up our arm. We may then feel pain when gripping anything for a week.

So it goes. When we cannot bring levity and acceptance to the inevitable, we instead feel disempowered, which begets greater disempowerment.