I Woke Up With Missing Body Parts

And I used some (free) techniques to feel better.

I met with an accident when I was 15. I jumped from a height and fell directly on my knees. I got diagnosed with a minor ACL tear on both my knees but life has been normal.

Until last year.

The ACL or Anterior Crucial Ligament is one of the major ligaments of your knees. It is located between your femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone). It helps the two connect so you have a stable knee.

When you jump laterally or can do high-intensity moves in dancing or exercising, you stay completely safe because this ligament helps you maintain stability.

For a long time, things have been fine because until I was 18 I jerked my knee a couple of times. When you do something you’re not supposed to with this injury (sudden pivotal move), you get a shooting pain and have to rest for weeks.

After jerking it every now and then I understood what is okay and what isn’t. In fact, I worked extremely hard and lost 50lbs even though I could not run or jog.

I attained my fitness goal to battle obesity by putting just a little extra effort than I would have needed without this injury.

In short, life has been good.

And then one fine day, I woke up without ligaments.

What It Means to Not Have Ligaments

My doctors were shocked about my healthy and active lifestyle which has been maintained for the last few years. They told me that with this intensity of an injury I should have been weak and limping a long time ago.

Ideally, you get surgery when you get a minor tear itself. At this point, this wasn’t a minor tear because the tissue was missing.

Let’s get a fun comparative insight:

• When you have a cut, the wound heals in a few days.
• When you fracture your bone, your bone gets cured in months.
• When you tear a ligament, it doesn’t have the power to regenerate.

The small tear never got fixed, hence the ligaments degenerated over 8 years.

While the doctors say I will eventually require surgery and my friends are shocked I survived with a tear all these years, my opinion is different.

I think I will make my way through life with it perfectly fine even if the world says otherwise.

I have been defying science for almost a decade, and I don’t see myself stopping.

How It Impacts Life

A tiny list of things which you cannot do:

• Jump (includes dancing and other similar activities)
• Run
• Anything with twists

If you’re a sportsperson, a surgery is crucial at an initial level itself. If you’re not a sportsperson and have reached the stage where I am, you have to get surgery.

I have friends who tore their ACL and got surgeries as well because that’s the only solution.

And people love solutions when they’re told that they have no other option.

How Have I Been Unaffected?

I won’t say I haven’t had bad days. I have.

But I am as normal as you because in my head I don’t limit myself to a mere injury.

“Our life is the creation of our mind.”

—Buddha

Studies that measure the Placebo effect have constantly proven that a positive outlook can help you battle an illness. Even brain imaging has shown how our thoughts affect the chemistry of our brain and lead to the secretion of hormones accordingly.

I strongly believe that if you feed yourself a negative thought, you will manifest it onto you.

I don’t just believe, I am a living example to prove this belief right. And there are millions around the world like me who have come out of more critical illnesses and situations.

So what happens if you feed yourself good thoughts?

You cultivate goodness, in abundance.

I have never thought about my injury in the last 9 years. I have taken precautions, but my being injured has never even been at the back of my head.

My body does not recognise a small body part damaged or missing because every day I write down about how grateful I am for my body.

Why Did I Write This?

I didn’t write this as a journal because it doesn’t hold so much importance in my life. Maybe I have learned to live with it, maybe I am indifferent to it.

I’ve pretty much forgotten how life was with normal knees.

I am writing this for you to know the power of your mind over your body.

While some of us have a visible (or invisible as for me) defect, it's only a defect when you let it be one.

Out of 15 trillion cells in our body that fight for our wellbeing relentlessly, we find it easier to worry about some tiny issue we face.

I want you to know that nothing can harm you unless you let it.

We have had survivors of terminal illnesses who made their way out by positive thoughts and visualisations. These are really, really powerful techniques when applied.

I mean, I have been doing okay for a decade with something most people get treated for in a few weeks!

3 Steps to Stubbing Pain

I have tried and tested these techniques. They are followed by millions across the globe. In short, the sample size is good enough to tell you it will most likely work for you to lead a better life.

Be grateful every day for your body.

I can’t emphasise enough on what a big deal it is to wake up healthy to a fully functional body. A lot of people don’t. Waking up to another day to live life is an absolutely beautiful opportunity!

Stop focussing on the 10%.

How many problems do you have as compared to what's going well in life? Your brain fools you to take action about 10% of negative events around you.

The power of this negativity is so strong that you get blind-sided to 90% of great things — whether its life situations, relationships or your body.

I know you are better than that, you just have to realise it. Which you have if you’re reading this.

Problems are like a plant.

They grow when we nurse them and give them the attention they need. Ignore them, and you won’t feel it.

I have been ignoring a physical problem. It’s not a thought which troubles me and I can get away with, I constantly feel it. I used to.

Until I stopped giving it the attention it was asking for.

When we’re suffering, it is normal to nurse the thoughts about our suffering and only grow the pain. But you don't have to.

I hope you choose to dodge whatever negative thoughts you’ve been nursing and choose to turn.

Your thoughts and your life.