Recovering from injuries is never easy, but with proactive planning the process can be a lot more tolerable. It’s helpful to keep in mind that as you rebuild your body you are also remodeling your mind and spirit. Come back strong from an injury and you will build patience, strength of character, compassion and an appreciation for the gifts and limitations of your body. Below you will find a few things that I found helpful while recovering from my recent knee surgery.

Find a network of support.

This may include family, friends and teammates, but most importantly it should include other injured athletes or fitness enthusiasts. Connecting with others who are in the same or similar situation can help on many levels. Your fellow recovering comrades can provide encouragement, rehab suggestions and referrals to professionals that may be able to assist in your recovery. Perhaps most important is being around other athletes in various stages of recovery. These are your people and they will help you to remember that you are not alone.

Keep tabs on your mental and physical health.

Recovering from an injury or surgery can be difficult, daunting and very isolating; especially if you are accustomed to the mutual support and encouragement of team or group activities. Several other factors may contribute to a downward spiral of your mental health including: difficulties with doing everyday actives such as shopping or laundry, mood swings, frustration with your situation and an inability to take part in the sports or activities that you love. It’s important to regularly check in with your self as chronic black moods and hopelessness can easily lead to depression. If you are accustomed to enjoying endorphin releasing workouts several times a week you may discover that you are feeling uncharacteristically hopeless, lethargic and generally down. Make sure you stay in contact with people who care about you and see your primary doctor about short term antidepressant medication or therapy if things get too bleak.

Learn everything you can about your situation.

Don’t be afraid to be a difficult and demanding patient (studies have shown that this kind of patient often has the best outcome). Most of us learned how to behave at the doctor’s office when we were six. We were taught to sit still, keep quiet and wait bravely for the lollipop. None of these tactics are particularly effective for your adult rehabilitation. Don’t be afraid to pipe up and ask your doctor the difficult questions or get a second or third opinion. Talk to as many people and professionals as you can about your condition. The knowledge you acquire will give you options and help you to feel like an active participant in your own recovery.

Keep a recovery journal.

This is the place to write your questions and answers, track the progress of your physical therapy and workouts and just vent about your injury and its impact on your life. Make sure you date the entries so that you can look back and appreciate the both the mental and physical progress that you have made.

Get creative with your workouts.

Most people recovering from a serious injury are unable to participate in many of the activities they did before the injury. If you are a runner or basketball player and your doctor has released you to swim, this may sound like wet torture. If your physical therapist has given you what seems like a never ending list of boring, little exercises. How many leg lifts or hip bridges can a person do before they go insane? This is where your support network of fellow injured athletes can come in handy. What kind of clever workouts did they devise in their darkest hours to stave off insanity? If you are going to a therapist don’t be afraid to ask for different exercises if you have been doing the same ones until overwhelming boredom. Don’t hesitate to look silly by creating your own water workout in the shallow end of the pool, doing strange exercises in the weight room or taking a class that your pre-injury self would have scoffed at. The quicker you loose the pride, the quicker you will recover.

Be flexible about your athletic future.

If several respected professionals inform you that it is unwise for you to participate in a certain activity then you probably shouldn’t. At this juncture I would recommend having a sport funeral and period of mourning for the thing that you have lost (I’m serious). Something important in your life that you invested time, energy and emotion into has been unceremoniously yanked away. Feel sorry for yourself, get upset, curse the sporting gods and then wipe your eyes, get up off the floor and figure out what you are going to do next. There are many different sports in the world and now is the time to figure out which ones you will take on in the next phase of your life.

Pre-habilitation or how you can keep this from happening again.

Whether you are injury prone or not there are steps you can take to keep this unfortunate situation from happening again. Work with a physical therapist or really good trainer to develop a pre-habiliative plan that will take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of your body and the demands of your chosen activity places. A few short, focused workouts a week can go along way toward extending your athletic longevity.