Every day is a learning experience...we never know all there is to know and should never close our minds to things we are often too ignorant to realize. Although today's lesson is one that seems like a no brainer when you have a skewed mindset and perception of your body it is easy to push  yourself too hard. My lesson today was that it is okay to be hurt. No one likes to get/be hurt, but it happens. I expect far too much from myself sometimes and push the limits to a dangerous extreme. Losing sight of my goals is what often leads me to do stupid things that end up hurting. Yesterday I went to boot camp and felt a little bit of pain in my hip flexor but chose to ignore it. After my afternoon class I went to the gym and was feeling pretty good so I decided to alternate between walking on incline, running, and sprinting. My hip flexor started to hurt even more but I thought I could just walk it out...unfortunately that was not going to help. Last night after work I had dance practice where I began by taking it easy during warm-ups and was marking most of the moves in the routine...until I got carried away and started practicing full out. During practice my hip flexor did not hurt but as soon as practice was over and I walked to my car...it hurt to just walk. This morning I woke up hoping it would be better, but it was not. At boot camp I felt the pain as well and I tried extremely hard to do everything full out, but I had to face the fact that I was hurt and ask for some modifications for a few of the exercises.
My mindset is that if I am not doing something full out that everyone else is doing then I am failing. This is a common mindset among people, especially athletes. There is so much pressure we put on ourselves to exceed, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes to your well-being it is bad. It is important to keep in mind that being hurt is not the end of the world, but continuing to workout through the pain could be the end of the world. The most minor injuries can turn into the biggest due to ignorance. My hip flexor may be badly pulled right now, but if I do the necessary treatments and rest to take care of it then hopefully by the end of the week it will be better. 
Finding the fine line between when to push harder and when to ease up can be very hard for people who hard fiercely driven to exceed at all costs. My biggest fear in not being able to perform all of the exercises today was that somehow it made me less successful and I was going to gain weight..sounds rediculous right?! That's because it is. The way my mind works when it comes to things in regards to my body is illogical. I have my good days and bad days when it comes to my views of my body and life..we all have our ups and downs but I am trying to actively diminish my downs. I am trying to look at this as a learning experience. I love working out and if i want to continue to go hard and get the healthy toned body i want, i need to take good care of it. 
The road to obtaining the body we want is going to have bumps along the way, if it didn't then it would be easy. Nothing in life worth having is ever easy. I don't know about anyone else, but victory tastes so much sweeter knowing i worked by A** off to get there! I've hit a bump in the road but that does not mean I am not going to reach my goal, nor does it mean I am a failure. Word of advice: Take care of your body and try to prevent injuries as best as you can by listening to your body. Here is a link for some preventative exercises :)
Hip Flexor Exercises
Prevent Groin Strain
Prevent Shin Splints

It is easy to squeeze these exercises into your normal routing and well worth it in the end when you are able to walk around injury free!