Intelligence in Action
Vanishing Pain
by Graeme Lynn, GCFP, CSTAT
Many people live with pain in today's world - even those who have never suffered serious accidents or disease. We all know such people - or live with pain ourselves, whether constant or recurring. Yet most of us do not know why we have pain and often reach for aspirins, ibuprofen, or stronger drugs for relief.
Increasingly in recent years, people have turned for help to alternative therapies such as shiatsu, acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic. While these therapies are, like drugs, effective short-term remedies, they do not permanently resolve pain or other such problems as inflexibility, poor posture, musculoskeletal disorders, arthritic conditions, and so on. And so, one must return indefinitely to such therapists for the same pain relief and physical correction.
The reason for this cycle of pain relief and painful return is that most therapies deal only with symptoms - the painful sensations of inflammation, spinal misalignment, nerve impingement, muscle tightness, and so on - and not the present causes. The symptoms reappear because these causes have not been addressed. Yet, the present root of our pain and functional problems is simple: it is in the way we move and sense ourselves. Pain and physical limitation arise from our own faulty self-sensing and inefficient movement habits. And these can be readily and effectively improved.
There is a natural design of human function, developed over the millions of years of our evolution in the context of gravity. And we are graced with the most sophisticated of mechanisms for learning and adaptation, our human intelligence. We are meant and able to live in harmony with gravity, not weighed down by it. To live in such harmony we must and can re-adapt to this natural design. Then easeful, effective functioning will spontaneously re-emerge.
In the last century, two uniquely gifted individuals, F. M. Alexander and Moshe Feldenkrais, developed effective methods that facilitate the restoration of natural, pleasurable movement. Through the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method we can resolve ineffective sensory-motor patterns and re-adapt to our natural design. In the hands of an experienced practitioner, these methodologies can vanish pain and limitation at their source.
The Feldenkrais practitioner uses primarily gentle passive movements and 'goes with' the client's habitual pattern of coordination. By thus sensitively reflecting to the client his or her own characteristic patterning, the practitioner enables the person to become aware of, and thereby feel through, those very sensory-motor patterns that limit the quality of movement. This growing awareness is the foundation of coming to sense yourself better, and so re-awaken natural movement and resolve the sources of pain.
The Alexander teacher guides the client through primarily gentle active movements while always finding the easier way, by skillfully and sensitively working to rightly coordinate the person's core dynamic. At the same time, the teacher enlists the person's innate capacity to attend to him- or herself and become aware of habitual patterning and stimulates the individual's inherent power to let go of limiting patterns and go with the freeing process.
In addition, both methods provide interesting and effective ways of working on one's own between sessions, to quicken and deepen the process of regenerating the ability to move freely and pain-free.
Thus, our natural design, our inherent intelligence, and the great advances provided by these modern methods of movement science assure the resolution of limitations and pain and offer effective means to resolve other sensory-motor problems that may arise in our lives and further enhance the quality of life.
To schedule lessons, please contact Graeme in Toronto, Ontario, at 416-964-7026, or click to email.