Working Away From The Pain
In the Feldenkrais Method®, we work away from the problem area, instead of tackling it head-on.
Usually, we seek out someone or something to fix our problem, as if there is one answer to our pain. We are fragile beings who thrive on looking outside ourselves to get repaired. And when we find the right remedy, we swear by it until the pain comes back, and then we find another.
I'm not proposing that we don't need one another and all of the expertise that heals our pained community. I am a huge fan of being worked on –– in moderation. But I’m even a bigger fan of being worked with, because this promotes long-term sustainability.
In other words, I want to do the work, plus have the awareness of what I am doing, so that I can be informed. Inner healing and prolonged functioning can only come from self-awareness and inner guidance. Practitioners (including myself) are only here to facilitate space for inner listening, as well as temporary relief.
For example: when a student/client asks me about their shoulder pain, I give them a few postural suggestions and we discuss their daily function, i.e. sleeping position, work environment, the shoes they wear, etc. I almost prefer not to address the pain, because they are already fixated on that region of the body. Why not introduce them to another part of themselves? Like their ability to sense the contact of their inner heel with the ground, so that they can use the entire structure of the foot to support themselves, and allow the floor to take the weight of the whole body. Just a few days of this type of shift in focus can work wonders on the spine and allow the shoulder girdle to hang as it's designed to do.
If we allow ourselves to slow down, we may find that we can locate the problem on our own, without intervention. Sure, maybe the shoulder is out of alignment and we need an adjustment to feel balanced again. But can we accept that there might be a movement pattern (movement = locomotion + thought + emotion + feeling) that may be creating this parasitic holding? Are you willing to slow down enough in your day to uncover this pattern, and in turn create a new pathway of comfort?
In this way we get to the root of the problem; we do not mask it, ignore it, or confuse it with some outside force that might be determining our path.