Reframing pain, or why a fish needs water like you need the Alexander Technique. Part 2

Following part one, I’ll finish off my story from pain to relief, the life changing benefits of the Alexander Technique and the essential stage of getting to know yourself well in all your discomfort. 

From pain to relief with Alexander Technique

I had been dealing with pain for years at work. Despite pouring thousands into visits to physio, chiropractors, osteos and various therapies, none of which were covered by insurance, I found little respite.

Then at one of my last jobs, I was not just sitting down for too long with all my injuries from rugby, but bathing in the stress that comes from being under pressure, being undermined and overwhelmed, overthinking and overscheduling. It was then that my body oscillated between collapse and rigidity, trapped in this seesaw throughout the day, restless and under pressure.

Injuries that had not been addressed with rehabilitation were made worse by the recurring wear and tear from repetitive day-to-day motions. Motion is lotion, but when my body got stuck, parts of it became locked and jammed whilst moving, losing critical alignment. Like a clock's gears grinding against each other without oil, the lack of movement and lubrication led to tension and knots like rust on badly-oiled gears, causing it to strain with each movement.

In 2019, my daily existence was marred by relentless, debilitating pain. Desperate for relief, it was then that I turned to attending an Alexander Technique training school initially intending to commit only to the first few months. Yet, as I immersed myself in the program, I discovered its transformative power getting out of pain faster and staying out of pain longer. Through hands-on guidance and verbal cues five or six times a day, I learned to move with more ease and less pain in everyday activities like sitting, standing, and walking. 

I learnt that recognising that you're stressed, collapsed, rigid, or misaligned is just the beginning. There's an essential stage of getting to know yourself well, even in discomfort. To find out what your water is like (you’ll have to read part 1 to understand the analogy).

Getting to know yourself

Your body gets acclimatised to your scrunched, rigid or collapsed position. Imagine stepping out of a steaming hot shower into the cool air of your bathroom. Suddenly, the room temperature feels chilly against your warm skin, highlighting the contrast between the two environments. Similarly, your sensory perception can be influenced by immediate experiences, such as habits or tensions within the body, which can distort our awareness of what feels truly comfortable and natural.

As strains and knots build up, your body sense is muffled and you can't sense what you used to be able to. It’s like when you’re doing up buttons on your clothes with gloves on. At first, you might not notice the differences in texture until you find you can’t get the buttons in. Similarly, You body no longer gets the information it needs to help you move with ease. 

When you’re in pain, movement is sensed to be dangerous so you brace to protect yourself. Your habit of bracing against the pain has become so ingrained that you don’t notice it. Now it's as if the handbrake is engaged while you're still trying to drive the car forward.

All of this compounds, one on top of the other. By layering tension upon tension, you subject your muscles, joints, bones, and nerves to further unnecessary stress and strain. Over time, this accumulation of tension can lead to further muscle imbalance, postural misalignment, and heightened discomfort.

How’s the water?

So what's your water like? I'll sum up how mine was before Alexander Technique.

Bathing in stressful, polluted water. Overheating and not realising.

Stepping out of the hot shower and feeling cold. 

Attention oscillating between distraction, thought loops and over-focusing. 

Body collapsed then rigid, seesawing between the two.

Muffling gloves on. 

Bracing into movement with the handbrake still on and not knowing. 

Do you truely want to know what your water is like?

What is the Alexander Technique?

At its heart, Alexander Technique is the skill of recognising how the water is in your body and mind, and effortlessly shifting your awareness to have the freedom to move. 

You can learn to interrupt your thinking and movement patterns consciously, because persistently relying on familiar patterns prevents learning new ones. Continuing to bathe in the polluted water involves applying a familiar response to a new situation. This imposition of existing responses by the protective part of our mind can impede progress. Only by relinquishing the urge to impose familiar responses, can you allow the innate capabilities of your body to self-organise and respond with more ease and less pain.  When you learn to stop doing the wrong thing with Alexander Technique, then the right thing can happen automatically. This may sound improbable, but it becomes self-evident once you experience it. 

The really important skill in life and Alexander Technique is this effortless shift in your awareness. Learning to value the importance of this presence and engagement required to move with more ease and freedom. The alternative is never knowing how the water is, mindless movement impeding your sets and reps of rehabilitation exercises (or insert your pain relief strategy that’s not cutting through).  Believing the specialist who says there's nothing wrong with you or there is no answer - that you'll be like this forever.