Pain and Illness

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Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

What is the the Alexander Technique approach to posture and doing things when you are injured?

WE TEACH THE INJURED PERSON TO NOT WITHDRAW, HUNKER DOWN, OR SHUFFLE IN WALKING?

What does this mean in how you do what you do as you recover from physical injury?

When you see someone get around who has been injured, they almost always hunker down, shuffle when they walk, or favor an injured leg.

If they’re in pain, they tense and raise they’re shoulders.

What is it the injured individual is doing with all of this shuffling, raising of shoulders, and hunkering down?

I believe they want to go somewhere and hide and recover, and not participate in the world, because they’re hurting. What if they have to still participate, work etc., especially if the injury is going to take a long time to heal?

THEN, THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHES YOU NOT TO FEED THE INJURY.

What does not feeding the injury mean?

It means if you have a leg injury, you move in a gentle kind way, as close to normal as you can. This is not walking being tough and stoic and trying to hide the injury, by forcing yourself to move as uninjured outwardly as you can.

This is walking as close to uninjured Alexander Technique good use walking as you can. But there is no problem if you can’t.

What do I mean?

If the injury will not allow you to walk, to use the injured leg the same way as the uninjured leg, then YOU DON’T!

What do you do?

YOU TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR WHOLE BODY AND CHOOSE WHAT WORKS, HEAD TO TOE, THAT ALLOWS YOU NOT TO HUNKER DOWN, OR TENSE AND DRAG YOUR LEG OR EXACERBATE THE INJURY.

You do what you need to do to move with released muscles throughout the body. When we’re injured we tense up head to toe to suppress the pain.

Does this work? NO!

Tensing up physically is what we we do to suppress pain, physical and/or emotional.

Again, tensing up and hunkering down and locking your shoulders doesn’t work.

In fact it spreads the leg injury to your whole body, and you start experiencing your whole body as injured.

YOU ARE NOW INJURING YOUR WHOLE BODY!

Now, you do have to compensate for an injury, but what the Alexander Technique teaches you to do is not feed the injury, to not use postural and movement compensations that prolong recovery.

When I get injured it is an act of will for me to not lock my body down to suppress the pain.

Most of us do this, because it is what we’ve done our whole lives, and it seems to be what injured humans are hardwired to do.

WHAT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE OFFERS THE CLIENT IS A WAY TO CONSCIOUSLY ASSIST THEIR BODY IN RECOVERY BY NOT JUST RELYING ON TIME AND WISHFUL THINKING THAT YOU’LL GET BETTER.

You do have a choice to recover more quickly and kindly.