Play your way out of pain?

Getting out of pain* involves a lot of learning and unlearning. Using the plasticity of the brain and nervous system to your advantage. We need to use the best learning methods we can.

Train your inner dog

I like to think of my brain/nervous system/body as a dog that I need to teach how to do things differently.  Or your inner 2 year old child, if that’s more where your expertise lies. 

Fun, exploration and curiosity are the best ways to wire new skills into our brain.

So, you will notice that when I introduce Alexander Technique concepts we are offering you ‘games’, and we invite you to:

• Play with a movement
• Be curious about your physical (and emotional) reactions
• Explore where your tension patterns are 
• Try things and see what happens for you 

All light, non judgemental ways of approaching your body.

And that is very deliberate. As soon as we start to force, expect,  have musts and shoulds, we shut down innovation. We are asking our body/brain to do something different from its old habits, so it needs to be able to get things ‘wrong’, while it works it out. It needs to ‘play’ and experiment.

Also, there is nothing like trying too hard to make you stiffen! If it’s just messing about, the pressure is off, and so you won’t trigger your tightening habits, and you might just find that ease in your body, and freedom of movement you are looking for.