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How can the Alexander Technique benefit the individual
suffering from chronic pain?
What is the origin of pain and how does it work in
us? Pain sends a strong and urgent signal to our brain
about the location in our body of tension, injury or
disease. It triggers our instincts for flight or fight
and therefore our heart rate rises, our breath shortens,
our muscles contract and posture compresses in order
for us to meet these demands of flight or fight. When
our muscles contract we feel less sensation, thus the
contraction of muscles acts as the body’s anaesthetic.
These natural processes which allow us to continue
to function in difficult circumstances tend to start
working against us in the case of chronic pain because
increased heart rate and shortness of breath can become
a habit and when muscles contract there is also less
blood circulation which can severely reduce our movement,
and these factors can erode the health of tissues. Eventually
the entire body can be caught up in the ultimate distraction
of continual pain. Chronic pain drains our resources
limiting severely how we relate and function which can
lead to anxiety, depression and insomnia
During a series of one to one lessons with an Alexander
teacher it is possible to progressively free the body
and mind from the acquired habits associated with chronic
pain so that the body’s natural responses once
again begin to work in your favour. If the source of
your pain is postural or muscular, the Alexander Technique
offers you the possibility of eliminating it completely.
If the source of your pain is disease, by learning with
the Alexander Technique how to use your body in a more
efficient manner with the minimum of effort and strain
you can begin to shift your entire system from a state
of alarm to one of calm, thereby creating the best conditions
for you in which to heal yourself of disease.
The chronic pain sufferer with his ultimate distraction
can very often be so caught up in his relation with
pain that the idea of learning from a teacher how to
move will probably appear totally irrelevant to his
pain and the approach of a teacher and pupil relationship
wholly inappropriate to his condition. In these cases
the work of the Alexander Technique can begin with the
pupil lying down on a table for the greater part of
the lesson while the teacher works towards the maximum
lengthening and widening of the structure of the physical
frame thereby creating the best conditions for the individual
to be less distracted by his pain and from this point
the development of the desire to want to progressively
participate in ones own cure can evolve. Indeed it is
not possible to bring about a cure of the whole being
without the help and co-operation of the individual
concerned because without understanding and addressing
the habit of movement associated with what ails us we
will automatically return to what is familiar to us,
even if this familiarity is unhelpful and compounds
our problem.
Pills, potions, massages, exercises and manipulation
of joints can help many people in the right place at
the right time, but for the person in chronic pain they
can all too often create cycles of dependency and addiction
which give at best very short term relief , because
the body and mind of the chronic pain sufferer is rarely
in a state to assimilate the change that these things
may bring about. The Alexander Technique being a pre-technique
can offer a strong basis for the possibility of change
for those suffering with chronic pain by creating the
right conditions for change, can bring about that change
by working with a teacher giving guidance with the hands,
and it can give a new direction to the postural and
respiratory mechanisms which underlie all our movements
and our thoughts about our movements.
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