Pain, posture & injury, how Feldenkrais helps

We all know what it is to feel pain – whether it’s short and sharp or something we live with every day. In fact, we learn to live with pain – when we break or injure something, when arthritis creeps up on us, when our shoulders and neck seize up after hours in front of a computer screen.

What might have started as a quick-to-heal injury can soon develop into life-limiting chronic pain.

Getting stuck in the pattern of pain

When we’re injured or our joints get stiff, we often start to move around the pain to avoid more damage. As we get stuck in those patterns, our movements become more and more limited – and the pain doesn’t go away.

Everything becomes an effort

When we’re hurting or are afraid of getting hurt, it’s hard to trust our bodies. So, we tense our muscles, holding our skeleton together rather than using it as a frame to support us.

The ‘no pain no gain’ myth

We’ve all heard that phrase – often in relation to exercise and fitness regimes. Feldenkrais works on the opposite principle, that we can’t learn to move more easily and reduce pain through force.

A journey of discovery

Through awareness through movement classes and individual functional integration lessons, Feldenkrais guides our bodies through gentle movements that interrupt the pain avoidance patterns and limiting habits we’ve developed. With this freedom, we can discover new possibilities – or simply rediscover movements we thought we’d never again enjoy.

Feldenkrais can…

• Relieve pain – by waking up our nervous system and enabling us to unlearn patterns that inhibit our movement and perpetuate pain
• Improve posture – by increasing our awareness and freeing up our muscles to work when they need to and rest when they don’t
• Help us to prevent and repair injuries – by gently exploring guided movements designed to restore and increase mobility.