Relieving chronic pain
For years I suffered back and shoulder pains. Whenever the pain appeared, I put it out of my mind and continued working–at first this happened without my even being conscious that pain was present, so complete was my focus on my work. Gradually, over time, the pain increased and grew more frequent, to the extent that I could not ignore it and it began to interfere with my ability to concentrate. Even this level of pain I accepted for a long time as a part of growing older, believing I could not do anything about it.
Many have experienced this kind of pain themself and continue to experience it as a chronic condition. Typically, they cannot remember when the pain first appeared. Once the realisation came, it was clear to them they had been in pain for a while and not acknowledged the fact.
Biomechanical pain (especially back pain) is one of the two greatest causes of people missing work. It is clearly a source of distress to sufferers. It also has a harmful knock-on effect on employers and the wider economy.
While the experience of this kind of pain is widespread, different people have differing attitudes and reactions towards it:
Some accept as a fact of life that they are in pain. They (sometimes literally) grit their teeth and get on with their lives, accepting a diminished range of possibilities.
Some get treatment from a therapist or take painkillers and mostly feel temporary relief, needing regular treatments to keep the symptoms under control.
Some perceive that their pain does not have to be a fact of life and seek to discover and remove the underlying cause–with greater or lesser success. This can be a small step like taking up yoga. Or as dramatic as resigning from a job and moving to a new country.
The fact that so many of us live with pain for a period of time–in some cases years–before even acknowledging something is amiss tells us that we are insufficiently aware of our self.
Let’s dig deeper to understand where this kind of pain comes from. The immediate cause of my back pain is ineffective organization of my self (my skeleton and muscles) for the task I am carrying out, causing some part or parts of me to be overly tense. Over time this tension can become habitual and even constant. The cause of my inability to organize my self effectively may be obvious (for example, recovering from injury) or may be impossible to determine for sure (in my case it appeared to be largely stress-related and perhaps some old injuries also played a part). But assigning a cause is not necessary. What is needed is to recognize ineffective self-organization for what it is, and become curious about it: what is this pain trying to tell you?
The logical next question is: what can I do to discover a more effective way to use my self for the task in hand? Which parts of my self are contributing to the pattern of movement associated with pain? How can I move past long-held habits and learn to change how I use those parts to organize my self differently? Only by going through a process of self-discovery can we give our self more choice about how we move, sit and stand. This is not about understanding in an abstract way that different patterns of behaviour are possible. It is about experiencing how those different patterns feel, and sensing from within how to create them. Not only can we reduce pain, we can also offer ourselves new possibilities.
That process of self-discovery is exactly what the Feldenkrais Method is about. People report not only reduced chronic pain, but also more freedom of movement, feeling more ‘at home in their skin’, and being more hopeful and more present in their daily lives. I am one of those people.
What experience do you have with biomechanical pain? What do you do to reduce pain? Please leave a comment.