Movement and Maintenance While Suffering Pain and Limitation

True Wisdom

A person who suffers from severe pain in his shoulder may discover, to his horror, after having raised his hand up rather strenuously, that returning it to its original position is now accompanied by intense pain. Most people are in fact in such situation. They would lower the hand despite the excruciating pain, using the usual routine, sometimes even assisting its lowering with the other hand to accomplish the feat while biting their lip, believing that they have exhibited heroism and wisdom because they did not give up, and that they did not have any other choice.

A wise person, who is attentive to his body, who is creative with his movement, who understands that a conscious motion used in order to move his arm – though it’s rather painful and may be costly – who acquires appropriate tools for his needs, would search resourcefully for an alternative way to lower the hand in a suitable mechanical fashion. Such a person will certainly find an optimal way.

Hint: The safest way to lower the hand after being lifted up is by caressing 

the body, without lowering the height of the elbow at all.  Such a wise and resourceful person will place his palm on his head and from there he will caress his way downwardly through the face, neck, chest and all the way down to the abdomen.

Needless to Say, Most People Would Not Approach the Matter in Such a Way. Why Is That?

Most of us grew up believing in experts that are others, not ourselves. Doctors, therapists, etc. Most of us are in no hurry to personally undertake the responsibility for our health. We prefer to submit into the good hands of someone else, in this case, a committed therapist who will save us from ourselves time and again. The only job left for us to do, or so we erroneously reason, is to come to terms with the fact that we would remain dependent on the therapist forever.

In time, when the pain returns, we are indeed left with little choice but to go back to that therapist, thus ‘fulfilling the prophecy.’ Usually it’d happen more than once. As strange as it may sound, the people who stop and seek to learn how to take care of themselves are few and far between. Most individuals afflicted are just waiting for a savior who is another. In the absence of proper know-how, they become dependent on such a therapist.

Independently

It is possible to do it differently. We can learn how to take care of ourselves. And it’s worth it. Who else could be as available to us as ourselves? 😊

When moving gently while being attentive to the body; when we ascertain how to move out of compassion – we stop ruining things with habitual movements

That are abrasive and burdensome. We get to know our body, its abilities, its limitations of movement. We learn what movements facilitate ease and how to repeat them time and again, as necessary. When practicing in such a way, pain decreases, even disappears, without us becoming dependent on any external factor.

A Pleasant Experience

For individuals experiencing physical limitations, gentle movements, in accord with the Softness Method’s approach, could and should be a pleasant and liberating experience. Whether the ones being trained are in pain or restricted in their movement or not, the instructions are exactly the same in both cases: The training always keeps the practitioners out of the range of discomfort and pain. Reason, this soft approach not only prevents physical harm, it also assists stiff and calcified joints to become loose; thus, rather fluidly, partake in the movement.

A Teacher and Struggling Students

It is akin to a classroom teacher who wants to encourage struggling students (the stiff joints in the analogy) to participate in a class discussion (movement assignment). If the teacher fails to do that, the agile students (the worn-out overexerted joints) would conduct the discussion while preventing their struggling classmate (the stiff joints) from participating.

However, if the class discussion (the task entailing movement) would be steered softly, if the questions discussed are easy to handle, then chances are that the struggling students (the stiff joints) would tend to participate in the discourse (movement will be facilitated, as the burden is lifted).

As more joints (students in general) participate in the movement, the load would decrease correspondingly from those worn out joints that always participate in such movement, and pain would diminish correspondingly.

When such exercise is practiced in the most exact and correct manner, limitations and pain would be alleviated, without adding any additional pain (due to exercise itself). It will become effortless and no stretching is involved. In addition, it also improves physical fitness (at any age), posture, agility, the sense of bounciness in moving, flexibility, physical balance, even the quality of sleep.

If without stretching or pain, effortlessly, one can improve fitness, posture, flexibility and ease of movement, even decrease and eliminate pain along the way, what are we waiting for? For a peek at the Softness, the Strength of Physiotherapy and Feldenkrais Combined program, for individuals who are suffering serious pain and who want to nurture their body, click here.