Let’s start with what happens when you feel pain, persistent pain. It can feel like a kind of failure.
My clients show me what they turn their attention to when they face persistent pain that doesn’t just go away.
- They turn their attention inward, blaming themselves for not being better.
- Or they turn their attention outward, blaming external events or rarer, naming what needs to change so they can end their pain. And their sense of failure.
- They might turn their attention backwards to past times when they faced pain like this.
- Or they might turn their attention forwards to what they will try in their next attempt to resolve their pain.
Facing failure to resolve your pain is vulnerable.
Pain is good at capturing our attention.
But when we focus on all the places that hurt, we tend to stop being curious. We have learned how to move well enough. When those habits lead us to pain, we could get curious on how to uplevel our movement habits. And become the person who no longer faces persistent pain.
When I work with clients to improve how they move, our work together always includes habits of belief as well as physical movement habits.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says,
“
❝𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙮. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙮𝙥𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 (𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮). 𝙏𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙮-𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙨. ❞
What I love about using the Feldenkrais Method with my clients is seeing them identify beliefs about themselves as part of a movement exploration. Seeing these identity-based habits often opens new possibilities in their movement. These new possibilities seed new beliefs about themselves. In a Move Freely session, you don’t just move your body, you move yourself.
When you face a personal limit, the place where what you already know how to do isn’t enough; this is the place to learn. Curiosity sources your courage to learn something more when you face failure.
Curiosity creates the place where you can discover something more about yourself that helps you become more than you thought you could be.
Unlike lifelong therapeutic treatments, the approach I offer begins with a desire to stop pain and ends with my clients beginning a next chapter doing physical movements they love.
Looking to recover? Set up a free 30 minute recovery discovery call so you can learn about possible pathways to a fuller movement recovery.