It is ok to question what a professional might tell you.
I am going to get run out of town speaking like this. . . I will say it again and again; You were meant to move. You have many, many moving parts. It is my experience that students are often told to stop doing this or that – Don’t turn. Don’t rake. Don’t run. Of course, you should rest if you have a serious injury. But for chronic conditions, this thinking leads many people to use less of themselves. When you stop moving, THAT’S when you begin to hand over your well-being to others, who might not have the time to investigate the complexity of how you arrived at your discomfort. Much of our discomfort is not from a pathogen-borne disease process, but rather wear-and-tear from chronic stress and inhibited movement patterns.
By making your own comfort and well-being a priority, you can continue to move in health and without pain into your old age. You can develop the physical intelligence to move well and know what’s best for you, which is not always what’s convenient to the brief exam room encounter. This approach does not fit into a 15 minute time slot of the current medical insurance model. But it does work and will lead you to rich improvements in your quality of life.
Most importantly, participation in the Feldenkrais Method hands you back the reins of your well-being. You will learn how to move comfortably and not have to accept anyone else’s pronouncement of the limits to your improvement. This is very, very possible. It happens all the time. It just does not seem to happen enough in Monmouth County, NJ.
