Holding on to hurt

I woke up with a splitting headache this morning, I have no idea why. When I sat to meditate I noticed tight patches of tension around my neck, shoulders and face. The tension might be the cause of the pain. Or was it the effect? Or both? I was definitely tensing against the pain, especially with my facial muscles (do you grimace when you have pain?) and I observed a subtle restriction of my breathing.

What if…?

What if I stopped reacting to the painful stimulus? What if I just let the headache be? Of course that’s easier said than done but I allowed myself to play with the idea. If everything is connected then surely my reactions to this unpleasant feeling would also be having an effect on my overall mental/emotional/physical state. There are many pathways to change, and sometimes a simple shift in attitude can bring about huge shifts elsewhere. In Alexander Technique work we call this idea of not-reacting inhibition.

Inhibition is a principle of AT that allows us to create a space between stimulus and response. You might experience it as a softening, or a pause, a sinking back of awareness into the body, or perhaps as grounding…In the brisk Edwardian terms of the early 1900’s Alexander said of his work:

Or, in more modern terms:

We hold on to hurt, whether physical or emotional. We brace ourselves against pain or create barricades to keep it at bay. The battlefield is the body, all hurt is stored and played out in its systems and substance.

To be able to observe, without judgement, the field of your own body-mind is the beginning of healing in many therapeutic modalities. Somatic wisdom does not dwell in AT alone. Like all wisdom it is simple and profound: