Painfulness: Our quiet pedagogue

This article intersects a decade’s exchange between two practitioners. We are a movement practitioner–cum–pupil and a professional dancer become an Alexander Technique teacher. We locate pains not as necessary and expected penalties of our practices but as useful symptoms of loss of alignment – a measure of progressive ‘dis-ease’. Pains are a subtle indicator of habitual and restrictive tendencies. They tell us when our psychic volition – our seeking to achieve our ends – exceeds our somatic awareness and our capacity to retain conscious choice. This article traces our current conversations – in and around Alexander Technique lessons – about accessing choice, maintaining comfort and achieving ease. We reflect, too, on our dance training, our meeting through hatha yoga and our relationship as a participant in Mevlevi sema (the seven-century-old Sufi turning practice known as ‘the dance of the Whirling Dervishes’) and as a teacher of the Alexander Technique (a practice developed by F. M. Alexander [1869–1955] to help people recognize and navigate habits creating unnecessary physical strain). We propose that pains are experiences through which, with the growth of discernment, we may learn a quiet trust in ‘letting go’. When pains are witnessed and addressed, a sensitivity that opens towards spirituality may surface. We may receive pains as signals inviting integration.