With pain and injuries, we can sometimes dissociate from our bodies. We can get into patterns of ignoring, disliking, getting frustrated with and/or being overprotective and hypervigilant toward our body.
There is more and more research showing that practices that promote body awareness are beneficial for overcoming these challenges and improving our health, particularly for chronic conditions. Underlying many of these practices are the habits of being present with and curious about your body—thus actively making friends with your body.
In physiotherapy , we sometimes use body awareness practices. We practice being kind to our body, and also being open to exploring the possibilities while being non-judgemental. This allows us to experience therapeutic effects of movement in a safe and appropriate way.
What Are Some Common Body Awareness Practices?
There are many practices becoming popular that have a focus on body awareness. There are ancient practices of mindful movement, like Tai Chi, Yoga, and Qi Gong, and there are modern somatic practices, like Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Somatics, and many more. There are also meditation techniques with more focus on body awareness.
How Does Physiotherapy Blend Body Awareness with Pain Management?
In physiotherapy, we find a path to getting better by practicing things that would be helpful for us. There is rich neuroscience behind this practice effect. Often, people compare training muscles with training other things. So in the same sense, we can also train body awareness—actively working out to strengthen our connection with, or you could say relationship with, our body.
There are many possibilities for how to do this and different exercises might suit different individuals more. There is no one size fits all approach, but we can apply neuroscientific principles, look at the established research, and draw from many established body awareness practices. Over time with regular practice, you can develop better control, be more attuned, and feel better in your body.
We would love to help you explore these practices and find out if they could benefit your well-being. Contact us to ask us any questions you may have and speak with us about what we recommend.