Physical pain, despite being common, isn’t the only kind of physical imbalance musicians face. 🎻 In fact, barring an acute injury—breaking a wrist, for example—significant physical pain usually only rears its ugly head after plenty of less-painful advance-warning signs.

Common warning signs to pay attention to include: ⚠️

fatigue, lack of stamina and endurance

excess muscular tension making it difficult to play quickly

stiffness, tenderness, or soreness

numbness, tingling, popping, clicking

guarding a body part and altering your movements to compensate for discomfort

trying to correct “poor posture” by moving around a lot

a belief that you have a problem with a specific body part (“a bad back,” “bad knees,” “weak fingers,” etc.)

negative emotions that carry a heavy, down, compressing feeling or energy

forcing your sound in an effort to project

overfocusing on what your body is doing when working on your technique

What happens if you don’t notice these warning signs, or if you deny, ignore, or push through them? Well, sooner or later, you’re likely to feel worse. 💭

Consider this quote from F.M. Alexander for a moment: “Pain is your friend.”

You might wonder how that can be—after all, friends aren’t supposed to hurt each other, right?

Well, actually, our best friend is the one who dares—even when it hurts—to tell us the truth. First, she will speak gently and quietly . . . but if we ignore her and keep doing something hurtful, our friend’s voice will strengthen, getting louder, to help us become aware of what we need to change. ❤️

It’s time to wake up and become your own best friend, which means listening to your body (which is YOU!) when it’s trying to get your attention. And guess what? Your body is innocent—it simply reflects what’s happening in your mind.

A vast, friendly source of wisdom within you is working for you 24/7, organizing every aspect of your life, including your thoughts and actions. This “Inner Wisdom” coordinates your breath, your internal organs, the thoughts in your mind, how you talk, walk, and move about. 🌿

But you’re probably not used to tapping into this with your conscious awareness.

When you experience pain, this is your Inner Wisdom sending you a very clear message through your body, in an attempt to get you to pay attention to your thoughts and change certain behaviors. These behaviors block your energy, cause overall compression, and generally take you in the direction of dis-ease and possible injury.

Once you realize that pain is simply the voice of your own Inner Wisdom—your very best friend—instead of blaming your body for hurting you, you can actually start to appreciate the messages your body is sending you via physical aches, pains, a down mood, or fatigue. ✨

Think of pain like a fussy toddler pulling at your pants legs, trying to get your attention. If you listen, give it a little loving attention, and appreciate what it’s trying to tell you with sincerity and gratitude, everything starts to shift.

On the other hand, if you don’t listen, the messages will get louder and stronger. Your discomfort will increase and over time may very well escalate into a full-blown tantrum, possibly even resulting in injury. 🌱

If you're curious about exactly how to bring full-bodied, soulful ease into how you play your instrument (or anything else), I have one more coaching opening for a new student beginning in August. Just comment below if you're interested and we can have a chat about what's possible.

With Love & Light,
Jennifer ❤️