F.M. Alexander said, “Pain is your friend.”

But pain hurts, and friends aren’t supposed to hurt us. So how can pain be your friend? ?

? When you’re in pain… you feel horrible, distracted, scared, anxious, worried, frustrated… and angry. Sometimes, you feel utterly hopeless.

?You can’t focus on anything but the pain, and your music suffers because you aren’t fully present to the music and your colleagues (if you can play at all).

?Being in pain can feel lonely, too. That can really erode your confidence as a musician.

So, you try to get rid of the pain. ?

You go to the doctor, physical therapist, or chiropractor. You do your stretches and exercises. You take your medicine.

But the pain keeps coming back sooner or later, sometimes in other parts of your body. Nothing you do really seems to make it go away for good.

My job is to help musicians think differently, so they can get different results. ?

Here’s the truth, as I see it:

⭐ Pain IS your friend.

Friends tell the truth, even if the truth hurts. Friends don’t give up on you. They keep reminding you of what’s true because they don’t want you to be living in an illusion. They want you to face reality and see the truth about yourself, even if it’s really uncomfortable.

⭐ Pain is not bad – pain is YOU.

Pain is actually part of you – it is not some evil entity trying to make you feel bad all the time! Your pain is YOU. Pain is simply your body sending information to your brain – that’s all – and that’s a GOOD thing!

Pain signals are just telling you that you need to think differently, because your old ways of thinking and moving haven’t been that helpful – in fact, they’ve been destructive.

What if…

❤️ What if, instead of trying to eliminate the messenger – that uncomfortable part of yourself – you could hear pain’s message to you and actually face it, look at it, accept it, and even embrace it?

❤️ What if you could be grateful that pain is sending you important messages to keep you safe, instead of blaming the messenger?

The problem isn’t so much your pain, it’s how you react to the pain that perpetuates the cycle.

We don’t like pain, so we usually react to it by doing something to get rid of it – FAST. It can feel like you’ve tried everything, but there’s ONE THING most of us haven’t tried, which is precisely what I teach my students.

We haven’t tried pausing to do NOTHING for a moment, giving ourselves a bit of time to acknowledge our pain with gentle curiosity, free of judgment, and consider a different option:

? Constructive Thinking. ?

When I work with musicians, I teach them how to use that moment of Non-Doing to introduce something called Constructive Thinking.

Constructive Thinking allows you to step outside of your habitual fear-based reaction to pain entirely, which gives you a completely different experience of freedom. ?️

In the moment that we shift our awareness into witnessing the Truth, observing and learning more ourselves, and we get curious about the big picture, everything changes. ?

Once you learn how to include the pain and shift your attention to the areas that are less painful… places of flow and easing in your body… everything starts to move and shift and open up.

✨ Healing energy is finally released from its stuck places, and you slowly but surely start to feel better (and sometimes, really fast!). ✨

How can all of this improve your music-making?

Oh, that’s easy. ? When you listen to your body, you not only feel better…

? You have more energy, more enthusiasm, and better concentration

? You have more fun with your colleagues when you’re not distracted by pain

? Your music can flow with ease when your energy is flowing

? You become more sensitive, with a wider palette of emotions to express through your music.

In The Musician’s Advantage™ Jumpstart, I teach you exactly how to do everything I’ve talked about here. Next month, I’ll be offering a SPECIAL PAIN EDITION of the Jumpstart program, which will help you specifically address the unique discomforts you’re dealing with, and give you very practical tools to turn things around. ?

You’ll learn how to heal, overcome injury, and prevent future pain. You’ll also learn how to use your pain to greatly improve your music – even if you’re unable to play right now.

?‍♀️ Are you ready to fully enjoy your life and music again sooner? If you’re curious about whether applying this perspective could work for you, just send me an email at Jennifer@ArtofFreedom.me, so I can send you more information.

With Love & Enthusiasm,
Jennifer

p.s. Does anything I’ve written here resonate with you? Email me at Jennifer@ArtofFreedom.me with your thoughts! I look forward to hearing from you!