Setback and then renewed progress
After a week of sometimes extreme physical and emotional discomfort post-massage, I have happily resumed mobility, experience far less pain, and have come to understand how and why the big setback occurred.
Although my intention in seeking massage (and the intention of the massage therapist) was inflammation reduction, I see now (with input from my excellent PT) that I have formed, over 7 months of recovery, a delicate balance of tensions and flexibilities to accommodate my injury. This was unintentionally disrupted by massage, so that my neuro-muscular system read the new imbalance as a need to protect the injured area with a vengeance.
As an Alexander teacher, I could/should have known better than to seek a specific result! Alexander principles are always indirect in application. We seek, in the Alexander Technique, to address a whole person response in balance, rather than to change any specific indication.
Setbacks may be a reality that have to be accepted in the non-linear progress of recovery. Hopefully, setbacks provide new information for what does and doesn’t work for continued recovery. Although I experienced great dismay, I am relieved and happy now to have recovered from my own backward direction with pre-massage mobility intact, and, I hope and believe, with more thorough recovery in my future.