Why do I have setbacks and ups and downs during my recovery process?

This is a pretty common question, which is often asked by many people who are going through this recovery process from musician’s focal dystonia, including some of my students.

Recently, rereading one of the splendid books by Feldenkrais, I came across this paragraph that answers, in part, this question:

“It must be fully realized from the start that the learning process is irregular and consists of steps, and that there will be downs as well as ups. This applies even to a matter as simple as learning a poem by heart.

A man may learn a poem one day, and remember almost nothing of it the next. A few days later, and without any further study, he may suddenly know it perfectly. Even if he puts the poem entirely out of his mind for several months, he will find that a brief rehearsal will bring it back completely. 

We must not become discouraged, therefore, if we find we have slipped back to the original condition at any time; these regressions will become rarer and return to the improved condition easier as the learning process continues.”

We must not forget that the fact of retraining our movements, in order to recover from focal dystonia, is still a relearning process. However, there are also other conditioning factors, such as the emotional factor, so that sometimes things turn out very well and others less well.

I would also like to emphasize the importance of considering the moments in which everything flows more easily, as a REGULAR situation and the other moments in which things do not go so well, as an EXCEPTIONAL situation and NOT THE REVERSE.

Thinking in this way, psychologically, has a very great positive impact in our mind and contributes to strengthening our confidence, determination and conviction that we are on the right track and are walking unfailingly towards our TOTAL recovery.