Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Why the Body Holds Tension & Creates Knots (by Irma Romano)





Clients often ask me during a treatment while I am pressing down on a trigger point, a knot if you will, why they have them in the first place. Some people hold so much tension in their bodies I really have a hard time getting into the muscle as it will resist and refuse to unwind and let go. The physical factors to tension include diet, water intake, work that you do, posture, age, and if you work out or not. If you do not work out your body will be out of balance using only a certain group of muscles daily to do tasks. While some muscles will weaken others will shorten and tighten. For example your pectoral muscles tend to be tight which will weaken your back muscles and create the all too famous hunch over posture you see with office and computer workers. Working out with weights, stretching will prevent this from happening.

Another thing to consider that affects your body and tension is non-physical but affects your body just as much. The body has its own intelligence and your cells are in constant communication with one another reacting to your thoughts. The Universal intelligence runs your body without you having to think about it. It functions on its own. The body is also designed to protect itself from danger with its nervous system which will react to an outside situation protecting you from harm.

Emotions on the other hand are the body’s reaction to thought. The way you perceive life’s events will affect your body and the amount of tension it holds. The body does not know the difference between an actual situation and a thought. If you sit quietly and think about biting into a lemon you will actually create saliva as if you have taken a bite out of the lemon even if you haven’t.

Now if you start creating fearful thoughts in your mind while being in a safe place your body will behave as if it is happening. Your heart beat will increase, your sympathetic nervous system will kick in and you will create tension amongst other things in your body. If you have negative thoughts about the world you live in and what a hostile world you live in or you spend too many hours in your mind thinking in past or future it will show up in your body. Most stress is a reaction to thought not the actual situation. Negative emotions create a toxic body. Envy, jealousy, fear, sadness, hatred, and so many others disrupt the energy flow of the body and create unbalance in the organism.

Looking for balance in the body can be achieve through diet, exercise, hydration, and most of all just being in stillness not resisting life but also surrendering to what faces you in daily life. Adding meditation to your daily activities will help achieve stillness, peace, more joy and reduce stress. Your body will love you for it. Massage can help with trigger points, and helping muscles relax but it has its limitation beyond the massage table. What you do after and what you choose to think is more important in creating long term affects.

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