The Somato-Emotional Connection Pt. 1
The Somato-Emotional connection. As a bodyworker, I have found that there are certain areas of the body that hold more emotionally-charged tension than others. While we can work the tissue of these areas of chronic pain and discomfort to provide some relief, the root cause usually stems from an emotional connection and likely a thing the person has been consciously or unconsciously avoiding. Below are some of the common areas of pain or tension and their emotional relationships.
Neck—internal pressure/mental stress, throat restriction
From a physiological standpoint, tension patterns and pain in the neck can usually be traced either to tension in the jaw (clenching and grinding) or the upper shoulders (a defensive posture of hunching the shoulders to the ears).
Tension patterns that originate from within the neck tend to incorporate the occipital or hyoid muscles, relating to past physical head trauma or emotional restrictions of the throat. Physical head trauma, even from childhood can affect the tension patterns in the neck, and it is important to treat the neck (and the lower back) after concussions. Throat restrictions can stem from the emotional trigger of not speaking up, being told to be quiet, or overcompensating with the voice.Sound is so important to the healing process. Making sound can feel very awkward at first, many folks don't even recognize their own voice when it doesn't come from the rational messages of the brain.
Ujjayi or "ocean" breathing, open mouth exhales, humming, and sighing are great ways to begin to open up the throat. Rotating the neck SLOWLY, and exploring the areas of tension without judgement can create more flexibility in this area. And, as with the rest of the body, an awareness of posture throughout the day is helpful in recognizing signs of compensation before they become inflamed and painful.
Shoulders + Upper Back—external pressure/anger.
Have you ever heard the phrase “carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders”? It’s not just an allegorical reference to Atlas. Folks tend to literally bend and fold under the weight and stress of external pressures.
There tends to be a lot of repressed anger under and between the shoulder blades and the spine. This is where we wear our shield, like a turtle and its shell. We lean our shoulders into the challenges in front of us, or we pin our shoulders back. We collect defensive tension in this area, and when it cannot be released, it causes pain from over-activation.
Remember to take deep breaths, drop and roll your shoulders, stretch your arms across your body, breathe into the space that those stretches create at the back of your heart.
Lower Back—emotional stress, personal insecurities.
The lower back is a highly sensitive area and tension here is usually a stabilizing response due to pain or limitation in the hips and legs.This requires the quadratus lumborum (QL), obliques, psoas, and spinalis muscles to have to compensate for an imbalance or limited range of motion. Lower back pain can also stem from being sedentary or from repetitive misuse, but this region is also deeply tied to our feelings about ourselves and the experience of our emotions.
If you think in terms of anatomy, this area contains only the hard tissue(bones) of the spine and a lot of essentially *exposed* soft tissue in the form of organs, glands, veins, arteries, muscles. Many necessary and essential functions of the body happen in this area, and yet it is the most controversial and socially influenced. Here is where we carry our core beliefs about ourselves, and where we “hold it all in” for the sake of getting things done. The lower back is the meeting place of anger, grief, fear, and insecurity. When it's activated, it is likely that we will find tension patterns and emotional connections to either the upper back or the hips and glutes.
Deep breaths into the low belly, and twists will help to release tension throughout the day, detoxify the soft tissues, and improve flexibility. Mindful bending and lifting will protect the area from injury. Most importantly though, you can give yourself the time to process emotions, and build your self confidence through affirming practices and releasing the bind of expectations. You're doing great.
Hips/Glutes—grief, fear
Where do we put the things that we don’t want to deal with?
We sit on them. We clench to brace against fear, and we stuff our sadness down and underneath us. While this area can be especially tender for female-bodied people as it relates to the pelvic bowl and the womb, I have found deep and layered emotional ties in this area across the gender spectrum.
Physiologically, tight glutes and hips are usually a result of a lack of stretching, a sedentary lifestyle, or over-activation through exercise. But this area is also our great stabilizer as we stand and move throughout the world. It balances us and needs to flexible. Stop listening to trainers who promise you a "tight butt", it should jiggle and dance with you.
The first time a professional bodyworker attended to my glutes and hips, it tickled so much I almost kicked her. She continued with steady myofascial release and quickly my laughter turned into heaving, wailing tears. I apologized for my outburst, but she gently held space for me. Now years later, as a bodyworker and embodiment counselor myself, I think of that moment and tell that story probably once a month to clients. The emotional release is so important to facilitate the physical release of the tissue.
Forward folds/bends, and knee-to-chest stretches are great for this area. Giving ourselves the ample space and time to process grief allows it to move through our bodies, instead of getting locked in the tissue. And releasing fear as a motivator or driving emotion, results in a healthier nervous system as well as more aligned decision-making.
It is a limiting and prohibitive viewpoint to believe that all tension and pain in the body comes from physical sources. When we consider cellular consciousness and the somato-emotional connection, we form a holistic view of our form; less of a machine that needs to be tuned up and more of an environment in and of itself to be cultivated and protected. Imagine, if we treated our bodies with this kind of innate respect, the kind of compassionate and invested approach we would take to the world outside of us.
