What’s the big deal about stored tension patterns?

My last article talked about why we switched to Network Care at our office. In proof reading it, my wife read the part about people ignoring repetitive tension patterns and suggested that I write an article expanding upon this. She is a very wise woman, and a smart husband listens to his wife!

As a reader, you might think “of course, I wouldn’t ignore stored tension in my body.” Unfortunately we usually do just that! Our amazing bodies have the ability to compensate for all kinds of stress and tension. We keep on going after a sudden trauma (like a fall or a lifting injury) or repetitive trauma, (like carrying a bag always on the same shoulder). We focus on the end goal and ignore the subtle imbalance in our nervous system and musculature in order to achieve the task at hand. We can develop stored tension patterns in our nervous system and have no idea that they are there!!!

Why is this so important? There is an expression “The straw that broke the camel’s back”. Of course a 500 kg camel will not collapse because you put one straw on its’ back. This expression refers to a camel that is already carrying such a heavy load that just one additional straw placed on top of the load will cause its’ knees to buckle. If the camel hadn’t been carrying this huge load in the first place, the extra straw would have been of no consequence.

How does that apply to us? We all store tension in our body, of which we are oblivious! When we are holding on to that tension, it just takes a little bit more for our “backs to break” and for us to be injured and incapacitated. That “last straw” might take the form of an additional physical stress like picking up a piece of paper from the floor, or a new mental stress like a deadline at work. The condition of your nervous system is what determines the impact that stress will have on your body and on your life. That is why everybody at work may be under the same stressful deadline, yet one person sails through it and another falls apart with a migraine or other physical symptom. The second person is already carrying more in their load and it just took that last straw to bring them down. Try twisting your upper body and then lifting a light object that would normally be no problem for you to lift. Can you imagine how you might get injured more easily while lifting while twisted? Stored tension patterns create a subtle internal “twist” that makes physical stress and mental stress take a greater toll on your body.

Get checked for tension patterns in your body, and learn how to let them go. Prepare yourself to handle future physical and mental stress. Don’t end up like the camel with a broken back!