How Does Somatics Help Reduce Stress?

Fundamentally, Essential Somatics® Movement - as all Somatic Education in the direct tradition of Thomas Hanna - reduces stress because it works to ease the effects of the 3 Stress Reflexes that show up & too often get “stuck” in our bodies, via habituation. In so doing, Somatic movement helps ease emotional as well as physical stresses & feelings of dis-ease.

Getting stuck in muscle patterns that relate directly to stress (& danger/fear) causes not just physical aches & pains, but emotional stress too.

The key problem is this: when we get stuck in physical patterns designed to help us escape dangers in the environment - which the 3 Stress Reflexes are designed to do - we’re sending our central nervous system the message that we are in (continuous) danger, that there is a threat in the environment around us. Our failure to let go of our physical patterns of stress & tension, therefore, has a direct impact on our (emotional) stress levels: our nervous system doesn’t know that we’re stuck with a tight front or tight back because we have a desk job, or because we got into bad postural habits - all IT knows is that we’re holding muscle tension that sends the signal we’re in danger. So it’s no wonder we feel stressed, even when we don’t quite know why!

Thomas Hanna identified the 3 Stress Reflexes & the patterns of muscle tension & tightness that arise from them, as the cause of a LOT of human pain & suffering - not because of the Stress Reflexes themselves (which serve a useful purpose in keeping us safe), but because especially in industrialised/tecnologised society, we humans tend to get STUCK in these patterns… having forgotten to pandiculate, & also having got into habitual postures (sitting, driving, carryng bags, etc etc) that replicate the Stress Reflex patterns & so tell our brain we’re under threat, even when we’re not.

So, just for instance, a tight back is most often not due to a structural problem or injury (although it MAY over time cause/contribute to such), but rather to being held tight by someone who is e.g. “always on the go” & so gets habituated into a Tight Back Reflex (what Hanna called the Green Light Reflex). Having constantly over-tensed muscles in your back tells your brain you’re under threat so must be ready to run, or fight (fight or flight). That leads to anxiety over time - & sometimes also depression, in the long term - because it is, previsely, extremely STRESSFUL for your nervous system to deal with… & while your nervous system is “stuck” dealing with the threat it thinks you’re under, it has less time to spend on taking care of your other systems (rest & digest)… Hence a somewhat vicious circle of physical-emotional stress & tight muscles.

[Interestingly, Hanna’s teacher, Moshe Feldenkrais, was of the view that talking therapy cannot benefit anyone who remains physically so tense that their nervous system believes they are under (constant) threat. The idea being - & I believe this is pretty convincing (as did Hanna) - that until we let go of the constant message to ourself (our nervous sytem; specifically our fight/flight/freeze responses) that we’re under threat, it’s hard to benefit from talking through emotioanl problems we see or explore as being at the root of our anxiety, depression, sadness, & more; it’s hard to ‘let go’ emotions through words alone, if we continue to tell ourselves at the level of the nervous system, that we are still in danger…]

So, the way we hold our bodies - & the patterns of tension our unhelpful habits create - can & will affect our mood, our emotional state, as well as our physical well-being. Hence, many clients (as well as myself!) have felt significant release of emotions, &/or more emotional ease, as a result of clinical sessions & as we learn & practise Somatic movements.

Try this work for yourself: check out the free resources on my website (& also at e.g. hannasomatics.com and essentialsomatics.com), sign up for my FREE video series, “The Truth About Pain - and how to get rid of it”, & learn more about the SoMA Program - my full online school that includes full-length classes PLUS a lot more, to give you all you need to develop an understanding of how this practice can best help YOU!