Are you your tension?

There are two sorts of tension we can experience in our body. If we can easily feel that we are tense, then it is usually from a recent or current event in our environment.  Somone shouts at us, or deadlines loom or we feel overwhelmed by emails......life really.  This is a sign to us to deal with our stress,....relax, breath rest...all the things we know we should do and are good for us. 

There is another sort of tension in our muscles which is so old, so familiar that it feels like us. It has structured our bodies and made us into the shape that we think is us, is normal, is who we actually are. This chronic tension is invisible to us and proabably happened in the first five years of life as the impact of our upbrinding and the "civilising" of our parents did its work.  This is the really tricky one, our "body armour" our comfy layers of tension and habit which imprision us and stop the free flow of life energy in our bodies. This takes work on ourselves and, dare I say it, therapy and bodywork to gradually dissolve.  

Early trauma and abuse leaves this sort of mark. It seems to define the very shape of our body, how we hold our chest or inahbit our bodies, how we breathe.  The easiest to spot are people who don't use their diaphragm when they breath. Their chest and someties their shoulders move but not their belly, indicating that the diaphragm is held; sometimes they even suck in their belly as they breath in.  Not connecting with our belly, pelvis and sex is a sure way to cut off from our sense of being powerful and fully alive.  The good news is that with some perseverance this habit can be changed and a fuller emotional and sexual life started.