Ever wondered why your pain comes back after receiving treatment? We all know that we use our muscles to move our bodies, but did you know that we also use them to hold and to protect ourselves? This helps us during everyday life to keep us upright and maintain positions or postures against gravity. However, when our muscles are doing too much holding or too much tensing, it can lead to imbalances and pain.
Everyone holds themselves differently and for a variety of different reasons. For me personally, I know that I unconsciously hike my left shoulder up and forward pretty much all the time; I furrow my brows when I’m scrolling on my phone or concentrating; and I only cross my left leg over my right when I’m sitting or my left ankle over my right when I’m lounging. Any other way is strange and unnatural to me, and it actually feels like effort. Holding patterns are the way we unconsciously hold our bodies. Some common holding patterns may include gripping and curling your toes, clenching your teeth or your jaw, gripping your butt, shrugging your shoulders, and many more.
Holding patterns are generally chronic, habitual patterns that we’ve picked up. They may be due to the way we sit, stand, walk, lounge, sleep, or move repetitively over an extended period of time. Sometimes, they are there to hold and to protect that part of our body against potential threats that it sees. They are there to give us comfort and make us feel safe. For example, if you have poor balance, you might grip your toes to try and hold the ground when standing. If you had a negative sexual experience, you may clench your pelvic floor and groin muscles to protect yourself from perceived threats. Many people unconsciously elevate their shoulders and clench their jaw in times of stress.
Every day, we hold ourselves in these positions. Imagine the layer upon layer upon layer of tension that has been built up over the last 283,970 hours. Getting a treatment may make you feel better for a few hours, but the pain will return if you don’t destroy the layers and fix the problem. Start by becoming more aware of your body in space and figuring out what your holding pattern is. What part of your body do you hold? Where do you clench? What do you grip? I find that practicing yoga is a good way to connect your mind to your body. Once you figure out how you hold yourself, you need to determine the cause, address it, and disengage the pattern. It’s definitely a lot easier said than done!
