Chronically Painful Muscles?

By Brian Esty

Brian Esty is a Certified Touch For Health Instructor in Specialized Kinesiology. Brian is trained in Hellerwork – Rolf style bodywork, Upledger CranioSacral Therapy and other bodywork modalities. He has years experience with great results and client testimonials in San Francisco.

Chronically painful muscles often have some form of emotional conflict as part of the root cause. Our bodies often will, on one hand, want to express an emotion or feeling, and on the other hand, quickly jump in and inhibit that impulse.

The muscles which are active in that expression have to deal with conflicting signals from the neuromuscular system, creating stress. Over time this stress builds up creating chronic pain and stiffness.

An example that many of us experience to some degree is when we want to say something, but stop ourselves from doing so. This may be the smart, practical thing to do, but over time the inhibited impulses can jam the muscles of the throat and diaphragm, which develops into chronic neck pain and breathing restrictions. This can also express in a clenched jaw, biting the tongue so to speak, which usually develops into chronic and painful Temporal Mandibular joint problems.

Another common example develops from when we feel, but can't easily express that we are angry. We may not even feel that our shoulders are dealing with an impulse to strike out or push away, and at the same time a strong inhibition of that impulse. What we do experience is tension in the shoulders, between the shoulder blades and perhaps up to the base of the skull. This tension persists and never seems to fully release no matter what we do to try to relax it.

During a bodywork session, a memory of an incident or relationship can float up from the depths to be examined and perhaps released. We might discuss this or just take notice of it. Just the act of remembering usually results in a spontaneous opening up of a tightly held muscles, which up until then had forcefully opposed any change.

Quite often when looking back on these conflicts they seem logical and simple, sometimes even humorous, rarely intense or uncomfortable to deal with. Other times these stresses can resolve without anything at all floating into awareness, just a sense of release and reorganizing. Bodywork by itself or with complementing other therapies can make chronic pain heal faster, or provide the added energy needed to get a healing process moving again. With trauma and abuse a multi-therapist approach including bodywork can make working through painful issues go much quicker. For some personality types, myself included, bodywork is the most suitable primary modality for personal growth.

In my practice I find that even muscle pain caused by physical trauma can have emotional aspects, especially if healing is progressing slowly. Emotional vulnerabilities create weak areas in the body where accidents are more prone to happen.

For example, someone who feels unsupported in some significant area of their life may have chronic foot problems. When they get injured, it always seems like the feet play a part. It's as if the feet express the instability or lack of support that they feel in other areas of their lives. Just working on the soft tissue of the feet without helping release the experience of lack of support probably will not produce permanent change.

These cyclical patterns where the physical experience reinforces the emotional experience which again validates the physical experience can be difficult to break out of without help.

In my personal and clinical experience, releasing the emotions carried in soft tissue not only provides greater physical freedom and flexibility, but also emotional freedom to experience life in new ways. Often pain is the motivation that drives us into actively seeking out solutions to heal chronic problems.

The benefits and discoveries we make along the journey can go beyond specific health goals to encompass our sense of well being, release from old patterns and access to joy.

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