Embodied Clarity

We are Embodied Beings: The Link Between Thought, Emotion, and Muscular Contraction

February 9th, 2010

Moshe Feldenkrais was a pioneer in the human potential movement and revolutionized the way we view movement, expression and self-image.  His philosophy that developed in the 1950’s –1970’s was at the forefront of in changing reductionist views of the body and mind.  He explained that our moods, emotions and thoughts are expressed through our body language, posture, gestures, and facial expressions.  In other words, every thought or feeling has a corresponding set of muscle contractions associated with it.   So the thought, “there is no way I can get all this work finished” and the subsequent overwhelmed feeling have a corresponding set of muscular contractions. Over time, patterns of muscle contraction develop and get hard-wired for each emotion and thought.  In this way, certain thoughts patterns or emotions have a physical shape.  In many ways, these patterns are predictable and thus, body language experts can read a person’s physical cues and analyze what that person is thinking and feeling.  Some external manifestations, such as crossed arms, may be obvious; while others, such as touching an ear, are more subtle; yet others, such as a change in breathing pattern, are subtler still.

Most of us think that thought and emotion occur in the brain and cause the body to respond.  But, the remarkable thing is that the opposite is also true.   The brain receives information from the body that affects your emotions and moods.  Because the muscle contraction or shape is hard-wired with the thought or the emotion, the shape of the body, such as being slumped, causes the neuro-chemical reaction associated with sadness.  For example, a scientific study showed that bringing the face and mouth into the shape of a smile actually causes a rush of endorphins and other biochemical changes associated with smiling.   Conversely, making an angry face creates the biochemistry of anger.

Ultimately, your posture reflects your moods and thoughts but your body and its posture also send information back to the brain that generates thoughts and feelings.  In fact, your posture is so powerful that studies have shown that slumping actually makes it more difficult to recall positive thoughts. You are literally happier and smarter when you sit up straight.

The Posture of Anxiety and Stress
Feldenkrais studied the shape of anxiety and stress because he thought its presence drastically limited people in realizing their potential.  He discovered that all humans have the same response to stress—contraction of the flexors, (especially in the abdominal region), inhibition of the extensors (which keep us upright), a halt in breathing, followed by a whole series of vasomotor disturbances, such as accelerated pulse, and increased blood pressure.

Throughout the day, you respond to stress by clenching your jaw, holding your breath, making the diaphragm rigid etc.  The problem is that muscles only have an on/off mode.  They are meant to contract and release again. But when you are under constant stress, even seemingly “low-level stress.” the muscles rarely return to their fully released (“off”) state.  And over time the muscular contractions associated with stress become hard-wired into the body, so that even when the external stimulus is gone, your shoulders are still up at your ears, your breath rarely fills the whole lungs, and your jaw remains clenched. Your body is thus in a constant posture of anxiety and stress—continually giving feedback to your brain that you are stressed.

The good news is that because the physical contraction is so closely tied to emotions or thoughts, you can dramatically alter a thought, emotion, or response to stress by changing the pattern of muscular contraction and shape of the body. By interrupting the habitual muscle tension associated with stress, a new possibility of calm, strength, potency and clarity can arise.  Conversely, if you remain stuck in a physical pattern of anxiety you will continue to feel stressed and it is difficult, if not impossible, to have different thoughts, emotions and actions. So, if you continue to sit at your desk (hunched over, jaw clenched, breathing shallow) you will continue to feel overwhelmed and think that the task at hand is impossible.  If, instead, you can restore your breathing, unclench your jaw, and sit upright without increased muscular tension, your heartbeat will slow down, your mood will improve, you’ll have increased mental clarity and more things will seem possible.

Try this: Stop just a few times a day and take a few deep breaths–concentrating on a long slow exhale.  Notice the shape of your body and try to undo some of your habitual holdings–unclench your jaw, sit up a little straighter without getting rigid, put your feet on the floor and un-kink yourself.  Notice how your mood and perception of the situation changed as a result.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, somatic coaching, Embodied Clarity, Feldenkrais