by Lawrence Gold
We become how we live.
As we recognize the brain as an organ of learning and conditioning, an explanation of how stress leads to the formation of tension patterns in the musculature becomes possible.
Our brain is dedicated 90% to two basic functions: sensing and moving. We learn on the basis of sensory impressions linked with movement (or tension) patterns. Without some sort of response to a stimulus being evoked, any stimulus is meaningless, without significance. Without some sort of response, no experiencing is possible. Stimulus and response, sensing and moving go together, and moving always involves muscular tension.
Accepting that premise, let's consider what happens at a stressful moment.
The first thing to consider is that all new events cause the senses to become aroused. We are galvanized by the sudden change into a state of higher arousal. At that point, our response is non?specific (systemic), but the event does do one thing: it intensifies whatever state we are in. This intensification is known as "surprise." Surprise (negative or positive) makes things especially memorable.
The second thing to consider is the condition we are in at that moment, before the stressful event. We might be in some condition of arousal, such as curiosity, in a mood of some kind, or perhaps in a state of profound equipoise. Then, a stimulus happens: someone unexpectedly steps on our toe. At the initial moment of surprise, we respond with some kind of habitual response (which then changes as we turn to deal with the experience, still in a state of intensified arousal, with the habitual response as our starting point).
In the case of someone stepping on our toe, our response might be to see who did it and why (curiosity); to cry out, "Hey!" or to respond playfully (mood); or to note the sensation and to decide how to respond without any sense of involuntary compulsion (profound equipoise).
Whatever the habitual response, the energy of surprise plus our state of adaptation at that moment creates an impression that is registered by our brain with greater than usual vividness. In other words, our current adaptation is reinforced by the moment of surprise. Our brain takes in the impression of that moment of surprise plus our current adaptation, which is both a way of interpreting sensation and a way of responding or reacting. Our response tends to be a habitual way of responding.
All habits exist as subliminal states of readiness to respond in a certain way. They are like ticklishness in that they exist of states of tension that can be provoked, just as we can be provoked when we are in a provokable mood. As states of readiness, habits are acquired by learning.
In the moment of heightened stress, our current condition and our habitual way of responding are highlighted and more deeply ingrained as a memory; our learning to be that way is reinforced.
This is one reason why it is so hard to change a habitual response in the middle of a stressful situation.
Let's recap:
1 Stress starts as surprise.
2 Surprise intensifies our experience of the moment (including our experience of ourselves).
3 We experience our habitual way of responding at that heightened state of intensity.
4 Our current state and our way of responding make a vivid impression, which is remembered, i.e., reinforced.
5 Stress induces us automatically to reinforce the status quo, for good or ill.
Speaking Physiologically
Ideally, when in repose, we are relaxed – but of course, that rarely is the case. The residual impressions of stressful experience commonly carry over into rest. People are unable to relax in bed.
Ideally, when involved in activity, opposing muscle groups coordinate spontaneously and freely (rather than weakly, involuntarily, or awkwardly). But, again, that rarely is the case. People carry all kinds of tensions into their activities, tensions that show up as injuries from time to time.
Under stress and over time, our brain and muscular system habituate into familiar functional patterns, which are the most accessible behaviors to which we resort automatically, when under stress.
When experience triggers a stressful response in us, it intensifies and reinforces the pattern of muscular tension consistent with that stress?response (even if we are at rest at the time of the stress).
Habits of movement and posture reflect patterns of muscular tension; habits of muscular tension show up as habits of posture and movement.
We feel the twists, collapses, and distortions (movement idiosyncrasies and ungainliness) that characterize poor posture as nervous tension (i.e., stress/distress) or even as the familiar sense of self, while physical and emotional pains surface mysteriously in response to the intensifications of life.
We live in patterns; the force of experience intensifies our patterns. Under the repetitive influence of experience, we become how we live, more and more. In the vernacular, we become set in our ways.
That's how stress leads to muscular tension patterns.
This is not the end of the story, at least for humans. We have the capacity for deliberate (non?habitual) action, by means of which we can change our patterns. The habituation of patterns in psyche and in physiology makes such re?patterning more than a casual decision – largely because such habituation is cloaked in the unconsciousness of familiarity and controlled automatically. It can be done by use of skillful means – but that is a topic for another writing.
For more information visit www.somatics.com
This material © 2009 Lawrence Gold. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
Posted: 10/14/2009
