Massage therapists know that it’s not unusual for clients to release and re-experience emotional wounds while they’re on the massage table, sometimes “bawling their eyes out” as they’re getting worked on. That’s because we store traumatic experiences in our muscles and connective tissue.
When we’re young, we learn to tense and contract our musculoskeletal systems for protection and to avoid feeling discomfort. By the time we’re adults and progressively as we age, all that tension can cause pain, movement issues, accelerated aging and disease. If you’re experiencing any of these signs of poor health, first you want to learn to be aware of where the tension is in your body. Then you want to breathe into those areas by simultaneously placing your attention on your breath and on the part of the body you want to soften up.
The lower and upper back and shoulders are good places to start. We hold a lot of tension in the belly. If we learn to breathe into the solar plexus area, we can support digestion and relaxation. You can also slow down the signs of skin aging by breathing into the facial muscles, especially around your eyes and mouth.
