What Causes Tension in the Body?

The vast majority of tension that people experience in their bodies comes down to alignment (interpreted in two different ways).

The first is likely more familiar.

This is how upright you are as you make your way through the day. There’s a more effective way to think of “proper posture” though, and it has to do with optimizing skeletal support. When you’ve aligned your skeleton effectively in relation to the ground, there’s less of a need for bracing muscular tension to keep you upright. You’ll still need some, but it’s far less than what you’re likely used to.

However, any deviation from this base of skeletal support necessitates muscular compensation. Just shift your head forward an inch or two as you read this, and you’ll notice right away that the musculature along the back of your neck and upper back engages in order to make up for the deficit in skeletal support. Bring your head back to where it was, and after a few moments you’ll notice those muscles release as your system gets a reminder of its internal support.

This, of course, typically results in people straining themselves through conscious effort to maintain some abstract notion of “proper posture.” I bet you’re doing it even as you read this!

Instead, think lower down within yourself.

Consider alignment a matter of how you relate to the support of the ground beneath you. Most tension in the body can be interpreted as a request for support. If you’re not well-aligned over top of your base of support, those tense muscles don’t need to relax - they need support from below. Greater awareness of the feet and pelvis goes a long way in this regard.

It’s all about knowing where you stand.

This brings us to the other meaning of alignment in relation to tension.

It’s astounding how many people experience tension as a result of emotional conflicts and acting out of alignment with what they want for themselves. This is usually what people call “stress related tension.” Again, the diagnostic is simple: if your tension gets worse when you’re stressed, then it’s at least partly determined by psychological factors.

What we colloquially refer to as “stress” in interpersonal settings is more technically a matter of unexpressed emotion. We learn to bite our tongues, grin and bear it, etc etc, and the way that we negate that emotional experience is through muscular tension. We effectively freeze the musculature that would be involved in the expression of that emotion.

For example, if it’s considered inappropriate to cry when you’re sad, you’ll inhibit the movement of your diaphragm, as well as constrict the musculature of your throat and eyes. If you’re for some reason not allowed to express anger, you’ll often create tension through the jaw, shoulders, and arms. Our bodies convert intolerable emotions into anxiety through the formation of muscular tension. We make ourselves rigid in an attempt not to rock the boat and to preserve a significant attachment relationship.

However, this compromise between attachment and authenticity puts us at odds with ourselves and brings us out of alignment with what our bodies are clearly telling us matters. The affective system is the biological basis that tells us what matters, in what way, and to what degree. We can opt not to act accordingly, but doing so leaves us bound up in tension.

There you have it - alignment two ways.

Knowing how to bring yourself back into alignment — physically and psychologically — spares you from a tremendous amount of tension. As a result your body is more comfortable and functional day to day, and you’re able to muster up more energy for the things that are important to you (because you’re not needlessly burning it through chronic muscular contraction).

When you’re doing it right, this can bring about a significant change in a matter of weeks. Regarding the emotional basis, clients will report a huge sense of release in a single session. Of course, there will be some general tissue adaptations that have to take place as well for lasting change - the muscles will adapt over the span of weeks, and the connective tissues will adapt over the span of months. However, if you’ve been giving it consistent effort for more than a few weeks and aren’t experiencing marked improvement in the way your body feels, then that’s a good sign you may be overlooking one of these two issues of alignment.