What causes muscle pain? 

To understand how to eliminate your pain, it is important to understand what causes it in the first place. Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA) is the condition of chronically tight muscles that develops due to accidents, injuries, surgeries, and on-going stress. These muscles have learned to remain "stuck" and contracted due to messages from your brain. They simply won't let go. Because the brain controls the muscles, it must also be involved in teaching them to relax, release and remember how to move easily and efficiently again. 

Chronically held muscle tension creates a holding pattern in our bodies. These holding patterns are the result of our lives. The result of an injury from high school, the result of the daily stress of work and family, compounding over the course of our lifetime. The result of repetitive movements from sports and fitness activities we love, our hobbies, our job. These holding patterns create our habituated postures, the way we hold ourself in when we stand, sit and lie. 

Imagine this for a moment. You are getting ready to settle in for a relaxing evening on the couch. You are cozying up in your favorite spot. Visualize yourself there. What position do you find yourself in? Are you sitting with perfect upright postue, or are you cuddled into a corner or lying on your side? Whatever position you found yourself in... that is a holding pattern.  You likely go into this position everytime you site on the couch or in your chair without even thinking about it. Your brain remembers exactly how to organize your body for maximum comfort. This pattern may have developed in you early on in life for a number of reasons. But what if this holding pattern is no longer providing you the comfort you believe it is. Yes, it may be comfortable, but what if that comfort is just familiarity. You have been going into that position for so long, it is safe and secure. But what if that comfortable position is actually contributing to your pain and you have no idea? Because you end up in the position every night, you might say something like at night the pain in my hip or back gets worse. What if you could have the awareness to recgonize that it is the position you lying in that is causing the pain, and you have the tools to release the tension and also organize your body in a new way that provides you with true comfort? This about all of the holding patterns you have throughout your day. Everything is habituated to some extent and if you are not aware of these patterns within your body that are contributing to a build of muscle tension and pain, then you will never be able to truly feel your best. Hanna Somatic Education will teach you how to recognize, release these holding pattern, and reverse pain and will give you tools for learning new patterns for movement and for rest.