Achieving the Good Life: It’s an Inside Job.
As a somatic therapist and certified Rosen Method Bodywork Practitioner, I work with people with a wide range of physical, emotional, and relationship complaints. But they are all wanting essentially the same thing: a better life, a good life.
Some suffer with chronic physical conditions or emotional well-being challenges. Others are vibrant and high-functioning and are simply wanting to support their active health and wellness.
The work I do is not a form of, or a substitute for, medical or mental health diagnosis, care or treatment.
That said, in my Boulder and Denver somatic therapy practice I help many people who live depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and stress to live better, freer lives. In many cases, my clients have been told either that there is nothing seriously wrong or that the only treatment options are pain relief medications, stress management practices or lifestyle changes.
I often find that much chronic pain or discomfort—even if the sufferer has experienced these debilitating symptoms or effects for many years or even throughout their lifetimes— is not due solely to underlying health conditions or stress but mainly to our habitual tendency to “hold” tension in our bodies to manage that stress.
Stop holding onto pain and stress
There are numerous ways clients hold onto their pain and stress. For example, many people clench or grind their teeth, often without knowing it such as when they sleep, to take the edge off of their stress or worry or their anxiety.
Other people hold tension in their belly and this is sometimes the cause of discomfort after they eat or while their bodies are attempting to digest and break down the foods they eat to prepare them for elimination.
Still others hold tension in their neck or in the back of their head at nose or eye level, and this can cause or aggravate tension headaches.
Before somatic therapy, many people round or stoop their shoulders, fold themselves inward, lock their hips and knees, or brace the muscles deep in their backs and behind their shoulder blades—all in an unconscious effort to reduce stress and worry and to feel safer.
Many people also feel that they can never breathe deeply enough, but this is often simply because they hold tension in the diaphragm, solar plexus, and in the muscles that line each rib (the intercostals) which help us breathe in and out. For those people, it can feel like they go through life “holding their breath” which, in a way, they do.
Feeling “numb”, “stuck”, or “blocked”— effects so often experienced by people who struggle with depression, can also be greatly reduced or eliminated through the release of chronic holding and the relaxation of the tendency to try and de-press or re-press our true feelings and emotions and hide them in our bodies.
Holding in, holding on, holding down, and holding back are not bad responses of the brain and body. At one time those were all we had and what kept us safe. For many of my clients, however, those old habits of defense and protection are not needed anymore—we made it through our most difficult experiences—and what once saved us now limits us and drains most of our available energy.
Bottom line!
It takes a lot of energy to hold tension in the body 24 hours a day, even when we rest or sleep, and this tensing and holding can produce or contribute to chronic pain or discomfort and the debilitating effects of anxiety and depression.
The somatic therapy work I do, which is rooted in the Rosen Method, helps people relax and gently release the tension they hold in their body, reducing feelings of stress and producing a sense of ease and spaciousness that most people don’t remember feeling in a very long time. Unless the effects of past trauma are released, they will stay with us.
The work I do encourages a more relaxed way of living and being in the world and of relating to others and to ourselves. My clients often tell me that they feel more freedom of movement and aliveness in their bodies, more peace of mind, and more desire for connection after a session and that this feeling tends to last.
“The good life” really is an inside job, but one definitely worth experiencing after so many years of chronic pain, stress, and worry.
Todd R. Schwartz is a somatic, whole person therapist and Rosen Method Bodywork practitioner with offices in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. To reach Todd, please call him at 303-704-8331. My work is not a form of, or a substitute for, medical or mental health diagnosis, care and treatment. It is, however, a valuable complement to those and all other health and wellness approaches.
Copyright © Todd R. Schwartz, 2024.