Do You Get Tense
Just Thinking about Relaxing?
If so, it's time your learned to relax whenever and wherever you want to using the power of your
own mind. Just because the world around you is stressing out, doesn't mean you have to participate.
Does Your Brain
Know the Difference between
Good Tension and Bad Tension?
Muscle tension begins with messages from the brain to contract certain fibers in your body.
Ideally, your brain only signals specific muscles to contract when you want to walk across the room,
pick up a book, turn your head, or chew your food. This is good or useful tension.
Unfortunately, chronic stress leads your brain to forget to release tension in certain muscles when contractions are no longer needed. So your jaw remains tight even though you are not chewing food or your shoulders stay tight when you are not lifting. This is bad tension.
Even worse, stress leads your brain to contract muscles of your body that it doesn't need to activate for particular tasks. When you are working on solving a problem, you may tense your forehead even though the frontalis muscle involved can't do any thinking whatsoever. This is dysponesis—a misuse and waste of energy.
For more information about releasing unwanted, counterproductive muscle tension, call (714) 985-4700 now to schedule a FREE phone consultation.
Can You Force
Your Muscles to Relax?
Forcing your muscles to relax is like trying really hard to fall asleep. The harder you try,
the less you succeed. You can circumvent tension temporarily by using a muscle relaxant.
While the drug lasts, you muscle is inhibited from tensing, but that's a lot different than
signaling the muscle to release.
A better way is to allow your muscles to turn off by learning not to send "tense" messages from your brain to your muscles except when they are truly needed. If you suffer from chronic tension, however, your brain has long forgotten how to turn off those chronically tense muscles.
To receive customized information regarding your muscle tension, call (714) 985-4700 now to schedule a FREE phone consultation.
Tune in To Your Muscles
To Turn Off Your Tension
You can't halt tension if your brain can't identify it. You may feel the results of tension,
e.g., pain in your jaw, your neck, or your head, but your brain can't find the switch to
turn off the tension.
The good news is that you can learn to identify muscle tension through a procedure called EMG biofeedback. This merely involves:
- measuring your muscle tension with a sensor
- allowing your brain to recognize the tension
- teaching your brain to switch it off at will
RESEARCH REPORT: EMG
biofeedback with 18 subjects showed that 75% received a clear reduction in
muscle tension and resultant headaches. Changes persisted in an 18-month
follow up assessment.
The formal publication reference for this paper is:
Budzynski, T.H., Stoyva, J.M., Adler, C.S. and Mullaney, D.J. (1973) EMG Biofeedback and Tension Headache: A Controlled Outcome Study. Psychsomatic Medicine , 35(6): 484-496.
The formal publication reference for this paper is:
Budzynski, T.H., Stoyva, J.M., Adler, C.S. and Mullaney, D.J. (1973) EMG Biofeedback and Tension Headache: A Controlled Outcome Study. Psychsomatic Medicine , 35(6): 484-496.
You can't turn off your tension if you can't locate the switch. Find the switch, learn to operate it, and your problem is solved.
Once you learn this procedure, you tend to retain it indefinitely. However, if excess muscle tension creeps back in, it only takes a short time to relocate the switch and restore mastery of your own body to you.
For additional information on how to locate the switch to turn off your excess muscle tension, call (714) 985-4700 now to schedule a FREE phone consultation.
For more information about biofeedback, click on the link below: