Muscle tension: reducing high muscle tension
Muscle tension, everyone suffers from it from time to time. But if you have chronic high muscle tension, it can become annoying. The only nice thing about it is that you can always do the plank-challenge. Unfortunately, this is not something that helps you on a daily basis and muscle tension is especially annoying and often leads to painful cramps
Muscle Tension
Muscle tension is something very normal. For example, you need it to stay standing, but when you sit down, it's nice when the muscles that don't need to be active then relax.
There are all sorts of reasons why it might be difficult for your muscles to relax. Stress, for example, causes you to unconsciously tense your muscles. This can lead to tension headaches, for instance.
Emotions can therefore cause muscle tension, and that muscle tension can in turn cause pain[1].
Unfortunately, this can create a vicious cycle, because pain is not fun. That pain in turn creates an emotion, which creates additional muscle tension that in turn creates more pain. And so pain can seem to get worse each time.
This is, for example, a symptom that people may also experience when they suffer from whiplash, back pain, neck pain, and/or joint pain.
With nutrition
Sometimes muscle tension can also be caused by an improper diet. Magnesium, for example, is a mineral that is very important for muscle relaxation.
Magnesium is found, for example, in nuts, whole grain products and vegetables such as spinach.
When you eat mostly white bread and avoid vegetables, this unhealthy diet can cause your body to be more stressed than it needs to be.
By eating healthy or taking magnesium supplements, you can already do something to suffer less from muscle tension, if it is due to your diet.
Do you find it difficult to eat healthy? Then hypnosis can help you change your perception of taste, so that, for example, you do like vegetables and can enjoy healthy food.
With your body
To at least temporarily relieve muscle tension, it’s important to stay active. Yoga, for example, can be very helpful in strengthening your sense of control over your body.
Yoga helps you relax and stretch your muscles which works very well against muscle tension. In addition, you train your muscles very consciously per pose. By paying close attention you can learn how to turn your muscles on or off, to tense and relax them.
Is this a little too intensive at first? Then you can also focus on just stretching your muscles.
Is this too much to ask? Then a heat compress can also provide much-needed relief[2].
Do you find exercise intimidating? If so, you may also be experiencing a fear of movement, which in turn can cause muscle tension.
With your psyche
Since most people eat peanut butter and vegetables from time to time, you’re more likely to experience muscle tension caused by stress or emotions that trigger tension.
How you feel often depends on your surroundings and the problems you may or may not be experiencing.
These feelings are actually triggered by your subconscious thoughts, which are in turn linked to past experiences in your life or whether a particular situation was good or bad.
As a result, you’ve developed beliefs about how the world works and how you can best function within it. For example, if you often have to give a presentation for work but are very afraid of doing so, you may experience significant muscle tension caused by the emotion of fear.
Sometimes certain beliefs about life can cause you to suddenly have a lot of muscle tension.
If you can’t yet identify a clear cause or the moment your muscle tension began, hypnosis can help you with this. In this case, a hypnotherapist can assist you with regression therapy.
First, the hypnotist will have a preliminary discussion with you to determine if regression is necessary, or if another technique can also help you sufficiently for reducing muscle tension.
Next, you are put under hypnosis. In that state, you are very good at finding unconscious thoughts and patterns. When you are then given the hypnotic suggestion to go back to the moment when you first experienced the muscle tension you are now suffering from you go to that moment very quickly because your subconscious knows exactly when it happened.
Usually this is a moment from your childhood, because that is the time in your life when your beliefs are formed. For example, you see how people around you react to a certain situation and then assume that is the normal way.
You then go on to do something with that moment. For example, you empathize with the people who were around you at that moment with your adult knowledge. This allows you to experience the persuasive moment in a completely different way that can remove the belief that causes muscle tension.
From then on, you can already suffer less from muscle tension.
Expressing Emotions
Because of those beliefs, you may also find it difficult to express emotions. Some emotions can cause muscle tension, such as anger, sadness, or even joy —especially if you’re not allowed to express them. Then you might end up with a huge, uncontrollable grin on your face 😊.
By doing expressing those emotions, you can already relieve yourself of a lot of tension.
Still, that can also be scary. In that case, hypnosis can help you with your self-confidence and self-esteem to ensure that you become convinced that your emotions are worth expressing.
This can be done with hypnotic suggestions such as:
"I can do anything."
"I am worthy of being heard."
"It's healthy to express myself."
These are just examples, depending on your beliefs, a hypnosis expert may choose to help you with other hypnotic suggestions to help you express your emotions.
Processing Trauma
There are all kinds of traumas that can cause muscle tension. For example, there are physical traumas, such as having been in an accident, and psychological traumas. This psychological trauma could include, for example, having been neglected as a child.
Often, people who experience physical trauma also suffer psychological trauma. For example, someone who has been in a car accident may develop a fear of driving.
When a fall or something like that causes you to become afraid to move, it can also cause a lot of stress.
Here, too, a hypnotherapist can help you process this trauma so that you don’t bottle up tension, stress, and other emotions in your body as a result of the trauma. By processing it, you can even prevent yourself from developing PTSD[3].
Lifestyle Change
Do you have work that requires a certain attitude for long periods of time? For example, you sit at a computer for hours? You work a lot on your knees (because you set tiles, for example)? Then that prolonged posture can also unconsciously cause a lot of muscle tension.
By stretching at least every hour at work, you can avoid walking around with all kinds of tension in your body at night simply because of the posture you have while working.
"Taking a little longer exercise or doing yoga in the evening can work wonders, too.
Stopping your addictions
Are you craving a cigarette or something else? If you’re addicted to something—whether it’s drugs, food, or something else—being unable to satisfy your addiction can also cause a lot of stress and emotional turmoil.
If you smoke, it’s important to quit in a psychologically healthy way. Hypnosis is a way to quit easily without forcing yourself not to have a cigarette. You’ll simply no longer want a cigarette.
Other addictions can also be addressed with hypnosis[4].
Muscle tension is very annoying and can have a number of causes. Often a solution can be found in your mental state to reduce muscle tension. For example, certain beliefs can block you from expressing your emotions or cause stress which in turn causes muscle tension.
Hypnosis helps you identify why something is blocking you and remove that blockage. In the process, it helps you overcome your fears, daring you to move again. This can all help well against muscle tension.
Want to know how hypnosis works? Then join the free online masterclass on hypnosis.
Would you rather get started right away with techniques you can use to help yourself or others? Then sign up for one of our training programs or attend a seminar.
If you want to get something done in your life without (muscle) tension, then this product "Law of Logical Consequence" may also be useful for you.
Also pin this handy infographic:
Sources:
[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022034515625216
[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/muscle-rigidity#treatment
[3] https://lonerwolf.com/muscle-tension/
[4] http://www.pps.org.pk/PJP/13-3/Shamir.pdf