“People are always amazed to discover that they are doing things they are unaware of. This is because adults proudly hold on to the illusion that they are always conscious of what they are doing.”
In this first of a three part blog, I’m going to explain how understanding your posture reveals, what is known in Somatics as reflex responses to the ongoing demands to modern day life. Thomas Hanna codified them as the Green, Red and Trauma Reflexes. Once you learn about them, I’m hoping you have a better understanding of how stress is a contributing factor to muscular pain and tension.
In this blog I will explain the Green Light Reflex and it’s association with stress and how chronic stress re-shapes you. The last of this three part blog I’ll explain how the Somatic movements address these reflexes, improving your posture and empower you to being one step ahead of your stress and tension.
Green Light Reflex
An habituation of this reflex might initially appear as “good posture” and one you might adopt when you “sit up straight”, it pulls your shoulders back, head forwards and contracts your back muscles. It relates to the “Landau Reflex”, a developmental reflex, where at around 5 months old , babies, when lying on their tummies begin to lift their heads, this action contracts their back muscles and a synergystic response of also tensing neck, shoulder, buttocks and hamstrings. This reflex is an essential part of progressing up to standing and eventually walking. It is a reflex of action, fight and fleeing.
Once we’ve mastered getting up and walking, this reflex is then triggered every time you feel a "call to action". Consider the number of times, you feel under pressure at work, deadlines, to-do lists, running late and the demands of the responsibilities to children or elderly parents, life in general. Consider also the mental impact of what you witness , feel and hear, these last two years, waiting for “whatever next” is a perfect example of how our muscles literally absorb all of our experiences.
This reflex also becomes habituated through physical stress. Any repetitive action where you have to “put your back into it” carry heavy loads, reach up and overhead, or stand up straight like a soldier or dancer creates a tilted pelvis and arched lower back. Misalignments in joints, shoulders and hips that rotate outwards, all contribute to issues such as back, neck and shoulder pain.
If habituated, this reflex tightens the back, arching it arched, tensing the shoulders, pulling them back and up and head juts forward, contributing to conditions such as sciatica, lower back pain, neck and shoulder pain, herniated discs and jaw pain. It also keeps your nervous system in the fight and flight mode increasing cortisol and adrenalin, wreaking havoc with your sleep, elevate blood pressure, heart rate and cognition.
This reflex, in our very early life was one for growth, mobility & developmental milestones as well as maturation of the brain, can then become one of hindrance and pain. Somatics offers a simple solution tothi’s and to get you started, this Green Light Reflex, lesson in my on-demand is a good place to begin.
In my next blog, you’ll learn about how long term anxiety and worry trigger what we call the “Red Light Reflex”
Coming up in class this week
Following on from last week’s class (now in the library here), which was adapted from Thom Hanna’s “Delicate Back” series, we will be continuing with the same theme, and be exploring side-lying movements for the shoulders that increase ease and comfort in the upper back, neck and shoulders. You can join me by booking here.
Thank you for reading.
I look forward to seeing your Soma soon.
Liz 💕🙏🏻