Below is an excerpt from an interview where Saul is discussing the effects of stress on the body/mind and how bodywork can help address it. Please click the play button to listen:

What is Stress?

What is stress? We use this word so often, yet don’t necessarily understand what it is and the impact it has on the body. Stress is defined as emotional or physical tension. To expand on that, it is the time of tension between a new stimulation to the body and the subsequent adaptation. It is the body seeking to find some way to harmonize or resolve new input, whether that be physical, emotional or psychological. If the body is not able to fully resolve the input, the compensative responses are stored in the body and it becomes stuck in the state of the stress. This stress response will then continue even though the initial stimulation is no longer occurring.

Whether the stress is emotional or physical, large or small, stress has physiological effects in the body. There is an immediate chain of reaction in order to mobilize the restoration of homeostasis. A stress response always involves a tightening and compression within the system as the sympathetic nervous system (responsible for our fight and flight response) charges into gear. This can have immediate and long-term ramifications on how we function in day-to-day life.

Here is an example of how a stress event can affect the body: Someone is crossing a busy street and suddenly a car comes careening around the corner towards them. They see the oncoming car, feel a charge of alarm and turn quickly to avoid it. Adrenaline floods the system in order to create more oxygen and energy for a rapid physical response. The whole spine twists to pull away from the car and a collision is avoided. However, when the pedestrian turns back to a more neutral position, a few vertebra stay in the turned position.

Perhaps due to previous injury in the area or weak musculature, these vertebrae are not able to reestablish their previous position; now they are not supporting the previous equilibrium of the spine. When this occurs, some of the sensory and emotional content of the event will become stored at the site of the compromised vertebrae instead of being discharged during repositioning. Above and below them, other structural components will also have to shift in order to adapt to the altered array of forces around them. Muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia strain to compensate in order to create optimal balance and function again. The physical body itself will now carry a physiological imprint of the stress event forward into the future.

Types of Stress

Stress can come in one large event, like a fall or an emotional shock. A trauma introduces a drastic change that then initiates a whole sequence of adaptive mechanisms. Sometimes the stress event is so powerful that some of a person’s life force exits the physical body temporarily (or long-term) in order to survive the situation.

Stress can also present itself through a series of ongoing small-scale tensions that occur over a period of time. A repetitive strain injury like carpal tunnel syndrome would fall into this category. Some other examples are ongoing exposure to a chemical toxins like paint, continuous tension in a relationship, a strained home environment or feelings of inadequacy at school or work. Ongoing micro-stresses can build up to a level where the body loses its ability to adapt and find homeostasis. Patterns of compression begin to form which compromise function of muscles, organs, emotional balance or mental capacity.

Physical Stress

There are four main types of stress: physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. Physical stress includes accidents and injuries, as well as chemical stresses from substances or environmental factors. Let’s take an example of a chemical stress and consider how it can effect the body.

A chemical stress is a substance which throws the body chemistry off-balance. Some examples are sugar, alcohol or a toxic household cleaner. Each time the chemical input occurs, cellular homeostasis is disturbed, causing the body to begin the process of balancing or cleansing the substance from the bloodstream. If it happens often enough over time, parts of the system that are vulnerable or overworked may become compromised, like the liver with alcohol consumption or the pancreas in the case of diabetes. A strong poison or drug would be considered a larger scale stress, while breathing in some exhaust fumes might be a small scale stress.

Emotional Stress

Stress can also come in the form of emotional tension. Usually the word homeostasis is used in relation to physical or chemical balance within the body, but we also constantly strive to achieve an emotional homeostasis. We want to feel positive and ‘happy’ and constantly readjust in order to maintain emotional balance. Emotional stress can come in the form of trauma and abuse, or smaller tensions that effect the body in more subtle ways, like feelings of disappointment, sadness or anger. If a negative emotion is very strong or continuous, the strain of adjustment can wear down the body’s capacity to adapt and recover emotional equilibrium.

Psychological Stress

Another type of stress is psychological. Negative thought patterns and restrictive mental conditioning contribute huge amounts of tension into the human experience. Many of our beliefs do not support an unhampered flow of creative life force. Ideas and impulses are often judged and restricted instead of being able to naturally unfold into physical and emotional expression. The way that we interpret what we see going on in the world around us can itself be another form of psychological stress. This stress spurs the body/mind/spirit to reestablish a more harmonious psychological landscape through exploration and behavioral changes.

When negative thoughts or beliefs are too strong or challenging to the mind’s ability to adapt and feel at peace, thought patterns become stuck in a non-adapted states. Feelings of being overwhelmed, inadequate, hopeless or unfulfilled can become commonplace. Eventually they may densify into compressive matrixes that become more and more solidified. Even if someone tries to adjust their thought patterns, they find it challenging because the patterns that are creating those behaviors are now locked in the tissues of the physical body.

Spiritual Stress

Many people feel daily stress over feeling disconnected from the planet and the cosmos. Another expression of spiritual stress is not feeling connected to one’s true nature. Comparing your level of development to others would also fall into this category. Trying to be the most ‘awakened’ and most conscious can become a stressful pursuit and one more thing to attain. Spiritual angst and yearning can result from hearing of others’ spiritual connections and experiences that may seem to eclipse yours. Holding ideals of ‘enlightenment’ and unconditional love can create feelings of inadequacy and failure if someone is not able to regularly operate at those levels of consciousness.

The Impact of Stress

We can encounter any of these types of stress. Depending on the amount of impact and also our condition, we often adapt to them and maintain a dynamic state of homeostasis. Stress can help keep the body and mind strong and supple by providing an ongoing ‘workout’ to maintain equilibrium. The process of life itself is a constant dance of adjustment and creative adaptation.

However, if a stress can not be fully resolved, the physical effects as well as the sensory and vibrational information of whatever caused it becomes internalized into the body. Life force is then used to record this information in a memory matrix within the soft tissue, similar to how memory is used to record information on a computer. Life force is now held in this formation and unavailable to the rest of the system, which causes physical, emotional and/or psychological problems. The body also has to use energy to monitor the effects of the original stress as well as the resultant compensations to the stress.

This kind of cycle helps explain why a stressful state tends to lead to a more stressful state which tends to lead to degeneration and disease. Often micro-stresses first affect the vibrational layers of the body, and over time begin to constrict tissues, organs, glands, and bones in the physical body. This leads to more symptomatic and chronic imbalances/diseases, such as diabetes, herniated discs, migraines, reproductive issues, or cancer.

Re-entering Present Time

Bodywork can identify and release restriction patterns and misalignments created by unresolved stress. This supports someone in regaining optimal function physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. When physical compression is relieved, more space comes back into the body. realignment takes place naturally with a minimum of readjustment. Life force can flow with more ease through the system. Stress matrixes that had the body stuck in a past history of unresolved stress are released; a person’s body literally begins to operate more in present time.

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The Dynamics of Stress & its Impact on the Body