Marcie’s Mindfulness Moment | Physical Manifestations of Stress

Have you ever discovered while working or deep in thought that somehow your shoulders have migrated their way to your ears? Are your teeth clamped down together in a vice grip? Is your tongue pressed up against your hard palate with force that could move a truck? Are your eyebrows coming together in the formation of a mountain range? These are just a few ways that our bodies physically manifest our emotional stress without our awareness until we actually feel tightness or pain in those areas. If you just dropped your shoulders, opened your jaw, released your tongue and relaxed your brow line then you are on your way to identifying what you are doing to your body subconsciously- and that is cause for celebration! Next time you take a break from your work, notice where you are feeling your tension, thank your body for letting you know something needs to be released, breathe into it, acknowledge the issue, and breathe it out. Continue along from head to toe identifying those areas of congestion and release them. This whole body scan can take a few minutes at first and will quickly turn into a rapid check-in with some repetition and practice. In utilizing the body scan acknowledge and release method, I think you’ll find many benefits. As you release the physicality of your emotional stress, you can expect to discover more comfort as you sit for prolonged periods of time, more clarity and focus on your projects, and your productivity and efficiency increase- and who couldn’t use more of that?

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