askchapo

Because our mind is just part of our body.

Also creamsicle can make as many dumb posts as he wants. So can you. Take care of yourself comrade

Stress, poor sleep, and a bunch of related stuff for a lot of people will manifest as a literal tightening of muscles. Existing imbalances caused by things as mundane as desk work are exacerbated. Exhausted brains are happy to bend over and use the low back to lift a heavy box and tons of other inappropriate biomechanics. It adds up over weeks.

If you can't immediately address the root causes, you can "roll out" tight muscles with a tennis ball or similar, wrapped in a towel or pillow case, between your body and the floor or a wall. There are videos online of people who can demonstrate it much better than I can describe, and it's remarkable how much of a difference it made for me to feel out muscles that I'd never learned how to use. I don't think I've had a particularly sedentary or active life, probably more active than average in the US. I think a lot of people probably would benefit from what is essentially physical therapy...

I haven't read the book The Body Keeps the Score but I've heard good things about it, discussing how trauma can effect us physically.

In Buddhist teaching it's said every emotional state has a physical counterpart, but meditating you can improve awareness of the body to more easily analyse mental states, but meditation can cause distress for some if not applied properly.

I use this in a positive way, you can practice generating the feeling in your stomach associated with wholesome love, like imagining hugging a dog you love or another and focusing on the physical feeling that arises. (The general practice is called metta meditation, or loving-kindness) It can help alleviate anxiety.

🐋

The physicality of emotion is something I had to sort of rediscover after a long period of deep depression and it's a bit frightening at times how much power it can have.