Still Bracing for Impact?

If you’ve ever been in an accident, and are still suffering from pain in those areas of your body long after it “should” have healed, you may want to ask your body:

Are you still bracing for impact?

You’ll hear us talk about the primitive brain and how a trauma can get FROZEN there until it is released. What most people don’t realize is that the tissues of our body ALSO stores trauma. And they can maintain painful, restrictive, inflexible holding patterns long, long after the physical tissues have healed.

For example, back in 1999 I injured my spine in a skiing accident. The following year I regularly had intense, off the chart pain from disc damage. My body helped me out by splinting… it protected me from further damage and pain by holding all the muscles of my back and pelvis in a state of tight vigilance.

Many years later, as I sought to take my body to new levels of flexibility and expression, guess what… parts of my body still remembered aspects of the injury. They were still on some level “bracing for impact.”

If you want to shift this kind of bracing, you can FORCE IT. While that may work for awhile, it often comes back to literally bite you in the butt down the road. Instead, you could try doing some tapping in dialogue with that part of your body.

“Even though my body is still bracing for impact, I deeply and completely accept all of me.”
“Even though the tissues that were injured are trying to protect me, I accept all of me.”
“Even though I don’t like being restricted, I do like to protect myself, and I’m open to exploring a new balance and expanded limits.”

I did that and then tapped through the points using “this bracing for impact in my back.” In fact, I did this once again just moments ago as I felt into the tissues of my back and could feel an “expectation of re-injury.” I tapped on that, too.

What was the result? As I’ve seen so often with my clients who have suffered accidents and do have structural changes in their body caused by the injury, what I notice is a subtle shift. My spine feels more open, relaxed, and receptive. My unhelpful level of caution has subsided. I feel myself more willing to dream of new adventures.

If your body is still bracing for impact, tap on those feelings. Work WITH your body. Know that these reflexive responses — while no longer as necessary as they once were — are still here to help. When you tap, acknowledge and appreciate the subtle changes that do occur. With old injuries and holding patterns, you’ll likely notice that the emotional suffering is the first to go. The body will then start playing with new postures and increasing flexibility… bit by bit… baby step by baby step.

The difference will be that you will no longer be STUCK in the old holding pattern. You’ll be healing more deeply and completely than ever before.

Tip: Our Pain Relief with EFT coaching program can also be used to bring you relief from the emotions that are stuck in your body. It has hours of tapping audios and scripts that can help you.

Tagged as: Injuries, Pain Relief, Trauma