The Science Behind Stress and Pain
When you’re under chronic stress, your nervous system can restrict blood flow to muscles and nerves. Less blood means less oxygen, which causes muscles to go into protective spasm. This creates a vicious cycle: muscle spasm reduces blood flow even more, leading to more oxygen deprivation and continued spasm.
This process involves your body’s stress response system staying “turned on” too long, flooding your system with stress hormones that:
- Keep muscles chronically tight
- Interfere with healing and repair
- Make your nervous system more sensitive to pain
- Disrupt restorative sleep
Common areas affected include your neck, shoulders, upper back, jaw, and lower back.
The Mind-Body Connection
The emotions that most commonly get stored in our bodies are anxiety, anger, and feelings of low self-worth. The problem isn’t having these feelings—it’s natural to experience them. The issue is when we consistently push them down instead of acknowledging and processing them.
Sometimes trauma gets “trapped” in the body as an incomplete survival response. When you experience a threat, your body prepares to fight or flee, but if you’re unable to complete these actions (like when you freeze, aren’t capable of moving, or don’t feel safe to express), that mobilized energy remains stuck in your nervous system.
How this translates into time on the table
These unprocessed traumas can manifest as subluxations in the spine, or stuck tension patterns in the body. When this happens, chiropractic adjustments can be a non-verbal way to finish processing. When you’re receiving chiropractic adjustments or massage therapy, think of it as an opportunity to release more than just physical tension. Feel whatever emotions come up and let them pass through your body.
As we work on subluxations in your spine or trigger points in your muscles:
- Feel the space opening up in the treated area
- Notice blood flow returning
- Allow any emotions that surface to be there—don’t judge them
- Allow breath and gentle movement on the table to help you integrate
This emotional release helps create more lasting physical results because we’re addressing the stress patterns that keep recreating the subluxation or trigger point.
Apply this to daily life
Movement
In his book “The Body Keeps the Score”, Bessel van der Kolk speaks to this phenomenon of unprocessed trauma getting trapped in the body and leading to pain, referencing movement as another way to help discharge this stored activation. Repetitive, rhythmic activities in particular help regulate the autonomic nervous system. It’s almost like these rhythms help “reset” dysregulated nervous system patterns. Think of rocking a baby to calm them— this is a similar principle.
Examples of Helpful Activities:
- Dancing (especially free-form or to music you love)
- Martial arts (which combine movement with empowerment)
- Team sports (adding social connection)
- Running or walking
- Swimming
- Drumming circles
- Even simple activities like bouncing a ball or swinging
Visualization
Exercise: Imagine that your joints have little air pillows that you can inflate with your intention—stand taller and recreate how you would hold yourself and feel if you inflated these little air sacs joint by joint. Notice how this simple visualization can bring a sense of lightness and space to congested areas.
Breath
Slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” system), which counteracts the sympathetic nervous system’s fight-or-flight response. When we are in pain, we breathe shallowly and rapidly, keeping us in a state of hyperarousal.
Exercise: simply slow down your breath, particularly extending the exhale. When you breathe out slowly, it signals safety to your nervous system.
Moving Forward
If you experience recurring pain and you can’t figure out the root, consider trying this holistic approach. While medications and procedures might provide temporary relief, lasting healing often requires looking at the bigger picture of your physical, emotional, and lifestyle patterns.
Remember: your body has an incredible capacity to heal when given the right support and attention.
By Kirsten Petersen, DC