The Impact of Emotion on Muscles and Bones

Part 3 of 3

Falls, and the fears they implant, are a common cause of joint and muscle complaints. It is the remaining fear rather than the accident itself that is causing the problem.

Falling: Backward
I am often asked to treat clients who have fallen backwards and hurt their backs. During a fall, fear is registered in the subconscious mind, impressing the memory to such an extent that the patient will develop a tendency to lean backwards. Why? We are all aware of how we tend to be drawn to those things that cause us fear, that is until the subconscious reacts with a countermeasure like an anxiety attack or a phobia. This predisposition arises because the fear registered in the mind at the time of the accident is so great that it acts like a video automatically playing on the screen of the subconscious. Because the subconscious can’t switch it off, the tape causes the body to lean into the fall.

A patient who has fallen backward will now tend to lean in that direction, thus increasing the likelihood of falling that way again. To compensate, the subconscious causes the patient to stand or walk with hands clasped in front and the head held forward. Now, the torso is tending to lean backwards, but the neck and shoulder muscles are stretching forward in counterbalance. From the conflict between the lower back muscles and those of the upper shoulders and neck, the client will eventually develop severe pain in the lower back; and, often, pain or discomfort in the neck and shoulders, too. I have cases like this every week; and the remedy is simple: I let the patient, in a totally relaxed way, fall backward into my arms. After doing this a few times, the patient’s subconscious realizes that falling backward presents no danger; and the fear lifts, the patient relaxes and the pain goes.

The tendency to fall backward, which led to the imbalance, which led to the counterbalance, which led to the back, shoulder, or neck pain, is gone.

It is subconscious fear that causes the problem. Remove the fear by bringing the memory to logical awareness, and the subconscious removes the body language.


Falling: Forward
Likewise, if a client has at some earlier time in life sustained severe injury from a forward fall, the typical body language would be for the body to lean forward. The subconscious fear remaining from the fall causes the problem.

To stay in balance, a patient with this body language will hold the arms behind the back and will also, if the subconscious fear is great enough, tilt the head back. Such contortion causes severe strain on the legs and hips, strain which often results in the need for knee or hip joint replacements. But once the fear of falling forward is dealt with, the body regains its upright stance. The muscles of the knees, legs, thighs, and hips relax; and the joints are freed of strain.


Falling: To the Left or Right
Where there has been a fall to the left or to the right, the individual will tend to lock the leg on the side to which he or she fell so as to prevent falling that way again. Over the years, the locked hip joint begins to wear, leading, as we have already seen, to the all-too-common hip replacement.

Richard, in his sixties, had painful hip and knee joints. Some years before, he’d undergone extensive diagnostic examinations and tests, which showed that his problems were due to worn knee cartilage. Doctors removed the offending cartilage in the left knee. The pain in the knee and the hips continued, however, causing Richard great distress.

Why was Richard’s left knee not working properly? Apparently, it hadn’t occurred to anyone to inquire! This is like continually replacing a tire on a car without wondering why it is wearing faster than the other three.

As I watched Richard walk around my consulting room, it became obvious to me that he was not using his ankle properly; and upon closer observation, I noticed that the joint was inflexible. No doubt, this stiffness was causing considerable strain on the knee, which was taking on the bulk of the twisting that should have been absorbed by the ankle. The hip was affected similarly, if to a lesser extent.

Richard told me that as a young man he had slipped and badly twisted his ankle as he rounded a base during a baseball game. Now I knew why the ankle was stiff. His subconscious, to protect the ankle from being twisted again, was preventing him from using it.

I asked Richard to stand with his back toward me with his eyes closed as I placed my hands over his head. This juxtaposition brought his subconscious to the surface and just as I expected, he involuntarily fell forward and to the left, twisting as if rounding the base. His subconscious was trying to prevent the twisting fall from occurring again.

Once he had repeated the fall a few times, the ankle joint relaxed; once the subconscious got the message that this action was no longer causing pain, it allowed him to walk normally. Had this sort of examination taken place in the beginning, painful knee-replacement surgery and years of discomfort might have been avoided.

Basically nothing can go wrong with a joint. It is not until the muscles become too tight that a joint begins to wear and why would the muscles be too tight? It is usually fear induced, either current stress problems or a past trauma that the subconscious is trying to prevent from happening again.

There is not a muscle in the body, including the heart, which is immune from the protective forces of the subconscious. If you have joint problems, first look for stiffness in the muscles, it could save you a lot of discomfort if you understand what your subconscious is trying to tell you.

Malcolm S. Southwood