posted October 01, 2019 12:50 AM            

“THE PSOAS MUSCLE IS THE MAIN MUSCLE THAT RESPONDS TO THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DURING THE FLIGHT, FIGHT, FREEZE RESPONSE IN THE BODY. WHEN STARTLED OR UNDER MENTAL OR EMOTIONAL STRESS, THE PSOAS CONTRACTS AND CURLS UP, A LITTLE LIKE A CATERPILLAR POKED BY A STICK.”
– LIZ KOCH

The Sacred Psoas (pronounced So-Az) is a deeply internal and esoteric muscle that stabilizes the postural and energetic core of the human being. Originating in the mid back proximal to the diaphragm and aorta, this bilateral, fan-like muscle spirals downward along the spinal column, crossing three major joints in the low-back area, including the hips, before inserting at the upper-thigh bone.

Through a lacy fabric of soft tissue fascia this long muscle supports the spine and vital organs including the heart and lungs, as well as pelvic organs including the bladder, bowel and reproductive organs. These fascial threads also extend throughout the nervous system up to the brain and down to the lumbar spinal nerves.

Like two pillars buttressing the spine, the psoas allows us to bend over and pick something up, and initiates walking, running or dancing. All graceful movement and power emanates from this central psoas axis. A healthy psoas promotes good posture, wherein the body is stacked vertically and aligned with gravity from top to bottom. When we have good posture all the muscles of the body are relaxed, because the skeleton and bones bear the brunt of the weight, as they were designed to do. The brain and nervous system function optimally and we enjoy emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

“WHEN ONE TUGS AT A SINGLE THING IN NATURE, HE (SHE) FINDS IT ATTACHED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD” – JOHN MUIR

When the postural core is disrupted by poor habits, such as too much sitting, or defensive “shapes” second to stress or trauma, the psoas muscles will strain under this imbalanced load resulting in a “tug” throughout the brain and entire nervous system. This strain results in a host of ailments including back, hip, groin and knee pain, as well as organ dysfunction including, but not limited to, kidney and adrenal exhaustion. Emotionally we lose our equilibrium and spiritually we feel disconnected from our sacred depths.

It is a natural, involuntary response for the psoas muscle to clamp down and protect our vital organs and ready us to flee, fight, freeze, or duck and dodge a perceived threat.

It is not natural for the sacrosanct psoas to remain chronically tight for months or years after the original stress has long passed. When this happens an exhausting tension pattern wreaks havoc on our health resulting in pain, fatigue, sleep, immune, digestive and mood challenges.

The Psoas Muscle in Flight Response
While humans do need to engage the psoas to run from a real threat, a healthy psoas reverts back to a relaxed state once the danger is over. If the psoas remains guarded, it will activate parts of the brain that result in hyper-vigilance and anxiety. Consequently, the flexor muscles in the front of the body anchor down, resulting in a tightening of the gut, a hunching of the shoulders and a collapsing in the chest and heart. These prolonged postural and psychic distortions incite worry, paranoia and even panic attacks. As the instinctual need for safety and security is a foremost priority, expansive opportunities and healthy challenges are often avoided. Meditation, stillness and rest are especially difficult for the person stuck in a flight response.

The Psoas Muscle in Fight Response
Sometimes the survival-oriented psoas muscle springs into action to “put up our dukes” when an enemy is perceived, but we need to be able to “lay down our arms” once the challenge is over. Our posture reflects this with high tensile tone in the musculature, a jutting head, clenched jaw, puffed up chest and bracing in the hips. If the psoas is unable to settle, it tugs on the entire brain and nervous system and triggers aggression and a cascade of stress hormones resulting in chronic frustration or irritability. It invokes an argumentative skepticism often coupled with a divisive attitude toward others. As this instinctual need for defensiveness is an instinctual priority, it becomes more difficult to relax and embody the tender transparency of our truer nature at the core of our being.

The Psoas Muscle in Freeze Response
If fleeing or fighting are not an option, and no escape is available, the psoas tissue curls up compulsively in an attempt to play dead, like a possum, in the hope that the danger will go away, and to protect the vulnerable “under-belly” of vital organs. If the psoas remains frozen long after the danger is gone, the brain and nervous system also become immobilized and pervasive feelings of overwhelm, hopelessness or depression ensue. The fatigued psoas caves in with a collapsed, low or no muscle tone posture. The shoulders, solar plexus and pelvis all sag, and often the arches of the feet crumble. A habitual procrastinating helplessness results, with a concomitant proclivity towards disassociation, shame and emotional numbness. Unaddressed, the enduring fatigue or pain associated with the freeze response makes the essential strength and courage necessary to overcome obstacles to self-actualization challenging.

The Psoas Free from Flight, Fight Freeze Response
Knowledge is wisdom and understanding and addressing unresolved somatic stress helps liberate the entire body-mind-spirit initiating deep healing and personal transformation. Once healed, this soulful muscle offers the experience of a safe haven within. As the survival instincts relax, our choices, movements and actions emanate from a graceful, grounded and settled core connection to our depths. Feeling free and safe, we become open to embodying more of our essential true nature. Our health, sleep, energy and moods often improve. Rather than living all curled up like a caterpillar, we spread our wings and embody the vast expanse of our sacred true nature.

Healing takes time and does not happen overnight for most of us. Taking a proactive stance to do what you can will empower you to create the momentum needed for healing. It is also important to work with trauma-informed, psoas-savvy therapists, body workers and Chiropractors to help accelerate your healing process.

posted October 04, 2019 08:18 PM            

During the last few years of my Yoga sharing’s, I came across an interesting observation. It seemed apparent that people who had very open hips and lower back tended to be naturally more playful, creatively free, and some what calmer/more trusting about life. So I wondered what muscle is mostly involved in the spine to hip connection. The main culprit would be our Psoas muscle. This is the deepest muscle of the human body. On beginning my research I already new that the psoas affects; mobility, structure, flexibility, strength, and even our organs. What I didn’t know was the emotional hold it can also have over us.

The Psoas initiates at both sides of the spine, and spans from the 12th thoracic vertebrae down to both of the 5th lumbar vertebrae. From there it travels through the abdominal core, to the pelvis, where it attaches to the top of the thighbone.

It is the only muscle to connect the spine to the legs. Without it we would not walk or stand upright. A healthy psoas creates stable ground to hold our vital organs located in the abdominal core. When the Psoas is tight or constricted the freedom and ease of movement in our spine to hip connection is seriously prohibited. A tight unhealthy Psoas is the breeding ground for low back pain, sciatica, hip problems, knee pain, disc problems, menstruation pain, infertility, and even digestive problems like IBS to name a few.

A free mobile healthy Psoas seems to not only give the benefits of mobility and physical comfort but it also supports a free, more playful and calmer way of being. I got to wonder, well, why is that?

I discovered that the psoas also connects to the diaphragm through connective tissue or fascia which affects our breath and our capacity to feel fear. Both the psoas and the facia can hold tensions that effect not only the muscle and its movements, but also our emotional balance and calmness. Our psoas is the connector between the pelvis and the brain it guides that connection and supports it. You could see the spoas as ‘a bridge’ between your rational and instinctual capacities.

Most importantly I found out that the psoas is connected to what we call your abdominal brain. Your abdominal brain is also known as your Enteric Nervous System, named by John Newport Langley. It can be simply described as the emotional centre of your body. It is in control of Digestion and emotions arise from this place. It is made up of a huge network of nerves; It has the same density of nerves as the spinal cord and the same amount of neuro transmitters as the brain. And it works independently of the top brain. It can actually survive if the head brain dies. Where as if your abdominal brain dies then the brain in your head will also die as the essential functions of the body cannot be carried out.

It’s nice to imagine that you have your head brain at the top of the spinal column and your gut brain at the bottom. Which is exactly what yoga works with in the chakra system which top and tails the shusumna nadi/central spinal column.

What this also means is that emotions are connected in with the psoas through the fascia and nerves. When you feel fear or guilt in your abdominal brain that e-motion. Energy-in-motion travels through the nerves in the psoas to the spinal column and then to the brain. Your psoas in this exchange is acting like a courier from the abdominal brain to the central nerves system sending the emotional-information to your brain. Now if your spoas is healthy and free and the nadis are open and spacious and full of prana/vitality, then, the information transmitted to your brain will be accurate and have clarity. If however your psoas is unhealthy, tight and cramped then the information will be unclear and you will most likely feel emotional discomfort in the process of couriering this information from down to up.

So when you have very open hips and lower back (psoas) you are more easily playful, creatively free, and even somewhat calmer or more trusting about life. Because the emotions that appear in your abdominal brain due to everyday living are transmitted freely with clarity and ease through your oh so healthy psoas to your brain. Without incurring pain or discomfort and subsequently more fear. Fear is the emotion that stops us from playing with the unkown, from being creatively free. Fear is the feeling that prohibits a calm life. And stops us from learning new things. Most young children have very little fear, and you know if you have ever spent time watching a young child play that she/he has something to really teach you about joy and fascination with the world in and out.

I believe the common diagnosis of IBS could be better understood as; ‘trapped or pushed down emotional energy held within the psoas and abdominal brain.’ If we had the courage and patience to breath down into this tight area, then to let the emotions flow up as we exhale so as to experience them. We could release them into wisdom and part of our integrated being. Our psoas would be more relaxed and out emotional clarity would be increased. Luckily for us yoga works both ways. So dealing with the emotional stuff on a feeling level is too much to begin with we could also practice a range of, back-to-hip opening asana for gentle release of this physical tension.

I feel when stretching the psoas in asana more than ever Soma is needed. Soma is defined as “the body experienced from within.” When we practice asana in this internally attentive way it is a powerful and effective process that admits the natural intelligence of the body to facilitate healing and transformation. Liz Knoch puts it well “to work with the psoas is not to try to control the muscle, but to cultivate the awareness necessary for sensing its messages. This involves making a conscious choice to become somatically aware. L. Koch”

Often all our ailments want is – Our Attention, so they can heal. Attention is like the sunlight on a plant encouraging it to grow into its fullest form. For me yoga is 99.9% ATTENTION. Attention is where the medicine lives. So go practice now and attend to your psoas, tend to yourself.