Often during acupuncture treatment, I tend to tense up muscles without realising. This is especially true when I experience physical discomfort, or when I’m very deep in thought. But in order to maximize all the benefits of a treatment (of any kind), it’s important to remain in a general state of “rest and digest.” That’s when the body has the capacity to heal. As we know, there is a chain of neurological and physiological events that occur when we’re in a state of stress. Some examples are rapid breathing (or holding the breath altogether), dilated pupils, increased heart rate, hypervigilance, etc. This is often referred to as the “fight or flight” response (or more precisely: fight, flight, freeze, fawn — pick your vice!). Tensing the muscles is part of this stress response from the sympathetic nervous system; it’s getting the body ready to react. In order to release the muscles, there are a few body scan techniques that I use repeatedly throughout an acupuncture session (it’s quite incredible how often we engage our muscles out of habit). You may want to try body scanning in other contexts like while waiting in line, when washing the dishes, or before sleep. Sample the practices as you see fit and decide if you want to keep them in your toolkit.
Basic body scan: This is a quick survey of the body to notice & relax the parts that are clenched. Begin from the feet and sweep your awareness through all the parts of the body: feet, calves, thighs, core, arms, head, etc. Pay special attention to the muscles of the perineum, the belly, and the face. We love to stress those areas excessively. There's no special breathing technique for this one, but if it helps you can linger in each area for 2-3 full breaths. Tensing and releasing: In this technique, rather than focusing on those muscles that are involuntarily engaged, we deliberately tense up each muscle group and release them. Sometimes we cannot tell where we're clenching; tensing and releasing everything gives us enough contrast to determine whether a body part is relaxed or not. Again, start with the feet and move your way up the body. This one is often performed along with the breath: squeeze the muscle on the inhale, relax it on the exhale. Not recommended during acupuncture (you will feel those needles!) Breathing into...: A technique adjacent to body scanning is to breathe into the parts of the body where there is more physical sensation and to focus on relaxing the area on the exhale. For example: you notice more sensations in the low back. Focus your attention there as you take a deep inhale. On your exhale, feel that area slowly releasing. Another example: you feel a wave of sensations in the hamstrings in a seated forward fold (e.g. yin variation of caterpillar pose). On your inhale, feel the hamstrings lift off (energetically). As you exhale, land them back down gently.