Pain science
Why does stress show up in my body?
Pain isn’t always about the tissue that hurts. Emotional stress reaches your muscles and fascia through real, traceable pathways, and the tension it creates tends to settle into the same few patterns. This series walks through how that happens, one step at a time.
Start here
The nerve pathway between emotional stress and muscle tension
How a stressful moment reaches your muscles before you’ve even noticed it, and why the tension can outlast the moment by hours.
Inside: the islands of fact · the two routes from brainstem to muscle · what “gamma gain” means · the loop that keeps tension running
Part 1 covers the fast, nerve-driven pathway. Part 2 covers the slow, chemical pathway through fascia. Part 3 shows why both end up in the same places in your body.
Explore more
A second pathway that runs through stress hormones and fascia instead of nerves, and why its tension can last for weeks instead of minutes.
Part 2 of 3
Why stress-driven tension follows one of three patterns and concentrates in the low back, and what finally resolved Brian’s 20 years of back pain.
Part 3 of 3
If stress-driven tension sounds like part of your pain, my home programs include the Hanna Somatics lessons I use with patients, alongside the testing that shows which pattern is yours.