Place your hand on your right shoulder. Not to massage it — just to notice. Is it higher than it needs to be? Is there a density there, a gathering of muscle that has been contracted so long it feels like bone?
The Armor You Forgot You Were Wearing
Most people carry tension they stopped noticing years ago. The jaw that clenches during meetings. The chest that tightens when the phone rings. The lower back that braces for bad news that may or may not come. This is not injury. It is armor — the body's way of protecting you from things that once felt threatening.
The problem is that your body never got the memo that the threat passed.
What the Body Remembers
In clinical hypnotherapy, we work with something called somatic memory — the idea that your body stores experience independent of your conscious mind. You might not remember the specific moment you learned to brace your shoulders, but your trapezius remembers perfectly. It has been doing its job faithfully ever since.
Wilhelm Reich, a contemporary of Freud, called this phenomenon "character armor" — muscular patterns that develop as a physical expression of psychological defense. Milton Erickson took a gentler approach. Rather than trying to analyze why the armor formed, he worked directly with the unconscious mind to update its assessment of whether the armor was still needed.
That distinction matters. You do not need to excavate your childhood to soften your shoulders. You need your unconscious mind to receive the message that it is safe to put this down now.
A Practice for Release
Here is something worth trying: the next time you notice you are holding tension somewhere, do not try to release it. Instead, increase it slightly — deliberately tighten the area for five seconds, then let go. This works because the act of deliberately engaging the muscle gives your unconscious mind a moment of conscious control over a pattern that has been running automatically. The release afterward is often deeper than if you had simply tried to relax.
This is the principle of utilization that Erickson was famous for — working with what is present rather than fighting against it.
The session Softening the Armor You Forgot You Were Wearing guides you through a full-body process of identifying these holding patterns and giving your unconscious mind permission to release them. Not through force, but through recognition.