How injuries or other trauma affects our body

Let’s talk about the role of injury and how it affects us at a somatic level.

Have you experienced a traumatic injury, surgery, or fall? One side of the body will respond to protect you from pain. This protective reflex is not voluntary. And you may well find that long after recovery is complete, that involuntary protective pattern is still there.

This one-sided protective muscular response could have formed from a repetitive action you’ve done, such as playing an instrument, carrying a bag or a baby on the same side hip or shoulder, or even being right or left handed. While you may not have had to recover, the one-sided (lateralized) pattern is there.

This can also be an avoidance pattern, where we twist and rotate away from whatever we’re trying to avoid.

Yellow light reflex

In somatics, we call this the yellow light reflex, or trauma reflex. As Thomas Hanna reminds us, there are as many varieties of this reflex as there are ways for humans to injure themselves.

When one side of the body is injured, the other side tightens to compensate. When the waist muscles become tight, the centre rotates away and the pelvis, shoulders, neck and back adjust to compensate. Muscles in the rib cage become contracted. The head no longer rests atop the spine, but tilts to one side.

Yellow light reflex causes  leading to postural imbalances and can manifest in uneven gait, leg length discrepancy and one-sided joint problems in the hips the knees.

Scoliosis is also a result of a yellow light reflex pattern.

To move forward (or backward) efficiently, we call on a diagonal pattern. When the body is stuck in a tilt and twist pattern, the diagonal pattern doesn’t work as efficiently. In some extreme cases, it breaks down almost entirely.

Somatic movement can help us regain our diagonal movement

Try this short movement practice to notice how one-sided contraction affects the smoothness of your walk.

You’ll need need a bit of space so you can walk freely without turning too frequently.

Healthy habit

Noticing diagonal movement

You’ve experienced how significantly a small contraction in one side of your body can affect your walking. Try to notice your diagonals as you do other symmetrical activities, such as running, cycling, swimming freestyle or paddling a kayak. Can you create more freedom in your diagonals by letting go of any gripping in one side of your body? Can you find more efficient movement? Does noticing your diagonals help you move with more ease and power?