Our Issues Live In Our Tissues

Understanding How the Body Stores Unprocessed Experience

The Body Remembers

Most people think of the body as something that carries them through the day. They see it as a structure made of muscles and bones, something to feed, stretch and occasionally rest. However, the body is far more intelligent than we tend to realise.

It is constantly responding to your life, adapting to the environments you move through, and absorbing the experiences you are not able to process fully in the moment.

The body remembers what the mind cannot always hold. It keeps impressions long after the event has passed. It does this because there were moments when you didn’t have the internal capacity to feel or integrate what was happening. Anything that is too much, too fast, or too soon gets set aside until there is enough space and safety to meet it.

Every experience leaves a trace. Over time, those traces shape what feels manageable, what feels overwhelming, what the system braces against, and where it feels it can soften. These traces show up in breathing patterns, muscle tone, posture, movement and reactivity. They become part of how the body organises itself. It is the body doing its best with the resources you had at the time.

How Patterns Become Embedded in the Tissues

Many of these patterns began long before you were consciously aware of them. A child who feels responsible for the emotions of others might tighten and monitor. A child who grows up with unpredictability might learn to stay alert. A child who does not feel seen might collapse inwards or disconnect from sensation to avoid the pain of unmet needs. These behaviours began as intelligent adaptations. They help people navigate environments that were too complex for their systems to process fully. But, over time, these adaptations turn into automatic patterns that live in the tissues and shape how they respond as an adult.

You might not remember the original moment that created a pattern, but your body does. You might notice anxiety arise in situations that seem harmless, or maybe you feel your chest tighten when someone raises their voice. You might shut down when you feel criticised, avoid slowing down because rest feels unfamiliar, or become overwhelmed by intimacy even when you want closeness. These are conditioned patterns your system built to help you cope.

To the nervous system, familiarity feels safer than possibility. Once a pattern has been rehearsed enough times, the system trusts it, even if it limits your life. The body is not trying to keep you stuck. It is trying to help you survive.

Anything that is too much, too fast, or too soon gets set aside until there is enough space and safety to meet it.

Signals, Tension, and the Body’s Protective Intelligence

Tension is one of the clearest expressions of these patterns. Most people carry tension they do not realise is there. The jaw tightens, the shoulders lift, the belly grips, and the breath shortens. These are not random habits. They developed because there was a time when staying soft did not feel safe, and tension became a shield.

Over time, protective tension can feel like part of your identity. You might feel you are just anxious, tense, reactive or withdrawn, that it’s just you, but these states are not who you are. They are patterns that your system learned a long time ago, and patterns can change through safety, awareness and time.

The way the body holds itself also reveals these stored patterns. A forward-leaning posture often reflects vigilance. A collapsed posture can reflect withdrawal or self-protection. A rigid posture might show a need for control. A more open posture can reflect a sense of internal safety. These are mostly not deliberate choices. They arise from the state of the nervous system.

Breath patterns reveal even more. The breath is one of the most honest indicators of your internal experience. When you hold your breath, you are bracing. When the breath becomes shallow, your system can become stressed. When the exhale becomes short, your system might be in alert mode. When the breath is smooth and deep, your system can start to feel safe again.

The body also stores emotional impressions. When an emotion cannot move through fully, it does not disappear. It remains as tension, constriction or numbness. The body holds what you could not process and waits for a moment when there is more capacity so that the stored material can integrate.

When there is enough internal space, the stored material begins to rise. Stillness often brings this to the surface. When distraction falls away, the body has space to speak. Old sadness, fear, anger or restlessness might show up. This is not a regression. It is an opening. It is the body trusting you enough to reveal what has been held: a rising of discomfort does not mean something is wrong.

The Conditions That Allow Patterns to Unwind

Patterns were created to help you survive and belong. The difficulty arises when those patterns no longer match the life you are living. A pattern that helped you at five years old may not serve you at thirty-five. The body does not update these patterns automatically. It updates when conditions support change.

Awareness is the first condition. You cannot shift what you are not aware of. Noticing a pattern is the beginning of creating space around it. When you notice your breath tighten, you have a choice. When you notice your shoulders lift, you have a choice. When you notice yourself bracing, you have a choice. Awareness creates room for new responses.

Instead of forcing change, create the conditions in which change becomes possible.

Safety is the second condition. Patterns unwind when the system feels supported. You cannot force the body to soften, or push a survival strategy out of the way, but you can meet your edge in a way your system can hold. Sometimes change begins when the system loosens its grip. Sometimes it begins when you step slightly beyond the familiar, meeting your edge. The body responds to both safety and supported stretch. When the system feels resourced, what was held can unwind.

Time is the third condition. Patterns that took decades to build will not dissolve in a moment. They can unwind slowly. Some days the system opens. Other days it contracts. This is not failure. It is integration. The nervous system moves in cycles, not straight lines.

The body is responsive. It signals when something feels off, when something is pushing your limits, when you’ve stayed somewhere too long, or when you’re overriding yourself. It also signals when there is room to open, release, or grow. These signals give you information about your internal state, even if they are not always accurate about the external situation.

When you begin to work with the body rather than against it, everything shifts. You stop seeing your patterns as flaws and start recognising them as adaptations. You stop fighting your reactions and start listening to what they are protecting. Instead of forcing change, you create the conditions in which change becomes possible.

Your body holds these patterns not to punish you but because what was not felt at the time remains in place until your system has the capacity to meet it. When you bring awareness, breath, and curiosity to your internal world, these patterns naturally begin to unwind.

Your patterns are not who you are. They are what you learned, and anything learned can be unlearned. As the body unwinds, you return to your natural state: one of openness, ease and clarity. 

You return to yourself.

If you would like support on your journey, feel free to reach out. I offer one-to-one Somatic Therapy, Emotional Processing, and Breathwork sessions.