This week’s blog, as many of them are, was inspired by a conversation I had recently with a client. On his first session I was introducing him to the concept of meditation, which he has since started doing. And he contacted me and said, “I’ve had this really interesting insight. I had no idea that I was holding tension in the body and I certainly didn’t know, if I was, where it would be.”

But he said in that first 10 minute meditation, he was able to immediately identify where he was holding his tension and the result was that he was able to stretch, to get up, relax, and of course be aware of that tension so that he can now start addressing those tension points in the body.

This is important because tension not only is an expression of stress that needs addressing, but it can also lead to tight muscles, tight ligaments, tight tendons, and ultimately making you more prone to injury and of course be less comfortable.

Just by being able to identify where that tension was being held, was a really interesting insight from my client, and a really great thing for him to understand so early in his meditation journey. For me, I know I tend to hunch my shoulders and shrink the neck, which is where I’ll hold my tension – so I do quite a lot of exercises to try to loosen up the neck.

Do you know where you are holding the tension?

If you can pinpoint that, you can start to address some of those tension points and feel a little bit more relaxed, get more fresh oxygenated blood throughout the body by moving those body parts. If meditation is the way you do that, all the better because there are millions of studies that prove the efficacy of meditation for relieving stress, for relieving feelings of tension, of anxiety, even of depression and generally making people feel a little more controlled and less reactive.

Finding something that is meditative or focusing on meditation is a great way of finding out where you carry your stress and tension and can be really beneficial, both for mind and body.

What’s Your Health IQ?

Discover what your Health IQ score is based on the Six Signals™: sleep, mental health, body composition, energy, digestion and physical fitness. Our simple diagnostic tool will help you understand where you should prioritise your efforts.

Click here to take our test

Author(s)

  • Leanne is an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of Bodyshot Performance Limited. She delivered a TEDx talk on 'Why fitness is more important than weight', is the author of bestselling books 'Remove the Guesswork' and 'Rise and Shine', and hosts a podcast called ’Remove the Guesswork‘. Leanne is the founder of Bodyshot Performance, an award-winning health and wellbeing company. Bodyshot Performance work with businesses of up to 500 people who want to create a culture of energy, vitality and performance through the business and position wellbeing as a competitive advantage. Bodyshot intersect the latest science and technology to provide unique solutions to the challenge of wellbeing in the workplace that have a direct impact on the bottom line. Our clients have won awards for wellbeing and recognise it directly improves employee engagement and retention and attracts talent into the business.  We also work with chronically stressed or burned out professionals to get you back in control of your health and able to do the things you want to do in life. My expertise is around health, fitness and wellbeing, specifically focusing on sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion and fitness. I host a popular podcast on iTunes called ’Remove the Guesswork ‘, and in November 2016 I delivered a TEDx talk on 'Why fitness is more important than weight'. I’m the author of the bestselling books 'Remove the Guesswork' and 'Rise and Shine' and I regularly speak to corporates on health and wellbeing. My personal values are to live truthfully, considerately and to "suck all the marrow out of life" as Thoreau said. I support the charity Diversity Role Models which works to combat homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. I recently completed the world’s toughest ski race to raise £10,125 for Alzheimer's Research as my father-in-law was profoundly ill with Alzheimers, and I am on a constant mission to find ways to live in a way that is sustainable and environmentally friendly. I love sport, fitness, reading, gardening, business, podcasting, and being with my cat and our scampish little rescue dog, Kami from Romania.