Muscle tension is a common sign of stress that everyone has experienced. Ongoing stress is retained in the body through muscle tension. We feel stored tension as back pain, nagging pinching shoulder pain, neck pain, clenched jaw, fatigue, and headaches. We are all familiar with these aches and pains as we sit at our desks, struggle with deadlines, work at a skilled labor task, or stand or sit in one position too long.

Dr. Steven Wolf, at Emory University School of Medicine reports that, “Without realizing it, people in sedentary jobs are particularly prone to chronic shortening of their muscles.” We get in the habit of holding our bodies in a tense alert position and the buildup of tension in our muscles shorten the muscles particularly in the back, shoulders, neck, jaw, and scalp. Everyone has felt the agony of a knot or spasm in some muscle.

It is impossible to totally eliminate stress from our life. The key is to become aware of and admit you are under stress and to learn various techniques to control stress to the point of stopping the harmful effects.

Stressmanagementstore.com provides do-it-yourself tools for you to gain control over stress and to reduce annoying and interfering muscle pain that results from unmanaged stress.

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