How Cognomovement Can Help Ease Muscle Tension

Why Your Eyes, Breath, and Brain Are Key to Unlocking Your Body’s Tight Fascia

When I first learned about Golgi tendon organs during cadaver lab in massage school, something clicked. A bell rang in my head—like this was it. These little receptors were part of the hidden code that told the nervous system how much tension to hold in the body. Not just in a moment of lifting or bracing—but sometimes all the time, even when that tension wasn’t helpful anymore.

This constant, unnecessary bracing wasn’t just uncomfortable—it was costly. It used up precious energy, draining the body’s resources that could have been going toward cellular renewal, detox pathways, digestion, hormone regulation, etc… Chronic tension wasn’t just a muscular issue—it was a full-body energy leak and for most people, it can be very significant.

And that’s when a deeper question landed:
If the body can choose to hold tension, can it also choose to release it?

For years, I experienced severe muscle spasticity—one of the many “mystery symptoms” doctors tried to label as Multiple Sclerosis, and honestly, it very well could be. My muscles felt locked, like they were bracing for something that wasn’t happening anymore. It wasn’t just tension—it was a deep, consuming rigidity.

This spasticity was so intense that walking became difficult. My legs felt like they weighed 300 pounds each. During what I came to call “flare-ups,” I was housebound, unable to move freely or even trust my body to support me- I was in constant pain. It was frightening, exhausting, and incredibly isolating.

I tried everything:
Stretching. Deep tissue massage. Yoga. Magnesium Baths. Muscle Creams.
But instead of helping, many of these pushed my system into an even deeper state of lockdown. My nervous system wasn’t responding with relief—it was responding with more contraction. As if on a deeper level, it was saying, “leave me alone, I’m not safe”.

It wasn’t until I began to study the nervous system’s role in muscle tone through modalities like meditation and Cognomovement that things began to shift. I started to see how unresourcefully my body was using its energy, holding onto outdated patterns of protection and survival.

Could this be why I was always so tired?

I hadn’t yet understood just how profoundly the nervous system influences muscle tone, and that I could work with it—not against it—through movement, eye position, breath, and awareness.

Discovering that I could change these deeply-held patterns was more than physical relief—it felt like awakening to the idea that I was the creator of my own experience.
And Cognomovement became the tool that helped me prove that to myself.

Adding Block Therapy: A Deep Release Through the Fascia

In the last year, I began incorporating Block Therapy into my daily nervous system remapping practice—and it took things even deeper.

While Cognomovement helped me retrain the brain and release the neural pathways that were keeping my muscles braced, Block Therapy allowed me to melt the physical layers of tension and restriction in my fascia. It helped me access areas I couldn’t stretch or massage my way into. It worked with the breath, pressure, and time to unwind deeply frozen patterns that were literally shaping how I moved, felt, and functioned.

Block Therapy gave my body the physical permission to relax, while Cognomovement gave my brain the neurological permission to rewire.

Together, these two tools have helped me:

• Restore circulation to areas that were long restricted

• Improve my posture and gait

• Reduce the frequency and intensity of spasticity

• Feel more present, mobile, and energetically aligned

Block Therapy was an essential piece to help get deeper into these fascia patterns that my body had been holding for decades.

🧠 Your Brain Keeps a “Tension Map” of Your Body

Your nervous system doesn’t just move your muscles—it keeps a live internal map of them. This sensory-motor map is constantly updated by input from your skin, muscles, joints, and especially your eyes.

But here’s the thing: sometimes the map is outdated. Maybe it got shaped during an injury, or wired during a season of chronic stress or trauma. That map can include unconscious patterns of:

• Over-bracing

• Muscles that are “on” or “active” all the time

• Restricted movement or reduced flexibility

These are what we call “tension maps.” They’re neural patterns that tell your body, “Keep this area tight—it’s not safe to relax yet.”
The result? Chronic tightness, spasticity, fatigue, and even pain.

Author of The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain’s Way of Healing
Dr. Doidge explores how the brain holds onto patterns of pain and movement through neuroplasticity. He discusses how the brain’s maps of the body—in the somatosensory cortex—can become distorted by trauma, disuse, or chronic tension, and how these can be rewired.

“If the brain’s map of the body becomes inaccurate, it can lead to distorted movement and even chronic pain.”
– The Brain’s Way of Healing

What Are Golgi Tendon Organs: Your Body’s Built-In Tension Gauge

Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) live in your tendons—where the muscle meets the bone. Their job is to monitor how much force or tension is being applied to the muscle.

When things are functioning well:

• GTOs detect excessive tension and signal the brain to relax the muscle.

• This protects your body from injury and promotes balance.

But under chronic stress, trauma, or long-standing movement patterns, this system gets out of whack:

• The brain stops listening to the GTOs

• Muscles stay braced—even when it’s not useful or safe

• Your body becomes caught in a loop of protective tension

That’s why deep tissue massage alone often doesn’t hold: the message to “let go” never reaches the control center—the brain.

What Do Our Eyes Have to Do With Muscle Tension?

It might seem strange at first—how could moving your eyes have anything to do with your tight shoulders, locked hips, or heavy legs?

But in truth, your eyes are deeply connected to the parts of the brain that control muscle tone, coordination, balance, and even emotional regulation.

When you move your eyes, you’re not just shifting your gaze—you’re activating brain regions involved in posture, movement, and body awareness. This includes areas like the cerebellum, superior colliculus, and vestibular nuclei, which communicate with the muscles via the spinal cord. That means eye position can directly influence patterns of muscle contraction and relaxation.

In practices like Cognomovement, we intentionally engage this system using:

• Specific eye positions

• Visual tracking with color and pattern

• Cross-lateral movements

• Somatic attention (noticing what you feel in the body)

This combination allows the nervous system to:

• Recognize outdated reflex patterns

• Reorganize how the body holds tension

• Let go of protective bracing that’s no longer needed

🔬 What the Research Says

Science is beginning to catch up with what many somatic therapists have intuitively known: eye movements influence body tension.

One study published in Brain and Cognition (2016) found that 30 seconds of horizontal eye movements improved memory accuracy and decreased false memories. Why is that relevant? Because memory and muscle tension are often linked through emotional encoding—the way the brain “remembers” to brace or guard.

Other studies in oculomotor neuroscience show that eye movements stimulate cross-hemispheric communication, helping regulate the autonomic nervous system. This can reduce sympathetic overdrive (fight-or-flight mode) and bring the body into parasympathetic dominance, a more relaxed, healing state.

Additionally, the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) plays a key role in postural control. When this reflex is engaged through visual tracking, it can recalibrate the body’s sense of orientation and stability—resulting in improved muscle tone, balance, and range of motion.

Rewiring the Body Through the Eyes

In Cognomovement sessions, I’ve felt the exact moment my nervous system let go of an old pattern. I’ve watched clients feel the weight lift from their hips, necks, or legs, just by moving their eyes, tracking color, and tuning in.

Over time, I’ve come to understand that the eyes are a portal to the brain—and the brain is the command center of tension.
When you work through the eyes, you’re speaking directly to the nervous system in a language it understands.

As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, explains, the body often holds onto trauma not just emotionally—but physically, in patterns of muscular tension and postural rigidity:

“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies. The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort… Their bodies are tense and defensive.”
– Bessel van der Kolk, MD

This internalized tension becomes part of the body’s operating system—an unspoken “map” of where to brace, hold, or lock down.
But the good news? These patterns can be changed. And tools like Cognomovement offer a non-invasive, body-led way to begin that change.

Seeing is believing!

💡 Final Thoughts: You Are the Mapmaker

The day I realized I could influence my own muscle tension with movement, awareness, and eye position was the day I stopped feeling like trapped in my body—I could consciously change this tension and rewire it for good!

If you’ve been living with chronic tightness, discomfort, or rigidity, know this:
There is a way out—and it starts with the nervous system.
Cognomovement isn’t just about moving your body; it’s about reshaping the very patterns that govern how your body feels.

And that’s not just relief.
That’s liberation.

Need help getting started?
Join us for the next Cognomovement class or explore my 30-Day Challenge designed to teach you exactly how to use these tools in your own life.

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