The Squirrel Effect

While many animals stock up on supplies for the winter, squirrels seem to be the most famous “gatherers” around. It’s easy to picture them racing around tree to tree, jamming as many nuts into their cheeks as they can before returning to their homes or food caches to deposit their bounty. We pretend this behaviour is unique to squirrels, but we humans have the same tendencies, we just hide it a little bit better - or so we’d like to think.

Our “squirrel effects” show up in a few different ways. Most obviously is on the materialistic front, so much so that right beside those ads encouraging us to accumulate more “stuff” are the ones for the numerous books and tv shows that try to teach us how to de-clutter our lives and become minimalists. When our squirrel nature comes out a bit too much we can begin to feel claustrophobic in our own homes, as our stuff slowly encroaches on our space (physically and mentally). It seems we have a tendency to accumulate stuff just “in case” we might need it later on, or perhaps purely for bragging rights (in a keeping up with the Jone’s mentality). When we can drop our squirrel tendencies we free up a little space and create a more calming environment in our home. As a bonus side effect, there might just be a bit of room in our bank accounts to either alleviate some debt or allow us to spend a bit on enriching life experiences - instead of more stuff. But our squirrel tendencies reach far beyond the materialistic realm. Did you know that subconsciously, below the radar, our bodies and our minds are quietly going about their own squirrel-y behaviour as well? 

As we move through our days and years we all accumulate “stuff”. This stuff is not the material items I was talking about above, it’s the “stuff” that’s left over after we navigate through difficult situations or encounters. Our body and mind have a tendency to hang onto emotionally derived energies, especially those stemming from painful or frustrating experiences - even minor ones. This may be in an effort to protect us, in hopes that by storing these tidbits we can remind ourselves not to get into those situations again, or it can simply be the leftovers that we didn’t fully digest at the time. We start accumulating this “stuff” whenever our nervous system has a hard time processing the situation, conflict, or shock of an event (again the size of the event is not always a determining factor). If we don’t diffuse and disperse the energy of our emotions somehow, it’s gotta go somewhere, so we store it in our own little cache - our body! Once we accumulate enough, this pent up energy or stress can show up as tension or inflammation in different areas (sort of like the squirrels’ little storage caches). For example, with the exception of immediately after a restful holiday, very few people don’t have those knots of muscle tension near where the neck and shoulders meet. When my patients ask why, my default answer has changed over the years from “postural strain" to “oh that’s just whoever has been annoying you lately.” While I say it jokingly, it’s not really that far off. We all have different little caches in our body that we (often unknowingly) store these energies and residues in. For some it may be a spot in the neck, others in the back or hips, some experience headaches, and others find it’s pain in their jaw ((ironic that last one isn’t it?… and we say we’re not squirrels….). So when you’ve got a trouble spot of chronic tension or one that seems to rebound back, perhaps it is worth it for you to explore the possibility that it’s one of your squirrel “stash spots” for un-released energies and stress. 

Carve out a bit of time for a quiet moment with yourself, either inside or out in nature if that feels right for you. Draw your mind’s awareness to the sore or tight spot by either contracting the muscles in that area if you can (for example the hips), or by putting gentle pressure on it with your hand. Take a few deep breaths and imagine your inhalation travelling into those areas. Next, continue breathing as you relax the area as much as you can from the inside and focus on moving and clearing tension and residue out of that area with your breath. You may imagine it beginning to melt and release as you clear out all that old stagnant energy and inflammation, and make room to breathe in new energy and space. You may need to do this a number of times and it may take awhile before you begin to notice a difference, especially if it’s new to you. Be sure to work in the visualization component as that can be helpful, and don’t be alarmed if you find emotions get stirred up. It’s actually a good thing and it’s just the stored up energy moving around and changing form again, so that it can get out. 

In addition to doing it on your own, there are a few other ways you can begin to mindfully explore this form of stored tension in the body. You may like to explore practices that incorporate this skill such as some kinds of yoga, meditation or primitive reflex reset exercises. You may want to come at it directly from your mind by dealing with the traumatic event or ongoing emotional struggles that are contributing to the cache. In this case, guidance from a mental health worker is advisable. You may feel more comfortable to first work with the trouble spots from a physical angle; in that case finding a manual healthcare practitioner who is trauma-informed and aware of this phenomenon would be beneficial. You can also address the caches by working with an acupuncturist who focuses on opening up energy and vitality flow throughout the body. 

There’s one big factor that will help accelerate your healing in this department and is necessary to give you any shot at clearing things out - regardless of the route(s) you choose to address it from: We must first acknowledge that it is possible (yes, just “possible”) that some of our trouble areas are actually our storage caches. Just having that awareness can allow things to begin to shift, and that in itself can sometimes offer some relief. It’s sort of like a little child who finally feels heard. Continue to work with your body by taking time to try to the breathing exercise and compassionately remind your mind and body that you appreciate the help, but it’s time to let that energy go and release it. You can still have the memory, you just don’t need to hang onto the charged energy. Allow that part to dissolve and then continue to chip away at the various cache’s you’ve been filling in your body over the years. It takes quite a master of the mind and body to stop our squirrel tendencies altogether because as I mentioned the body has good intensions behind it. So just acknowledge it’s there and know that you’ll have to do a little internal decluttering fairly regularly. Once you learn to work with your body in this way, you might just be amazed at how much freedom and space you’ll make for healing and positive energy to flow!