Honoring the Contraction

Why softening into tension is the beginning of real transformation

There’s a moment in Pavini Moray’s How to Hold Power that stopped me in my tracks.

In Chapter 3, they describe how our bodies hold contractions—tightness, tension, those moments when our muscles seize and signal something. They also explain how, in somatics, healing begins not by forcing the contraction to stop but by honoring it, letting it have space, showing it kindness, and listening to what it wants to say.

That struck something deep.

Because I’ve been noticing this same pattern in brands.
In founders.
In the businesses we’re building.

The contraction is not the problem.
The contraction is the portal.

We might have a general understanding of contractions in our bodies, like a clenched jaw or a tight shoulder, but many of the signals are happening in smaller muscles we’ve learned to ignore, hiding in the places we don’t tap into often enough to even notice. Often, it’s only through practicing embodiment that we’re able to hear them.