Understanding the Green Light Reflex in Our Bodies

How Action Response Patterns Affect Your Body & How Somatic Movement Can Help

Have you ever noticed how your body responds when you're ready to take action? Your back straightens, shoulders pull back, chest lifts, and there's a subtle arch in your lower back. This instinctive posture - what somatic educator Thomas Hanna called the "Green Light Reflex" or "action response" - is your body's natural way of preparing for activity, challenges, or confrontation.

The Green Light Reflex is essential for human development. As infants, we first experience this as the Landau Reflex around 3-4 months of age, when we begin lifting our heads and engaging the muscles along our spine. This activation of our back muscles is crucial for developing the natural curves in our spine and for milestone movements like crawling, sitting up, and eventually walking.

In healthy functioning, this reflex activates when needed and then releases. We contract the muscles along our spine and the back of our body to move forward, face challenges, or show confidence. Think of how your body naturally responds when your name is called, when you're giving a presentation, or when you're getting ready to start a race. That's your Green Light Reflex at work.

When Go Mode Becomes Chronic

While this reflex is natural and necessary, problems arise when we stay in this "go mode" continuously. In our action-oriented society, many of us unconsciously hold this pattern throughout our day - during stressful meetings, while focusing intensely at our computers, or when we're constantly rushing from one task to the next.

Over time, this persistent muscle contraction becomes habitual. Our nervous system essentially forgets how to fully release these muscles, a condition Thomas Hanna termed "sensory motor amnesia." We lose voluntary control over certain muscle groups, and they remain partially contracted even when we're trying to relax.

The results can include:

• Lower back pain and stiffness

• Excessive arching in the lower back (hyperlordosis)

• Compressed vertebrae and potential disc issues

• Tension headaches and neck pain

• Tight hips, hamstrings, and calves

• Reduced mobility, especially in forward bending

• Fatigue from constantly contracted muscles

My Personal Journey: From Freeze to Fight

While many people naturally tend toward Green Light patterns, my journey took a different route. For years, I lived predominantly in what Hanna called the "Red Light Reflex" - the protective response of withdrawal and contraction in the front of the body.

During difficult periods in my life, I embodied this pattern of self-protection. My shoulders rounded forward, chest collapsed, and I physically made myself smaller. This posture reflected my emotional state - afraid to take up space, hesitant to assert my needs, and often choosing safety over self-expression. I frequently dissociated during conflict rather than standing my ground.

Through somatic movement and therapy, I gradually began to release these holding patterns. As I learned to feel and inhabit my body more fully, I reconnected with my own needs and boundaries. I started speaking up, standing in my truth, and no longer abandoning myself for a false sense of security.

What surprised me was what happened next. As I began consistently advocating for myself and navigating more confrontation, I noticed new tension patterns emerging. My lower back would ache after difficult conversations. My shoulders would pull back and tense. My neck would feel tight at the end of the day.

It took time to realize what was happening: I had shifted from predominantly Red Light patterns to Green Light patterns. In finding my voice and strength, I had begun overactivating my action response. The pendulum had swung from one extreme to another.

Finding Balance Through Somatic Awareness

This realization was both enlightening and humbling. The journey wasn't simply about moving from collapsed to erect, from passive to active. True embodied freedom meant finding balance between these natural reflexes - knowing when to activate for action and when to release for rest.

The key, as I've discovered, lies in somatic awareness - the ability to sense and feel what's happening in our bodies. What Thomas Hanna called "sensory motor awareness" is essentially the opposite of sensory motor amnesia. It's the process of reawakening our conscious connection to our muscles and movements.

Through regular somatic movement practice, we can:

1. Recognize patterns: Notice when we're holding tension in our back muscles unnecessarily

2. Release habitual contraction: Use gentle, conscious movements to release chronically tight muscles

3. Restore voluntary control: Regain the ability to contract AND relax muscles fully

4. Reset the nervous system: Teach our brain new movement patterns that support ease and efficiency

The technique that's been most effective for me is pandiculation - a natural process of contracting and slowly releasing muscles that animals instinctively use. Unlike stretching, which can trigger protective tension, pandiculation actively engages the nervous system in learning.

Simple Somatic Movements for Green Light Release

Here are a few simple somatic movements that can help release Green Light patterns:

Arch & Flatten: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Slowly arch your lower back, creating a small space beneath it. Then slowly flatten your lower back to the floor by engaging your abdominal muscles. Move back and forth between these positions with awareness, noticing the sensation of your back muscles contracting and releasing.

Back Lift: Lie on your stomach with arms at your sides. Very slowly lift your head slightly, feeling the back of your neck lengthen. Then gradually lower back down. Repeat, this time lifting your head and upper chest slightly, then lowering. Focus on the sensation of back muscles activating and then completely releasing.

Diagonal Curl: Lie on your back with knees bent. Place your right hand behind your head and extend your left arm along the floor overhead. Slowly curl up, bringing your right elbow toward your left knee, feeling the diagonal contraction across your trunk. Then slowly release back down. Repeat on the other side.

The key with each movement is to go slowly, stay within a comfortable range, and focus on the sensation of muscles contracting and releasing rather than achieving any particular position.

The Yin-Yang of Our Nervous System

What I've come to understand is that these reflexes represent a beautiful yin-yang balance in our nervous system. The Red Light Reflex (withdrawal, protection) and Green Light Reflex (action, engagement) are complementary responses that we need for different situations.

Problems arise not from having these reflexes but from getting stuck in one pattern or the other. True somatic freedom isn't about eliminating either reflex—it's about maintaining the flexibility to move fluidly between them as circumstances require.

Now when I notice my lower back arching and tensing during challenging conversations, I don't judge it as "bad posture." I recognize it as my body's natural preparation for standing my ground. After the situation passes, I take a moment to consciously release those muscles—to reset my nervous system and return to neutral.

Simply being aware that I've activated my Green Light Reflex is often enough to prevent it from becoming habitual. Awareness itself is the first step toward change.

The journey from sensory motor amnesia to sensory motor awareness is ongoing. It's a practice of continually noticing, releasing, and refining our relationship with our body. But with each small moment of awareness, we reclaim a bit more of our inherent capacity for ease, grace, and choice in how we move through the world.

And perhaps that's the most beautiful realization: our bodies contain all the wisdom they need. Our job is simply to listen and remember what they already know.

If you're experiencing similar holding patterns or chronic tension, I invite you to explore somatic movement. Your body has an innate capacity for healing and self-regulation; sometimes it just needs a little help remembering how to come home to itself.

---

Interested in exploring how somatic movement might support your healing journey? Contact me to learn about upcoming classes or schedule a private session.

Amanda Young is a certified Living Somatic Movement Teacher based in Clarksville, TN. She helps clients reconnect with their bodies through gentle, effective somatic movement practices. Learn more about working with Amanda here.