Inexplicable Phenomena

Maybe changing position like that, forcing the engagement of other muscles, breaks you out of some other kind of held tension. I've been surprised many times over the years how often I'm holding tension without being aware of it... or even being aware that I could hold tension there.

I've found involuntary muscle movements flourish in a state of relaxation, and I've noticed a lot of the time I think I've relaxed a muscle, but not all the way, and that some small part of my attention is still "bracing" it, or trying to grab on to how nice it felt when it first spasmed.

The kind of tension I struggle with is really subtle, where it's so slight I can't even feel it, but I can tell it's there, because it only allows the up-swing, but not the down-swing. As if it goes from tense, down to a middle state, where it stays... unless I focus really hard to completely relax it, which is when I can feel it let go further (what I call the down-swing).

There's a whole other conversation about strategically held tension, which I'm not contradicting, but for me, in the places I experience held tension, it ruins my involuntaries, and it's a very tricky mental battle.

So maybe changing positions is resetting that for you?

Or maybe doggy position is somehow psychologically reaffirming to the experience, and maybe that sets the mood a bit? I do like that position, but I get too distracted fussing over how to get comfortable.

@clenchy Good point. I think you might have nailed it. I'm familiar with the struggle against those slight tensions.

I'm not really comfortable in doggy position either. So I guess it's really going from tension to relaxation that turns on boost-mode.

I don't think it's the psychological aspect you mentioned for me though.