The Hidden Messages Your Body Sends and Why You Should Listen.
“Attention, please, attention, please!”, scream our bodies.
Or maybe it is so tired of screaming that the voice is now only a wisp of a whisper.
Every day, moment by moment, our bodies are taking in information. Each experience, thought and emotion, integrating all of them into our systems. Through the connective tissue of fascia, ( a whole body, 3-D web of fibers and ground substance that has electro-magnetic and fiber optic properties) we store what happens to us.
Summer is a good time to not only ground ( see Part 1) but to see what the body is saying and what it wants to release.
How the heck does the body “talk?”
Through pain, numbness, tingles, prickles, twinges and aches. It speaks through solid, ropey feeling muscles and tight joints; or even joints that are loose. It communicates through ease or lack of ease of movement or even how easily ( or not) we breathe. The trouble is, we haven’t learned to a) listen to and b) comprehend what the body is trying to share.
When was the last time you touched your arm?
I mean, when was the last time you intentionally sat down, took your hand to your arm and explored?
When I was attending massage school I was blessed to receive bodywork almost three times a week. As we learned the structures of muscles and massage techniques, we learned that a lot of areas of our bodies were sore or tight. We came to this understanding because we were either learning self massage techniques or feeling the hands of our classmates move over our arms, legs, neck, or feet. It is through the actual manipulation of our tissues that many of these spots became apparent.
We can’t know what we don’t explore. I vividly remember using a tennis ball against the wall with my upper arm and expressing my disbelief at the pain I found. Because I hadn’t touched it, besides scrubbing in the shower, I hadn’t experienced the sensations that I had with the tennis ball there.
With the knowledge that we are woefully unaware of our bodies, I invite you to spend some time this summer and see what’s going on. In the Northern Hemisphere many of us have wardrobes that expose more of our skin than in the cooler seasons. While you’re watching your kids at a sports event or waiting for them in the summer camp car line, take a hand and explore your arm. Doesn’t matter where you start, top or bottom, just put your fingers there and press around. Squeeze, push and pull at the tissues. Elbows can be used to explore the tops of the thigh; even just squeezing and releasing muscle groups will provide you with information.
Ok, great, Mary Pat, now I found a sore spot, now what?
Now, keep touching it with purpose, press a little into it, and BREATHE. Say hello to the spot. Acknowledge its presence. Be curious about it. Wonder what it wants to tell you. If you are brave enough, ASK IT what it wants to say. Then, listen.
Use your imagination to give what you are feeling with your fingers a form. Maybe you choose a visual: that spot feels like a pebble; maybe you choose a color: that feels dark purple; maybe it is a sound: that feels or sounds screechy; maybe it has a taste: like a burnt popcorn kernel. This might sound silly, but stay with me.
With your fingers moving around, or even pressing and releasing tension on the area, let your creativity work with your movements to invite the spot to change, to release. With your imagination, invite the image or sensation you gave it to change into something else. Have fun and be playful. While you use your brain for a bit, feel around to find the way the tissues move easiest or where there is resistance, and lightly hold the tissues in that tension for a while.
As you lightly hold the area, keep your curiosity going. Notice the sensations of the area, as well as throughout your body, that start as you maintain that light pressure of tension. While you are still holding, keep breathing and softening your affected arm, let your shoulders drop, sink into your seat a bit more. That cues your body that it’s safe. Feeling safe and giving the spot time will allow it to slowly soften or release. You may notice some flutters, pulsing, or waves under the fingers that are creating the tension. When those movements stop, s.l.o.w.l.y remove your hand from the area. You can then see if it wants more attention or not. Repeat as wanted. And if that seems like more than you’d like to do on your own, well, that’s what I’m here for!
What is the point of this?
Well, one reason, as I mentioned, is: Do you want to continue to hold onto the traumas of the past?
We don’t talk about how much stress accumulates in our bodies over the years, or how to offload it. Think of your body as a sturdy dump truck. All the stressors of life; little pebbles to big rocks, building up over time. Heck, sometimes they feel like actual rocks in our shoulders and neck! We have to clear the load or it becomes too heavy for the truck to operate at its best. You deserve to offload the cargo of life from time to time. Receiving helpful, personalized bodywork will assist you in healing from these experiences, be they physical, emotional, or mental. Bodywork that includes myofascial release allows our bodies to process what we have pushed down. It does so in a safe, gentle way so that these experiences can be released from our fascia, making us feel lighter and more connected to ourselves.
This type of intentional bodywork is a process of curiosity and awareness. Focusing on this awareness takes us out of our “auto-pilot” living and into the living of choice and responsibility. It puts us into our bodies and out of the clouds, in a good way. As we learn to feel and process our past through the body, we become individuals that are grounded and aware. And that is a blessed gift.
If this has sparked curiosity then I invite you to follow that path. Maybe practicing self massage or talking to your body seems a bit outside your comfort zone. After all, we weren’t taught to be present with our bodies' subtle signals. And that’s why I’m here, to reintroduce you. Hello, welcome. I invite you to take just one more step towards health and have a conversation with me. Book a short Consultation call where I can answer your questions and we can see if Myofascial Release work is right for you!
