Fascia is one of the coolest parts of the body. It’s like a supportive sleeve for the muscles and bones to rest in. If you’ve ever worn a wetsuit, that’s way thicker, but a similar feel. If you pull down around one thigh, you can see the effect in the opposite hips, belly and chest along with the same side lower leg and foot. If one part of us is affected, other parts will show up to support the balance of strength so that the injured tissues can rest and heal. It’s nice to know that there’s community in our body like we have community in our life.
When we’ve had a posture with our head and shoulders rounded forward because everything in our culture is in front of us, certain parts of our fascia can tend to get tighter with more restriction. The fascia acts like a brace to add extra support to keep us moving through the world. When the shelf of the shoulders is tipped forward and we have the weight of the head offsetting that balance, the fascia in the back of the neck gets tight and less mobile. In the body, when things get stiff that are supposed to be flexible, we get closer to injury.
The body is built to be buoyant, so if you don’t move it, you lose it. Two other spaces in the body where the fascia gets restricted are in the ribs and the sternum. We change the position of the bones of the ribs when we round the shoulders forward. They get closer and the muscles between them get tighter in the front and they can start to splay in the back.
Fascia also holds our unprocessed emotions. I’ve seen this first hand when working with fibromyalgia. Full body myofascial release gives their body relief from the tension of holding on too tightly to what the person hasn’t felt safe to feel into, in order to process through it. Many times a caring, trained hand can allow us to feel safe enough to unwind what our body’s been holding onto.
Our day to day is often too overwhelming to explore what comes up for us when things are intense or when we’re triggered. If life continues to life, we can forget to carve out space to understand what happened for us in those jarring moments. Bodywork that addresses the fascia can easily bring up memories and alert us to what we may be ready to explore and process through. We can feel called to stop holding resentment towards someone and take ownership of our own part of an uncomfortable interchange, or feel what we couldn’t feel in the moment.
I see this as a kind way our body supports us, so that we have some wiggle room around when we explore what’s hard for us. The posture that I’ve been talking about in this blog post is called kyphosis. In Chinese medicine, this is a mourning posture.
Our body protects our heart because it’s been hurt. I’ve seen extreme cases where the bones in the chest start to poke out towards the front because there’s not enough strength in the back to support the spine and open the heart. Sharing what’s on our heart with people that allow us to feel safe and are not there to judge us helps the tenderness of our heart be held. We need the support of our community to have the courage to let our heart be seen.
If you notice you have this posture and are open to exploring on your own, I’m sharing 3 ways to release the fascia on yourself with your own hands. These are great after you’ve been on your computer, stressed, or tired at the end of the day and lying on your couch. You can be present to what comes up for you if you have capacity, or you can have it be a self care practice as you wind down for the night while paying attention to something else.
If tears or memories come up, do what you can to be compassionate with yourself. Thank your body for holding onto this until now. It does so much for you and we often forget to remember to say thank you for supporting me through my life.
Fascia is one of the coolest parts of the body. It’s like a supportive sleeve for the muscles and bones to rest in. If you’ve ever worn a wetsuit, that’s way thicker, but a similar feel. If you pull down around one thigh, you can see the effect in the opposite hips, belly and chest along with the same side lower leg and foot. If one part of us is affected, other parts will show up to support the balance of strength so that the injured tissues can rest and heal. It’s nice to know that there’s community in our body like we have community in our life.
When we’ve had a posture with our head and shoulders rounded forward because everything in our culture is in front of us, certain parts of our fascia can tend to get tighter with more restriction. The fascia acts like a brace to add extra support to keep us moving through the world. When the shelf of the shoulders is tipped forward and we have the weight of the head offsetting that balance, the fascia in the back of the neck gets tight and less mobile. In the body, when things get stiff that are supposed to be flexible, we get closer to injury.
The body is built to be buoyant, so if you don’t move it, you lose it. Two other spaces in the body where the fascia gets restricted are in the ribs and the sternum. We change the position of the bones of the ribs when we round the shoulders forward. They get closer and the muscles between them get tighter in the front and they can start to splay in the back.
Fascia also holds our unprocessed emotions. I’ve seen this first hand when working with fibromyalgia. Full body myofascial release gives their body relief from the tension of holding on too tightly to what the person hasn’t felt safe to feel into, in order to process through it. Many times a caring, trained hand can allow us to feel safe enough to unwind what our body’s been holding onto.
Our day to day is often too overwhelming to explore what comes up for us when things are intense or when we’re triggered. If life continues to life, we can forget to carve out space to understand what happened for us in those jarring moments. Bodywork that addresses the fascia can easily bring up memories and alert us to what we may be ready to explore and process through. We can feel called to stop holding resentment towards someone and take ownership of our own part of an uncomfortable interchange, or feel what we couldn’t feel in the moment.
I see this as a kind way our body supports us, so that we have some wiggle room around when we explore what’s hard for us. The posture that I’ve been talking about in this blog post is called kyphosis. In Chinese medicine, this is a mourning posture.
Our body protects our heart because it’s been hurt. I’ve seen extreme cases where the bones in the chest start to poke out towards the front because there’s not enough strength in the back to support the spine and open the heart. Sharing what’s on our heart with people that allow us to feel safe and are not there to judge us helps the tenderness of our heart be held. We need the support of our community to have the courage to let our heart be seen.
If you notice you have this posture and are open to exploring on your own, I’m sharing 3 ways to release the fascia on yourself with your own hands. These are great after you’ve been on your computer, stressed, or tired at the end of the day and lying on your couch. You can be present to what comes up for you if you have capacity, or you can have it be a self care practice as you wind down for the night while paying attention to something else.
If tears or memories come up, do what you can to be compassionate with yourself. Thank your body for holding onto this until now. It does so much for you and we often forget to remember to say thank you for supporting me through my life.