Your body is a living journal of all of your experiences. Your fascia- the connective tissues that hold you together from head to toe in a moving bending changing fabric hold the memories, emotions and mental patterns of your entire life. The tension, stresses and impacts of your accidents, injuries, falls and trauma may be trying to tell you something, taking time to self care is taking time to stop and listen. When you were little like a sponge you took in the conditioning of your family, the good and the bad. You developed by learning the modeled behaviors of your family, caregivers, friends and schoolmates. You may have been offered a wonderful upbringing, it could have been harsh or cruel. Maybe it was a little of both. Either way, you were impressionable and your tissue lived and breathed your experience. Just as an embryo is steeped in the womb of her mother, you have been impressed upon by your environment, by the love and care, or the absence of it in your home, by your family and by your loved ones. During these holidays, with all the hustle and bustle it’s important to remember to care for, nurture and support yourself. To nourish and tend to your body is to keep your home clean and clear. Learning to give yourself the love and care you may not have received growing up can make such a difference in your quality of life and in your relationships. 

I have a client who grew up in two big households. Both of her parents remarried and so there were kids and step kids on both sides. She is a young woman, and she now has three kids of her own. When she walked into my office her face visibly showed her upset. She had her gallbladder removed, and she wasn’t happy about it. She had a flushing of the bile ducts an ERCP and was still in so much prolonged intense pain that when they told her she had to have her gallbladder removed she just wanted the pain to be over. She has been regretting her decision ever since. She is quiet and has a hard time talking about things. She is upset and I can see it in her posture, the way her shoulders are stacked, how she holds her arms. She is so angry that you can see through her smile to the visceral experience. I contact her anger, I give her the understanding that she needs to open and she begins to share her story. Her family put too much responsibility on her. She had to take care of all of her siblings since she can remember. She did the washing, cleaning, cooking and her parents let her (made her) be the parent. She left her home to go to nursing school and she felt intense guilt for leaving her siblings to start her own life because she was worried that they would not be cared for. She felt guilty for having her gallbladder removed. And really she beat herself up for all of it. Even when her dad was dying from cancer in the hospital over three years, when he passed she was 18 and had gone home to take a nap and she is still beating herself up for not being there. She is so hard on herself and I asked, why. Because that’s what she modeled after. This is what she was shown by her parents, to be hard on herself. The care she needed so she could be busy chasing butterflies and running through the valley of wildflowers was never offered. And now, she has no idea how to offer it to herself.

She is having pain in the area where her gall bladder was, she has an inflammation and a mass forming around her sternum and ribs above her right side (above the gallbladder). Her head neck and shoulders are so tight, and as she talks she notices her sensations are connected with these feelings of regret, of guilt. We tend to these areas and the rest of her body, and she releases. She is able to sleep at night, she feels a sense of relief and is no longer in constant pain. I am treating her with Myofascial Release and gently addressing her symptoms with MFR, as I offer her Presence Centered Awareness Therapy so she can be present and notice, she can track her memories and watch her feelings, and she can observe. She is learning how to love herself and forgive, to bring understanding to these memories so she can change her relationship, her perspective and how she looks at her past. In bringing understanding to these moments in her life where she suffered-not only then but has been suffering since, she is finding her way to letting go. She is learning how to listen to her body and not beat herself up again and again. Out of habit, out of a sense of responsibility. She is learning to let herself be that child who needed to roam and be free unencumbered by the weight she endured. Time for herself, to reflect and see... How and what she is still holding in her body. The area where her gall bladder is, has been forming adhesions- scar tissue that is disorganized, gluing and restricting the surrounding tissues including her liver and pancreas. With Myofascial Release these fascial restrictions are released. We are softening the area and she is feeling better with each treatment.

I have a client with severely debilitating migraines. He has been very interested in the Presence Centered Awareness Therapy and experiences a timeless quality he also feels when he makes art. He is learning to be in his body, he is used to observation through his training in art and he sees the parallels in these healing arts. His cervical vertebrae are severely subluxated, deviated from their center line. His Multifidus and Rotatores are smaller, more intrinsic muscles and crucial for spinal stability and proprioception; this uneven tension is pulling him far out of alignment and most likely the cranium is taking the brunt of having to correct the difference. The body will stack itself in segments and has to over-correct further up the line in order to remain erect. He is learning to feel, he feels vulnerable to share, he is afraid of being judged and so he holds in his feelings, he works more. He is not sure where a safe space is to express his feelings. He has been taught his feelings are best avoided. And now they have stacked up in his neck bringing pressure to his head that puts him out for days. He is learning how hard he is on himself, as he kept going to avoid his heart. He is ready to love himself. To look within and not turn away. He is turning towards his heart, to feel the emotions and to love himself unconditionally. Awareness Heals.

Angela is a Myofascial Release Therapist and an Injury Specialist in Grass Valley, CA at Sol Bodyworks. She can help you get out of chronic pain patterns and back to what you love with MFR.