1 week Ago By Angela Rose | Columnist
Most of us have a tendency not to notice the body unless it is in pain, or there has been an accident, injury or trauma. I honor my teachers for their attention towards the profound simplicities. Breath and grounding are keys to living a happy life in the body.
Most of the time when we are on auto pilot milling about or charging at life, we are in the mind. When we get lost in thoughts about the past or the future, we overlook the present moment. The present moment is in fact where everything happens, and when our attention has escaped to another time we can get distracted, out of the flow and focused on solving for and our attention goes to the negative.
It’s important to interrupt the pain cycle, stop the negative feedback loop and listen to the body. Breathing is listening. Breathing is so simple it is overlooked, and yet it is a vital force that keeps us alive more than anything else.
Breathing is the fastest way to regulate your nervous system, it’s the best way to get in touch with yourselves, and it is the quickest way to relax. When we look to the feet we can find clues that are carried all the way up to the neck and head. Feet allow us to feel grounded, we can either pour into the earth and develop a healthy right relationship with gravity or we can keep efforting and hovering, lifting ourselves like an object body.
How do we feel more grounded and supported by the earth? We pay attention to the way our weight is distributed through the feet. We also have a wonderful thing called the heal lead, where your heal strikes first. When you walk, notice if your toes point the direction you are walking.
One of the first things I direct my clients to is their feet. Your foundation, your feet, your ankles, your gait and your stride has a profound effect on you as a whole organism. Many times because your feet are the furthest away from your brain -where you identify and live most from, the feet are harder to sense, access or presence in and get feedback from.
When we have tension and holding patterns that are happening above the feet, the distribution of weight bearing and uneven tension in the feet can have a lot to do with this tension that is created above. Our foundation allows us to be agile or immobile. As is below, Psoas above.
In the body we have relationships. Each part has a function, a role, and each of these jobs depend upon the community of parts working together to provide it’s function to contribute to the smooth sailing. When we have major players, we want to address these priority parts, to free up the fascia and restore function to the fascial layers.
The body simply observed is a web of pulleys and levers. Myofascial Release frees restrictions in this web so that these parts have full range of motion. In these tissues- muscles, tendons and ligaments we want to have symmetrical tensegrity.
Tensegrity is a positive equally distributed tension that has pliable, toned, fluid and hydrated. In order to be able to extend, expand and then contract to our full range, based upon the needs of the moment, we need to be responsive, to be sensitive to able, agile and nimble. We want our nervous system to be suspended and held in a wonderfully toned connective tissue matrix.
We release fascial restrictions and restore function with MFR. Movement is another major key in creating health in the body. We want to feel able and strong.
When we have an accident, injury or trauma, health issues, or we are recovering from surgery, this can be challenging. Especially when we have something that creates immobility. We need to keep moving, but what if that hurts? If we have an ankle that’s hard to walk on or feet that hurt for instance the whole rest of the body will be compensating- moving in a compromised way that stresses the surrounding areas because they are taking on the roles and responsibilities of other parts they were not designed for.
When we have pain, it is natural to try to avoid it. This can further exacerbate, inflame, and create more adhesions -scar tissue in the body’s attempt to remedy. It’s a balance, we want to favor things until there is healing and.
.. we don’t want to favor for very long, or create a whole new way of moving, that becomes a dysfunctional habit.
We can change these habits with Myofascial Release. The psoas is a major player in the core muscles and connects the legs, to the pelvis, and to the rib cage. It traverses the planes and is a muscle running diagonal though the core of the body.
It inserts at the lesser trochanter of the femur and originates from the lumbar transverse processes and connects to the lowest rib and the diaphragm. This is a great distance to span. The length and tone of the psoas affects the fullness of our breath.
Function and a good healthy tone of the psoas, we want space and length, and core muscles differentiated from one another. So the Psoas can do her job. Psoas Origin: Transverse processes of L1-L5 vertebrae, vertebral bodies of T12-L5 vertebrae, and adjacent intervertebral discs.
Insertion: Lesser trochanter of femur. Action: Flexes thigh at hip joint; flexes trunk. Innervation: Anterior rami of first, second, and third lumbar nerves.
Now for laymen’s terms. The psoas when tight makes the lower back tight, can the abdominals loose tone. Fascial restrictions in this area can have an impact on the nerves that run through and allow your upper and lower legs, ankles and feet to have feeling, sensation, blood flow and circulation.
Because the lumbar innervation is dependent upon healthy psoas tone. If you have sensations like pins and needles, your legs fall asleep this is known as peripheral neuropathy. This has to do with the fascial health of the tissues surrounding your lumbar vertebrae.
The thing is when people are diagnosed with degenerative disc diseases for instance, this has everything to do with fascial restrictions. We can liken this to a tent that has been staked, and the bindings, if the rope that holds the fly on the tent are too taut and tight, overtime the tent poles that hold up the tent will bend because of the tension that is asserted from the force of the bindings of the rope that ties the fly down. Over time tissues that are tight and restricted will change the bones size, shape and function.
The hopeful thing is that, given the right space, time and good energy, just like plants we can grow, change and heal. Healing happens with Myofascial Release. Myofascial Release is a gentle, safe and highly effective specialized form of bodywork.
MFR releases fascial restrictions so that the tissue can breathe, hydrate and return to its healthy tone. Fascia is your connective tissue and wraps every cell of your body, it is your structure, the medium, and what is holding you up in space. With Myofascial Release your tissues become more pliable, flexible, agile and strong.
You get your tissues organized and in better working order, to better support you in your movements. You are treated as an individual, with a unique life experience, with Care and Love..
