Heal your mind and body with some knowledge and a tool that gets you started. This isn’t hype or marketing or magic. It’s a free option that few people are talking about that offers you a way to begin healing yourself, backed by science.
Here’s what you need to know…
Your body is always communicating in it’s own unique language.
What you may not know, and scientists are just discovering, is that you have an incredibly powerful network within your body that connects all parts of you to all the other parts of you. You have a spider’s web-like tissue (called fascia, pronounced “fah-shah” or connective tissue) covering your whole body.
Even more interesting is that this tissue holds astonishing levels of wisdom and incredible amounts of sensory ability. Connective tissue is a primary control center for emotional, physical and mental well-being.
Healing your physical and/or emotional pain for long-term change always involves your connective tissue (whether you know it or not!).
Here are some scientific facts about fascia, also called your 6th Sense:
- It connects every cell in the body (that’s a lot of connecting!)
- It has at least 7 times more sensory receptors than your muscles
- It responds well to subtle touch and gentle stretching with mindful awareness (aggressive approaches have been shown to lead to injury and cell death)
- It’s so intelligent it can actually sense when you aren’t being present in your body (meaning: full embodiment is essential in your emotional and physical change process)
If you learn how to access your fascia properly, with full awareness, you can permanently rewire the pathways in your brain, change your baseline mental health and decrease your physical pain.
The new discoveries about this “organ of communication” has proven that healing doesn’t require talking or positive thinking. Instead, healing begins and ends with accessing your body in specific embodied ways.
Keep in mind, just like any healing process, instant change doesn’t exist. However, involving your fascial tissue just might be the most direct path!
Good news! Studies are now showing that more frequent, short intervals of practice are much more effective than longer periods of infrequent practice. This means, you don’t have to carve out big blocks of time to get embodied, but rather sneak in some short embodiment breaks a few times a day. It’s so much easier this way!
Here’s one tool you can try out to work with your connective tissue and to begin to rewire your brain.
Practice Tool:
Follow the steps below. Use this tool for anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes – you decide.
- Close your eyes and notice what your body feels like now. Do a brief scan from your feet to your head. Then notice what you feel emotionally right now.
- Next, roll up a yoga mat or a blanket the long way.
- Start on your right side with your right hip on the floor, placing the mat roll or blanket roll under your leg, approximately six inches below your hip (this is your IT band).
- Then, press yourself up onto your right forearm, allowing the IT band part of your leg to sink into the roll and little more deeply. Close your eyes. Breathe. Notice.
- Rock forward and backward gently on the roll, while bringing all of your awareness to the sensation. Keep bringing conscious breath into the sensation.
- Try rocking up and down (toward your hip then toward your knee) with your full awareness. Breathe. Notice.
- You can move the roll down your leg and repeat. Staying present and focused. Moving slowly, gently and breathing.
- When you feel complete, remove the roll. Lay on your back and take a few conscious breaths, feeling your rib cage expand and contract from the movement of your breath.
- Then check in and notice the difference between right side and left side.
- When you’re ready, do your left side the same way as you did the right. Both sides can be very different, so stay tuned in and always close out by coming to a neutral position and noticing what sensations are present.
- When both sides are complete, do a final check in. Keeping eyes closed, notice what your body feels like now. Then notice what you feel emotionally right now. Notice what, if anything, has shifted from you did your initial check-in (in step 1).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember, your connective tissue is an organ that needs focused attention. You must be fully in your body! Without full awareness to the sensation you’re experiencing (also referred to as ‘interoception’ or ‘embodiment’) you will not impact the connective tissue, thus making this tool non-effective. So, in essence, you can’t use these kinds of tools while also watching TV or talking on the phone.
Your body has all the wisdom it needs inside it to change, heal and grow. Now it’s up to you to use it…
Is any of this information about your fascia new to you? Email me…I’d love to hear from you…
P.S. Did you know I offer private sessions mindfulness techniques for stress reduction both virtually and in person? Learn how to listen to your internal wisdom with a trained practitioner. Learn more here.
P.P.S. Wondering how in tune you are with you mind-body connection? Take the free Mind-Body IQ quiz here. Wondering where others are that are similar to you? Join us in the free, private MindBodyWise Living Room group on Facebook!
