I had a truly magical experience, and am so excited to share it with you, especially if you have been feeling really discouraged around how things have been going in your life.
Today is a story of hope and release. This is my warm hug and reminder of how magical you actually are. So pick up your wand:).
Last week, my husband and I took a much needed vacation, heading to the mountains to hike. Surrounded by trees, sitting atop summits, and watching a moth gently fly by a waterfall was deeply loving for our nervous systems. After three days of full immersion, we headed to upstate NY to meet in person for the first time the healer I have been working with since February online.
Amanda Carpenter.
Since 2006, one of the ways Amanda has been treating her patients has been through Myofascial Release, or MFR. Taught by the master teacher, John Barnes, his definition is:
“Myofascial Release is a safe and very effective hands-on technique that involves applying gentle sustained pressure into the Myofascial connective tissue restrictions to eliminate pain and restore motion. This essential “time element” has to do with the viscous flow and the piezoelectric phenomenon: a low load (gentle pressure) applied slowly will allow a viscoelastic medium (fascia) to elongate.
Trauma, and inflammatory responses create Myofascial restrictions that can produce tensile pressures of approximately 2,000 pounds per square inch on pain sensitive structures.”
It’s important to know that your whole body is made up a network of fascia. It’s holding all of your organs in, and when the fascia becomes constricted, it can set off a cascade of pain or other issues. It’s been referred to as your “body’s glue.”
The reason I was going to have this treatment is because I’ve had a pain in my right side for 8.5 years.
The cause? Back in November of 2013, during the year when I was losing everything in my life, I was in two car accidents in one day. Yes, you read that right.
On that Sunday, I truly thought I was going to die. Who gets in two car accidents back to back? And the second one completely totaled my car. It was terrifying and I was convinced that when I got out of the car either something was going to drop from the sky or I would be shot.
The trauma and shock of that day has lived in my tissues, in my fascia since I was spun to the sidewalk, just minutes from my home. And over the years, I have tried EVERYTHING. Acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, trauma therapy, cognitive therapy, and even visceral manipulation. While all of those brought forward healing, the pain has remained, and has been a daily part of my life.
But then I started working with Amanda at COR Health Solutions to heal my EMF sensitivity and chronic headaches back in February, and she shared about MFR and the process of unwinding.
The body holds a sacred intelligence and knows how to unwind the tension, but has to feel safe and be allowed to move the way it needs to. Amanda shared her lived example of having to reverse the flip her body experienced when she had a serious bike accident that sent her flying over her handlebars. With the help of two fellow MFR practitioners, they literally helped her body unwind the initial trauma and release the tension in her fascia.
So, I was VERY excited to see her in person and experience this healing myself.
She began with an assessment and found my right psoas to be very tight, so her fingers gently pressed in as I laid on the massage table. I began to breathe as it was intense, and then Amanda said, “move like you are three years old.”
And a switch went off. Oh, I understand. Release the “adult” way of thinking.
I closed my eyes, and just let my body lead, like I did as a child before I learned what was appropriate and correct. This freedom led me to enormous stretches, to hanging off the table, and creating odd angles. I could feel how much the fascia in my side wanted to release. Amanda expertly guided me, supporting my body as I moved, and even helping to elongate my right leg and arm as I did all I could to make my right side let go.
I made my way to the wall, and then my whole body started to shake as a pain in my lower right back seared red hot. I began to weep, and a deep wail exploded from my throat. The release sent me to the floor and I curled into child’s pose.
I began to rock and then I felt this pain in my right hip and slowly began to ease towards it. Amanda was gently holding my back and helping me to shift, and then it was as if my whole body broke open. I began to cough, as if I needed to get something out of my throat, and I was bawling my eyes out.
Everything was coming out.
Everything from that day.
And Amanda said, “you don’t have to carry this anymore. It’s no longer yours to carry.”
I brought my legs in front of me and hung my head over my knees. I started to move my hands quickly through my hair, as if releasing all the tension in my head. Out, OUT, OUT.
And then, I slowly lowered myself down to the ground and laid on my back in shavasana. Amanda was holding my head in the back, creating a soft pillow.
And a smile came across my face.
And then I realized, the pain was gone.
I have no idea how long I laid there with Amanda’s hand behind my head, smiling and relaxed. But when I did finally open my eyes, she helped me gather myself, wipe my snot and tears from my face, and slowly, SLOWLY sit up.
Amanda said, “your body has now changed. You have space again.”
And she was right. I was not in the body I walked in with. I was now returning my body to its natural state.
And we all did this together, following the guidance OF my body.
My body knew. It’s just taken me 8.5 years to listen and trust.
Animals know intuitively to “shake off” trauma. You can see the deer literally shake after they have just evaded death from a predator. Yet, as humans, we don’t learn this. We learn to “hold it in” or “cover it up”. But the body always remembers.
The real miracle here, is that YOUR BODY remembers ALSO how to unwind.
It remembers how to heal. It remembers how to release your pain.
It’s all there inside, the pain AND the release. It is in the meeting of the two that a sacred alchemy occurs.
You are actually a deeply intelligent and magical being.
We just need help to remember, and guidance to unlearn.
May this helpful for you today, and a warm hand at the back of your head, as you reclaim your power. There is hope, and it’s all there within your being.