Fascia - The Key to Freedom?
This mysterious substance has so much to teach us about what it means to be human.
As soon as I heard the word "fascia," I knew it would be the key to my freedom.
After 15+ years of living inside a body that felt like a torture chamber, and 10+ years trying everything under the sun to heal myself, freedom was something I hadn't even entertained as a possibility. Reckoning that the best I could do was to find some measure of inner peace, I had accepted that pain would be my constant companion.
Then, in 2008, my instructor in massage school mentioned this mysterious substance called "fascia" and it was as if an invisible key slipped into a lock on a door I didn't even know existed, and the door to my prison room swung open.
On the other side of this now open door, I saw a whole world of freedom: the freedom to hike and trail run after years of debilitating knee pain; the freedom to trust my body and feel at home in my own skin; the freedom to feel at peace with my past, and be fully present in the now; the freedom to resolve every ache and pain - past, present and future; the freedom to help others do the same...
Suddenly, all of this not only felt possible; it felt inevitable.
How could this be?
I didn't even know what fascia was!
As you know if you've been hanging out with me for a while, my life was not instantly transformed. My story was the story that many of you are living right now: while freedom beckoned, I had to reckon with the realities that this mysterious element called fascia is here to teach us.
Three years.
That's how long I stood in front of that open doorway and tried to jump across the threshold into the freedom I could see so clearly on the other side, only to hit an invisible wall that flung me back onto the floor of my prison room again, and again, and again.
Perhaps something similar happened for you?
I've been working in private practice - working with fascia - since 2009; I've been writing newsletters and making YouTube videos about fascia since 2015; and from the very beginning, it seemed that many others were having the same experience as me: people hear the word "fascia" and experience an inner knowing that this thing - whatever it is - holds some sort of key for them, too.
A new client of mine told me she knew that fascia held the answers for her, which is how she found me. She had to learn more, and the more she learns - through direct experience - the more intrigued she becomes.
Is this what happened to you?
Is that, partially or wholly, why you're here?
What is it, exactly, about this thing called fascia that has captivated our attention?
One of the most fascinating things about fascia is just how many opinions there are about it; and how little consensus.
Though fascia is practically a household name at this point, very few "fascia experts" agree about what it is, what its definite properties are, what its role is in pain and healing, or how best to "target" fascia for the changes we wish to make in our bodies. Everyone has their opinion, and many believe they've apprehended the "truth," even if it stands in contradiction to the "truth" of others. I'm no exception! Except, I do hope to demonstrate with everything that follows why we're all right; and wrong.
Logically, it follows that this lack of consensus itself points to the most important fact about fascia that is, perhaps, the only thing we could all agree on if we stepped outside the bounds of our chosen narrative or modality:
Fascia has so far eluded humanity's materialistic tendencies to separate, identify, classify and characterize every individual element within the human body (and on the earth). Fascia remains elusive. Unlike other elements in the human body, it defies even our best scientific attempts at categorization. Unless we're talking about fascia experts that use cadaver dissections to learn and teach about it, in which case I'd grant that we can know a lot about dead fascia that's been drained of all its fluids; but this knowledge tells us hardly anything useful about living bodies, or living fascia.
Here's the truth, as I see it:
I have no way of knowing, for sure, exactly what "substance" I'm working with when I step on people (using my methodology, called Kinetix).
What I do know is that every time I step on someone, I am contacting the entire organism. All the parts and various elements are there, interpenetrating, overlapping, connecting and combining into the whole that includes a unique soul and spirit.
Additionally, I know that some of these parts can be distinguished, characterized and identified not by their scientific names but by their LIVING qualities.
These living qualities are what truly matter.
Living tissues are ever moving, ever changing, always communicating with each other, with the outer environment, and with you - the resident of the body.
These bodies we own are not the same day to day, let alone year to year!
Our inner landscape changes just as much as, and often in response to, the outer landscape of our lives. Your physical and emotional needs change on a near daily basis, as do mine.
If you want to get to know your body, consider throwing out all the "guidebooks" and get to know your body as a living organism that wants to have a relationship with you, its inhabitant.
Every time you locate a dense lump or knot, you can distinguish it from the surrounding tissues that feel more pliable, soft, and fluid.
If you "visit" this knot daily, you may discover that it changes, especially as you form a relationship to it; maybe it turns into two smaller lumps, or begins to dissolve; maybe the whole area feels tender and sore today, after yesterday's fascia release session.
This is your body responding to - talking to - you.
When the tissues in your body respond to something specific that you do (like fascia release, or fascial stretching, or massage, or chiropractic), can you tell when your body is saying "thank you, I needed that," vs "that is not what I needed"?
As you notice your body responding favorably to some modalities - and practitioners! - and unhappily to others, do you know why?
If you don't know what your body is communicating, it will be almost impossible to meet your body's needs, which may cause you to feel helpless, like a prisoner to your body's every whim and fancy.
This inability to decipher what our bodies are saying is, in my opinion, at the heart of our current epidemic of chronic pain and dis-ease because we’ve learned to be afraid of our bodies, rather than in tune with them.
We can only help ourselves when we know how to interpret the messages our own body is giving us.
The absolute worst thing any of us could do is outsource that knowledge to other people. When we work with people, let it be with - rather than handing them our body so they can “fix” it. We all need help.
The best course of action, if your body feels confusing, scary or overwhelming, and if you want to wield co-creative power with your body, is to get to know your own body intimately, like a best friend you can always rely on to tell you the truth, even when the truth is painful.
So, how do we think about what we discover in our body? What are we to make of everything?
How do we know these knots are "fascia", and not muscle?
Why don't your adhesions disappear even though you do fascia release every night for an hour?
Perhaps, as you're exploring your body, you identify something else that feels stringy, or brittle; and another area that feels tender and sore, like a bruise you didn't know you had.
Are those fascia, too?
Are they something else?
Keep going.
You'll notice a whole lot more than textures in your tissues.
You'll notice that some places feel ok, and others hurt; a lot. Maybe they hurt so badly you can't stand using a foam roller, which is now collecting dust as a living room decoration. Or maybe you just feel numb; or you're not sure you're "doing it right", so you stick the foam roller in your closet.
If you're paying attention, you'll notice that you hold your breath sometimes; other times you have the impulse to swear or yell or scream or cry.
Maybe you break out in a hot sweat as your heart starts beating rapidly, and it freaks you out so badly you stick the foam roller in a corner of the room and give it "stink eye" for the rest of the week!
Is that fascia, too?!
Does it matter?
The real question is:
Why do you stop at the very moment your body starts revealing its hidden truths?
Back in 2008, I was told - by a fascia "expert" - that the answer to pain (not just my pain, but all pain) was stretching fascia like taffy to bring space back into a body that was getting cramped and crowded inside by shrinking fascia. Sounded simple enough, and I was willing to try anything!
Theoretically, once proper space was restored inside the body, then the pain should disappear. That did not happen for me as a matter of course. Pain is far more complex than that, and - as I've learned - has almost nothing to do with fascia. Almost.
Three years later, I embarked on a new adventure and enrolled my best friend in a grand experiment to get me hiking and running again. My experience that summer gave me the only answer I needed to spark a 12+ year journey into the world of fascia that, as of today, feels as though it's only just begun! And it was this:
Healthy fascia doesn't hurt when compressed.
But, wait...how do I know it's the fascia?!
I don't.
Does it really matter?
(I have all kinds of theories, but that's not the point of today's newsletter).
Here's what I know for sure from 12+ years of experience working with thousands of people seeking answers for everything from acute and chronic pain to trauma, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, recovery from failed surgeries, and everything in between:
✦ Healthy tissues are fluid, hydrated and don't hurt at all when compressed - even with 200+ lbs applied!
✦ Bodies with optimized tissues are practically immune to "normalized" aches, pains and minor injuries that plague other people, especially as they age.
✦ There are people riddled with knots, or adhesions, who experience no pain.
✦ There are people with supple, fluid, hydrated bodies that experience debilitating pain.
✦ Some people LOVE the feeling of being stepped on (Kinetix).
✦ Some people would rather eat chalk than get stepped on.
✦ Every single person/body I work with that starts with dense, restricted and adhesed tissues and later achieves optimization (supple, fluid, fully hydrated tissues) feels no pain - in fact, feels little sensation at all - when I step on them, even with my full body weight. Many of these people could tolerate only a few pounds of compression at first, while others loved the feeling ("it hurts so good!" is the common refrain); but in every single case, with supple/fluid tissues it no longer hurts at all to be stepped on.
✦ Some people's bodies turn supple and fluid in just a few hours of working with me.
✦ Some people's bodies stay brittle, dense and dehydrated even after years of work.
✦ EVERY BODY IS UNIQUE BECAUSE OF THE HUMAN INHABITING IT.
To become truly skillful as a practitioner, I had to get to know the human being inhabiting and animating each body I worked with.
To become truly skillful at mastering your own body, you'll need to get to know yourself fully. After that, your body will appear simple in its purely physical nature. Bodies, at a purely physical level, are truly simple. Human being, however, are complex; and only dead bodies no longer reflect their human inhabitant.
Your body is an expression of you.
You do not need scientific knowledge or anatomy training to get to know yourself, and your body, at this level.
In fact, I have seen over and over how "knowledge" - information gathered from a so-called authority - blinds us to the LIVING reality within.
(That's what happened to me in 2008).
► Find your bones and get to know them.
► Find your soft parts.
► Find the densities.
► Notice textures.
► Notice sensations of heat and cold, expansions and contractions.
► Notice what you feel, and your reactions to what you feel.
Feel what you feel; NOTICE WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO FEEL.
Work with what YOU feel in YOUR body.
Notice when it changes.
Let what you feel, and what you notice, inform what you do next; be intentional, thoughtful, proactive.
► Separate the stories you tell yourself from the living reality.
► Separate emotions from sensations.
► Separate your subjective self from the objective realities alive within the boundaries of your skin.
Do the above with devotion for the path and reverence for the many-sided nature of truth, and you will get to know this thing called fascia.
Fascia, in my experience, exists beyond the subjective realm; and it remains elusive to all who project their stories and agendas onto it. Project your stories and agendas onto fascia, and you'll get thrown back onto yourself like I did for three years.
From 2008 to the summer of 2011, I approached my fascia with my own and other people's ideas, beliefs, stories and agendas. In the summer of 2011, I stopped projecting anything at all onto my body, and approached her with curiosity, open mindedness and humility. Which is when everything changed, and I earned my freedom in just a few weeks.
To enter the world of fascia and learn her secrets, it has been my repeated experience that we must eliminate all of our personal and collective stories, free ourselves of personal agendas, and open ourselves to that which wants to be revealed.
Fascia continues to captivate my attention, inspire my imagination and fill me with awe.
What have you learned from fascia?
Please share below, I'd love to hear!
If you're new here, you may find this series helpful, in which I describe how to untangle emotions from sensations, nervous system reactivity from the world of fascia, and how to earn co-creative power with your body that will allow you to recover quickly even from serious injuries. I've linked to Part V, which has a link to Part IV...and so on. Follow the links to open all 5 chapters.
With love,
Elisha