Spontaneous unwinding

I had another abrupt and seemingly random fascial unwinding last night after a Myofascial Release session on Thursday. It was triggered by gently stretching the muscles on the back of my head 😳

This one was mostly head/neck/shoulders, but I had a few releases in my digestive tract as well.

It is literally so crazy. The body takes over and moves itself. Some parts of it felt like a string or shrimp vein being pulled out of me, but then the area of focus became much wider, like a band of plastic wrap being stripped off.

I described unwindings this way in a previous entry:

“When this happens, your body moves involuntarily in ways that you probably wouldn’t choose, then sometimes it pauses, and you feel like you’re about to levitate.”

It’s the body’s version of a psychedelic journey, but this was completely organic; provoked only by stretching 🤯

I’m moving very slow today and am giving myself time and space to integrate the experience, but I did want to share a few thoughts while they’re at the forefront of my mind.

• This was largely a physical/physiological experience. It was the body’s way of releasing stored tension, stuck energy, etc. If I wasn’t in a place to honor that, it may have affected how present I was with my surroundings or my ability to interact with others. To the extreme it could look like a “mental health event” in some people- especially if they haven’t done any releasing work over a long period of time (physical detox, energy work, etc).
• The more skilled we become at not only tolerating but also working with body sensations, the more equipped we’ll be to hold space for ourselves during these releases. There were a few times that I was held in a really unnatural position, but I just had to trust that my body knew what it was doing. I could have come out of it at any point, but I felt called to see it through. I wanted to get everything I could out of the experience. After all, it was free and people pay hundreds of dollars for bodywork sessions, retreats, etc to do this exact thing, and here it was just happening! It naturally concluded on its own when I fell asleep.
• It’s important to learn the language of our specific body. There was a life review component to the release. I watched the events, people, and places of my life like a movie, and for the most part, they scrolled by like items on a conveyor belt. However, there were occasionally times when I would need to spend more time on something in order to truly SEE it. How do I know? The release would stop, and the sensations would get more intense. Once I fully grasped what I was being shown, I could move on.
• I try not to overidentify with thoughts that surface during the release. Our human minds sometimes need material to work with in order for the desired effect to happen. These thoughts can act as a catalyst for the release or the emotional response (I actually think this is what most of life is, but that’s outside the scope of this post). For example, if someone’s little face pops up at some point, I do not assume they’re THE ONE, or take it as an indicator to reach out. I express gratitude for the part they played in my life and keep it movin (personal decision, no right or wrong). Basically, I just hold everything that surfaces very loosely and don’t make any big decisions until the dust has settled. The changes taking place are on a very deep level (often subperceptual), but the mind will try to fit the experience into a pre-existing framework and/or create a story in order to make sense of it.
• These experiences happen outside the standard time/space realm. Basically, the body doesn’t know time. It was not concerned about what else I had planned. This can be very inconvenient in a world where we’ve made an idol out of clocks and schedules.
• The upgrade is a state of BEing. For me it’s not about the “downloads,” or any epiphanies that dropped in. While I did come away with a few insights, I’m more focused on how my body is coping with the changes and how I can support its process. Irene Lyon teaches about pre-verbal trauma in her nervous system healing programs, and if this is in fact what is being released, then we’ve literally built our lives around it. I try to be very gentle during and after an acute release phase (learned from experience).
• These releases can be traumatic if we don’t know what is happening or don’t have a framework for interpreting them. In indigenous cultures they’re an expected part of peoples’ lives, but atleast in the US, we are not taught about these in school (not saying that’s a great place to learn about our bodies and/or life skills, but that actually proves my point), and therefore can take people by surprise. I joked with a friend this morning that all we’ve been given is the Bible and the DSM (mental health Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) to learn about ourselves and interpret our experiences. While I believe the first one to be a very powerful text, it may be hard to use as a step by step manual in the moment, lol! The second one I’m convinced was written specifically to stop these little awakenings, but that is a story for another day.
• These events are very manageable for me at this point because I’ve done years of energy work, detox, emotional healing, etc. I’ve worked with plant medicines, holotropic breathwork and can navigate what is called a “non ordinary state of consciousness.” If this is not the case for someone and/or they are not in tune with their body, they would probably look different. Panic attacks and dissociative spells come to mind. Sidenote: In my experience Myofascial Releases are very gentle but can get pretty intense if the body holds itself in a seemingly unnatural position for several minutes. I’ve also known people to have more aggressive releases, and to make noises. Everyone is very different.
• Our physical bodies have to be strong enough to act as a container. If not, we’ll blow a fuse (looks different on everyone, but it’s usually not a good day). A few years ago following an acute traumatic event and subsequent “Lyme flare-up,” repressed memories started to surface, and I was completely bottoming out. I was having panic attacks and just generally “glitchy spells,” and my brain often felt overheated at night. I determined with my Functional Medicine Dr. at the time that I probably had brain inflammation. That knowledge alone didn’t immediately fix everything, but it gave me something to grasp onto in the moment. In retrospect I could have benefitted from John Barnes MFR, as I had exceeded my body’s ability to cope (aka was outside my “window of tolerance”).
• If you decide to take the “detox, unwind, release” route to all aspects of your health, Western medicine may or may not be helpful. To my knowledge, medical providers are not trained in the body’s ability to heal by releasing physical/emotional energy or tension, and may act to numb and suppress symptoms; if for nothing else, because that’s what we’re kindve seeking when we show up in those spaces. ..aka “make it stop.” I’ve met competent and compassionate practitioners in neverly every discipline. Some of the medical interventions were helpful, and some were not. I feel the medical system is a product of our society and vice versa. If monetary gain and productivity are your goals, then you would create something that looks like that. I totally get we all have to function, so no judgment. I will say I personally have found the allopathic approach unsustainable long term because from where I sit, the remedy is cleansing our vessels of toxins, stuck energy, etc, but it’s a process. I do not recommend coming off meds abruptly, and I am encouraged to see the work of Dr. Kendra Campbell with Free Range Psychiatry in providing education on psychiatric medications and helping people taper slowly.

One more thing: I want to say that the body will only release stuck survival stress and/or stored trauma once it feels safe enough to do so (the same with repressed memories), however, I cannot actually guarantee with 100% certainty this is the case.

There are people currently in inpatient psychiatric care whose experience may have been different. Of course, I can’t know contributing factors leading up to their admission (abuse, substance usage, etc), as each person and each story is unique.

Basically we may not know what we’re holding until we see it leave. We don’t know what is in there!

This is a consideration for plant medicine ceremonies and energy work/somatic practices aimed at provoking a huge cathartic release.

After years of working with myself and others, I would say slow and steady wins the “race” and that we need to honor the pace of our nervous systems.

That is all for now. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and any similar experiences you feel comfortable sharing in the comments section.

I understand the things contained in this entry may be a little leap for some people, as viewing the body in the way is truly a paradigm shift, but I trust that we’re all more that capable of reconciling any cognitive dissonance that may arise.

As always, take the best and leave the rest 🙏

Photo: Santa Rosa Beach December 2022