If only the healing journey could be as simple as a journey on mapquest, I’d be able to give you a number, a time frame, an idea of how long til you’re feeling wonderful. But…….. It’s not. It’s far more complicated than that.
I always tell folks that if the sessions are helping, you’ll know it. Even if your symptoms haven’t changed immediately, you’ll feel yourself opening up, relaxing more deeply. That is the parasympathetic side of your nervous system kicking on. And it’s when the parasympathetic is active that healing takes place. When we go deeper and stay longer in the parasympathetic, old holding patterns break, deep emotional processing occurs, the body rids itself of excess energy and begins the beautiful process of unwinding. In short, the more time spent in the parasympathetic, the more opportunity for the body to heal itself. For most clients, training the body/mind to enter the parasympathetic is the most vital part of our time together. And if you’ve been wound up tight spending days, months, or years in the sympathetic side of your nervous system, you may need several sessions to learn how to turn that off.
Once you have greater access to the parasympathetic, the fascial web opens up more easily. The work in the fascial layers is able to go deeper. You will be able to feel into the body with greater ease to discover other areas of tension/discomfort. For a moment, you may start to think that you’re getting worse! You’re not. You’re getting more sensitive. You have more fluid and movement in the fascial web and you can start to feel things that you couldn’t feel before, like how you hold your breath. Or clench your jaw. You’ll start to notice what triggers these patterns. And from there, you’ll be able to go about the process of breaking them. It is in this stage that you realize your body is constantly talking to you. And isn’t it nice to listen before the body has to scream?
Before you know it, you are starting to take care of the tension that pops up in your neck on your own. But maybe a huge deadline hits. Or allergy season comes into full bloom. And your sympathetic nervous system starts to really rev up. That’s a good time to come in for a visit. You need a little facilitation to engage your parasympatethic and relax the tissues.
Then let’s say you start to realize that your diet and exercise program can really help or hurt your fascial web. Bravo! Maybe you cut out sugar – a wonderful game changer. And sure enough, your body feels more at ease. Then you add in yoga. And voila…..some of the areas that are stubbornly tight begin to stay more open for longer and longer. Maybe I don’t see you for months………..
Until…..life strikes again and throws you temporarily off balance. And you reach out for a little backup.