The Myofascial release (pronounced my-fash-a) technique involves applying gentle pressure on different spots of your body, to trigger blood flow and energy movement. This is essentially the opposite of a deep tissue massage, where you need to consciously touch the skin ever so slightly, and focus on your connection between you and the patient. It requires a great deal of focus, patience and sensitivity to energy.
As foreign objects collide with our body, there is a natural response time where our brain decides if it needs to fight or flight. This is a subconscious program that plays in our minds; usually when we are being touched we don’t consciously feel in danger. This is felt within the Myofascial tissue that connects everything in our body. This is a web of thin tissue that weaves in between every cell in our body, connecting our physical body to allow consciousness to flow through it.
By moving parts of your body in slow, fluid like motions, you are activating and encouraging energy flow, or Qi, through your body. When you get a ‘knot’ in your neck or arms, or shoulders, that can be diagnosed as a ‘Myofascial trigger point’ which is essentially stress on the tissues.
Myo- is a greek prefix meaning muscle. Collagen- is greek for glue, and sheets of collagen constitute the different layers of fascia. The fascia is a dielectric connective tissue that holds and glues the body together and lets everything move smoothly. Keyword here is ‘dielectric’.
A dielectric is a material that can be polarized and store electric energy in the form of a static field. Such as plastics, ceramics and collagen. Just imagine rubbing a balloon against your hair, charging it, then placing it against the wall.
The space between the balloon and the wall has now been polarized therefore they attract each other like two magnets. Therefore so does the fascia and muscle tissue.
When your fascia is tense and knotted, there becomes a disruption in the polarization, a kink in the flow. It becomes an obstacle for the Qi to flow around.
These kinks may be mechanical or stem from emotions and thoughts. By concentrating on an area of tension and focusing your thoughts to relax the area, and then gently moving and stretching your body slowly, you can release these energy disturbances.
Mindfulness and stretching combined with breathing is the way to properly achieve this; and this is the core of Myofascial Release. Much more is gained from a Myofascial session than a typical deep tissue massage.
Combining Myofascial release with deep meditation can result in resolving deeply seeded issues of the past that are adding to your physical tensions. Many of our physical ailments stem directly from emotional and mental experiences we are still holding on to.
This video shows exactly how Myofascial works and the way it weaves and glues our cells together.