Deanna’s Journey pt. 3: Realization and Understanding
This week, my journey continues, peeling back the layers and beginning the move toward grace and peace with my body.
Uncovering this truth about fascia decompression and the healing effects brought a new sense of purpose and joy to my life. From the first moment I dove my hand into my abdomen, I connected to the deeper pains within, but felt an immediate sense of calm. I also connected more strongly to the breath that I knew was weak and was able to create freedom in my abdomen to support this.
Change was happening fast. The first notable shift was my mood -- I was feeling light and happy (a new feeling for me). Then came the flattening of the belly which brought about a feeling of being empowered in this regard -- finally, and shortly after that, I was experiencing relief from my chronic pains. All in all, in a few short weeks, my body had undergone an impressive transformation.
Being so used to pain, this new awareness of my body and breath allowed me to understand the path I was on. It wasn’t about moving into perfect alignment and freedom overnight, it was about disrupting the old traumas, pains, and behaviours that took me to that dark place where this all began. And remember, there are layers upon layers of memory stored in the fascia that all need to be uncovered and released to attain the perfectly aligned and spacious body.
So, twenty-one years later, here I am. I can absolutely say that I am a completely different person in all aspects due to the process of fascia decompression. But with that understanding, the healing crises need to be embraced to continually move to the next level within and clear out the old . . . and this is a journey in and of itself.
I won’t go into detail of all the things I have undergone over the past two decades, but I would like to highlight an issue that came up four years ago and am still working through. I feel it is important for everyone to understand pain and the messages they bring forward so as to remove the fear from the sensation and to treat it for what it is -- a language of the cells.
It was December of 2017 and I was excited to be getting into the holiday season and to have a break from patient work. As I also always do, I was playing around with my posture. We are never in perfect alignment, and I make it a goal to embrace something that needs to change in my posture and make that a habit. I was aware that I was tucking my tailbone in too far when standing and walking, so I decided to shift and actively stick my butt out further than normal to become familiar with this new action. Little did I know in that moment what I was about to uncover.
By the next day, my left hip was not happy to say the least. I could feel a gap when I was walking that left me feeling unstable in my gait. Also, sitting cross-legged which was the position I was in frequently, now was a test of my will. I say this because when doing video to teach Block Therapy classes, I am always in that position -- so filming became a great challenge and was anything but comfortable.
I love how memory comes into the block practice. As I was working through this area to ease the pain, I was back to that seven-year-old girl riding the stationary bike. I could see myself pedaling with all my might, slipping and hitting my pubic bone on that metal ball bearing. As soon as the memory surfaced, I had an unwavering realization that this pain would be with me for a long time. I knew the injury itself created a shift to my pelvis, that the scar tissue never healed properly and that I grew around the dysfunction, leaving that gap in my hip joint.
This is where the understanding of pain is so important. As much as I knew I would be struggling for the long haul, there was no fear. I had long lost the sense of connecting pain to fear and felt rather liberated knowing that this pain would lead me to creating a deep healing that would have never, otherwise, taken place. These old injuries and traumas become the problems in our future -- and I could totally envision the need for a hip replacement as I aged, if I didn’t have the opportunity to address this now.
Healing is never a straight line. There would be moments when I was feeling like I had moved beyond this issue as my body would fall into a better alignment, only to be thrown forward to a new shift that shared with me I was nowhere close to being done. When we injure ourselves as a child and grow from that place of dysfunction, the entire body is involved. Every cell moves away from its rightful place to accommodate the gaps in the system, so as to keep us upright and functional. This, however, isn’t optimal for aging without pain and limitation.
Just as an aside, this is why I am so determined to get every child in the world awake to their fascia system and how to heal in those moments of injury and trauma. The way most address this leaves those gaps in the system which inevitably result in pain at a later date. Learning how to address injury in the moment and rebuild tissue properly will minimize future challenges that come from simply being a kid.
This is where the understanding of pain is so important. As much as I knew I would be struggling for the long haul, there was no fear. I had long lost the sense of connecting pain to fear and felt rather liberated knowing that this pain would lead me to creating a deep healing that would have never, otherwise, taken place. These old injuries and traumas become the problems in our future -- and I could totally envision the need for a hip replacement as I aged, if I didn’t have the opportunity to address this now.
Healing is never a straight line. There would be moments when I was feeling like I had moved beyond this issue as my body would fall into a better alignment, only to be thrown forward to a new shift that shared with me I was nowhere close to being done. When we injure ourselves as a child and grow from that place of dysfunction, the entire body is involved. Every cell moves away from its rightful place to accommodate the gaps in the system, so as to keep us upright and functional. This, however, isn’t optimal for aging without pain and limitation.
Just as a side, this is why I am so determined to get every child in the world awake to their fascia system and how to heal in those moments of injury and trauma. The way most address this leaves those gaps in the system which inevitably result in pain at a later date. Learning how to address injury in the moment and rebuild tissue properly will minimize future challenges that come from simply being a kid.
Next Week: Deanna's Journey pt. 4: Peace and Resolution
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