Let it Go! Let it Go! (Nothing to do with Frozen)

"Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go"

Lyrics from Disney's Frozen*

Unwinding is one of the three core techniques to the John F Barnes style of Myofascial Release along with Cross Hands Releases and Rebounding.  It seems to be the body releasing stored traumatic events and can appear incredibly freaky to the unaware.  It can seem to be like someone is possessed (like in the Exorcist) with heads spinning (apparently) uncontrollably, arms flailing and legs windmilling all over the place.

I first experienced someone unwind on me on my first morning of my first Myofascial Release Course in 2012.  Gently pulling someone's leg and the next thing I know I'm barely holding on and then they're going up into a shoulder stand (on a narrow massage couch in the middle of the room).  The capable teach brought that episode under control and I suddenly realised that all the other students were staring at me and the person on the couch as if we were completely mad.  It felt perfectly natural as I was working on, with just me trying to work out where I needed to be and what the patient needed to allow this to go on.  Some of my fellow students looked like they had just witnessed something from another planet and seemed to be quite horrified and scared of the process, whilst others were just jealous.

As a closed mouth, emotionally repressed Englishman, I always thought it would be a struggle to be able to actually unwind, and that it was very unlikely to happen to me and certainly not in some acrobatic scene-stealing way that would make me the centre of attention.  The first crack appeared on the Breast Health workshop, when my shoulder and arm started windmilling around.  It was a most incredible sensation I was in control, but not in control of my body, I knew it wasn't the therapist working on me doing the movements, she was merely assisting.  I felt great afterwards and quite happy that that is what was going to happen for me with unwinding: small, gentle movements, nothing dramatic. I was wrong.

At the most recent MFRUK course I suddenly found my body unwinding.  I had said at lunchtime (in response to someone who said that unwinding freaked the out) that "I don't unwind and most unlikely at this course"; my body disagreed.  This was just the right place and time for an unwind.

So what happened during my unwind?  Well it started off normally, but then I just had to roll over onto my front (with a bit of an uppity moment when my arms were in the way) then the exorcist moment happened: my legs moved upwards towards vertical like a contortionist from Cirque De Soleil (being face down and in the zone I don't know exactly how far they actually went), this happened a couple of times and then my pelvis was held in position by the therapist working on me and my legs went beserk and into a full lotus position, and then the unwind completed.

How did it happen? I am not certain and it does not happen with everyone and in every session.  It occurs when the client's body is in the right place and time, and the mind is in a focussed and calm zone.  It then happens, and like the song there is no other option other than to let it go, you really can't hold it back any more.  Not being able to hold it back? That's not exactly true as you can engage the mind to stop and come out of the unwind if it felt more than the client and/or the therapist can handle or if the situation is wrong (which is what happened on my first experience.)



I will say that it definitely felt like someone had hold of my legs, and they were in control of what they were doing, but I knew it was me.  I could also see memories from an incident when I was at university that was being relived.  I used to be flexible enough that one of my party pieces was going into full lotus position, walking on my knees in it or haning from a chin up bar.  The incident that I was reliving was one time when I was hanging upside-down from the chin up bar in lotus position and my grip went.  Panic set in as I was unable to release my legs, I think I ended up hanging by one arm as I managed to get out of it but that is what I released.

Afterwards I felt hot, exhausted and absolutely fantastic. It truly felt like a burden had been lifted, and I had been doing the lifting, but there was a complete freedom from something that I couldn't have named before.. There was, and still is, an amazing looseness to my hips that has been missing for years.  Full Lotus still escapes me, but I feel like I am much closer and less fearful working towards it in a sensible way (rather than in bad way I did with the exuberabnce of youth)

So now I'm really looking foward to the two day Unwinding Course I'm doing with Myofascial Release UK in November 2014.

*Sorry to all of those sufferers who are now singing the song in their heads. But this line really does feel right for this posting. At least I've not asked you to build a snowman...

A matter of life and breath

Try this little experiment (and don't force it): You'll need to have a clock handy with a second hand to count how long you hold your breath.  Start by breathing normally for a minute or so, don't try to change anything just trying to be calm. Then breathe out and don't breathe in until you feel like you really need to (this is the bit you should not force) and time how long between the end of the exhalation and the inhalation.

The reason I'm suggesting you do this is inspired by a talk I went to on Breathing Pattern Disorders by Leon Chaitow (an Osteopath that has written the textbooks on virtually all techniques used by bodyworkers) and there were some real eye openers on how common this could be.

How long did you manage? 10 seconds? 20 seconds? 30 seconds? more? Apparently we should be able to hold our breaths for approximately 30 seconds with ease, however most of us find this difficult.  My own score this morning was 20 seconds. This means that we are breathing too much so we could be suffering from Hyperventilation Syndrome (HVS) and this is a problem as we are expelling too much Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from our bodies.

Most of us know that we breathe in oxygen (O2) and breathe out CO2 as a waste product, but the level of CO2 in our blood plays an important role in our systems as it helps to keep our body at a particular pH balance between acid/alkali (within a very specific range).  If this pH balance becomes took alkali then the haemoglobin in the Red blood cells struggle to let go of the O2 that our body needs to function properly. Symptoms can range from headaches, lethagy, neck ache, back ache, and anxiety amongst many others.

Some of the other things that were interesting from the talk were that this mostly affects type 1 personalities, it is more common in women (and progesterone raises women's breathing rate during their menstrual cycle), that this can have far reaching consequences on the quality of our life.

What happens is that we breathe into the top of our chests rather than using the diaphragm to fill the whole lung cavity.  This then has a knock on impact on the stability of the low back (through the "core" muscles of the obliques, transversus abdominus and pelvic floor) and through fascial connections to the limbs as well because we are not using things properly.
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Our bodies become habituated to the level of O2 and alkali in the blood so any changes to this can induce feelings of anxiety (which will then negatively feed back to more hyperventilation) and so trying to retrain needs to be a long slow approach: 5 minutes each morning and night as a focussed effort but forgetting about it and getting on with your life the rest of the time.

In his talk Leon Chaitow showed us a video of retraining (The Nutri Centre filmed the whole talk and it is available in its entirity on their YouTube Channel) but the first part is to focus on the out breath for short periods. This is done by using the pursed lips exhalation.  You put your lips together and blow a thin stream of air our, gently as if you were blowing out a candle about 1 foot away (put your finger there to feel it) and you empty the lungs as fully as you can.  Close your mouth and count for 1 second before you breathe in through your nose.  Do this for 20 cycles of breathing morning and night for a week and then try holding your breathe to see if there is a difference.

You can find the video on The Nutri Centre website here.

An object lesson in the Myofascial Web

One of the key ideas about the myofascial network is that it is a continuous web that surrounds, envelops and defines the elements (muscles, bones, organs) of the body and that what happens in one part of it has an effect on every other part of the body.  It is something that I discuss with my clients all the time and they are amazed when they feel that this is the case.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been painfully shown how interconnected the body's connective tissue is.

I arrived at my Stanmore clinic one morning limping because of a sharp pain in my left knee, every step was agony.  Adam (one of the chiropractor's) checked it and put some tape on it to provide some stability whilst I got on with my clinic. Later, when I had more time, I got another Chiropractor (Owain at Clerkenwell Chiropractic) to check it fully, with no apparent structural problems, thankfully.  I am now working with Owain to rehab the knee to finally resolve the instability, however I really need to work on myself to clear out the myofascial restrictions that will have formed both this time and in the build up to this crisis.

This particular knee issue has been happening for many, many years.  Over a decade ago my best friend got married, for the stag do we went paint-balling. All was going well until at the start of one game I was sprinting for cover, my left ankle gave way and I fell forwards.  Apparently, though I do not remember, it was a spectacular dive and roll into cover that my friends thought was really impressive; I didn't care as I was screaming in agony.  I had to be helped off game area and that was the end of my day paint-balling.  Unfortunately I was the driver, and it was a manual car.  I had to drive home in rush hour through London in a manual car using my injured foot on the clutch.  That night I put a compression bandage and elevated it, putting cold towels on it and that was really all the rehab I did at the time (this was a long time before I was a body worker).  Oh, and there's going to be an emotional element to it as it caused me a lot of grief at work because I took a week off work as I couldn't drive, but that's a different story.

So the reason I'm writing this is that the cause of a lot of my issues come from an ankle that was badly hurt over 10 years ago that I did nothing about.  This time it was the knee that has been hurting, and this has flared up periodically over the last 10 years.  I've usually popped pills and the pain goes after a couple of days, so that means it had gotten better or that is what I thought was the case.

This time I noticed something: I could feel the whole of the left side of my body tighten up.  Having seen a number of Chiropractors and Osteopaths over the years I am aware that I have a functionally short left leg, which means that my pelvis is twisted that causes low back pain, that then travels up into my neck, head and then my jaw and then to my sinus and the dreaded pain that that causes me.

This time I could feel that there had been a preceding tightness in my lower leg running up from the outer side of my ankle, the knee was then being pulled out of place because of that.  This then causes the hip to tighten, pulling inwards causing tension across the pelvic muscles, causing the Sacro-iliac joint to grumble.  The left side of my ribs then collapse down and a muscle in my back threatens to spasm.  I can then feel that the left shoulder is pulled out of place, which I ignore as it's always a bit sore but that's only because of my job, it then hits the base of the skull and over to my jaw, which causes the sinus to become incredibly painful.

So this time I'm going to do something about it.  I've already had a couple of very productive rehab sessions with Owain (thelondonchiro.com) who I'm lucky enough to work with at Clerkenwell Chiropractic and he has been putting me through my paces (and introducing me to the torture device that is a red bouncy hemisphere [pictured]) and I'm really glad to have been doing it.  Yoga has definitely helped, as it has all the way through, and the wonderful Bridget (bridgeyoga.co.uk) is really good at making sure I do not hurt myself.  I've been working on myself with some Myofascial stretches as well, but think I really need to find someone local to me to help out more.  In the meantime I've been having more massages, which are always very nice. In combination all of these approaches have been really helping me.

Time for resolutions

Happy New Year! I feel like 2014 is going to be a great year.

It's at this time of year when magazines are full of articles encouraging you to set yourself goals to get fit/ lose weight. I'm happy to help you achieve those goals by helping ease aches and strains in the muscles you are discovering you do actually possess, correcting your postural bad habits and supporting the changes you are making.

Personally I don't usually do much in the way of New Year's Resolutions: they don't last and then you feel guilty, and to be honest if you really wanted to do something why wait until the New Year to do it. However, I'm not against reviewing where I'm at and setting some goals that I can work towards during the year.  Last year I decided a goal was to make something in the kitchen (over and above lunches and dinners) and that has been quite successful (Spelt rolls, Jamaican Gingerbread, crumpets, cheese & blackpepper english muffins, and Christmas cake) even if not entirely healthy.  I had also decided that I should increase my cardio workout so all the walking I've been doing has been very good for this especially as I've increased the pace.

So this year's selection are (in no particular order):

1) Do more to look after myself by doing yoga more regularly, having regular massages.  I've already made a start on the yoga, and I've got my first massage booked in.
2) Celebrate the positive, and not the negative/foolish. With all the social media that I look at it is all too easy to fall into the laugh at the idiot type, I will try to be more positive.
3) Learn more techniques.  This really is a given as I have to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD), I just need to book them in.
4) Blog more. Already making a start on this one.  I think my aim will be one a month, but that might change.
5) Run more Reiki courses.  These are already happening: next Reiki Level 1 on 1st/2nd February 2014, and Reiki Level 2 at the end of March.

So these are my goals for the year.  What about you?

Reiki helped me stop smoking

Happy New Year! It is the time of year when people are making resolutions on how to loose weight/stop smoking/be healthier and from what I know about myself is that most fail before we even start as we don't really want to make the change.

I don't really do resolutions at New Year (why wait for a particular time of year to make a change?) and would rather make small changes whenever I feel I will succeed. I used to be a smoker and for many years family and friends told me to give up. I was aware of the poisonous effect, but I was not ready to give up. Each time someone told me what to do, I became more stubborn about "giving up when I want to".

Finally one Christmas I was really sick and very nearly went the whole day without a cigarette. When having the one cigarette I had that day I suddenly realised I really hated it. It was now the right time for me to quit. Unfortunately, I'd just bought a couple of weeks' worth of cigarettes and I do not like to waste things, so I decided to smoke these last packs but at a severely reduced rate, weeks later came the last one and then I was done.

During the time I was cutting back I was developing my Reiki life (reading books on it and incorporating it into my work as a massage therapist) and I came across the Reiki technique to change negative habits. Smoking was a negative habit and I was going to stop so I decided to use Reiki to help make it a smooth cessation.

The day I stopped happened to be my Mother's birthday so I told her what I was doing (to her delight) and spent an hour giving myself Reiki and then the specific approaches to help change habits. I kept this combination up for 21 days, always a good number and it is frequently said it takes 3 weeks to allow good habits to take hold.

How did I find giving up? It was the easiest cessation I've done (this was my third attempt at stopping smoking) and the key? My Reiki self healing practice, and giving myself a short burst of Reiki whenever I had a craving. Using Reiki as the way to address the craving meant that I didn't replace one emotional crutch with another (such as chocolate). So no further habits to break. I will say that I, like many former smokers, still have cravings (3 years later) but I have a wonderful way to counter this.

It doesn't just work on smoking, it was recently reported that Christina Aguilera used Reiki to support her through her weight loss regime, saying “Reiki puts her mind in a good place and gives her the discipline to eat healthy and maintain weight loss.”

To me that is the beauty of Reiki, the healing energy can be used to support you in the positive changes you want to make. It is also easier to support yourself by learning Reiki so you can help yourself to do this.

If you want to experience Reiki for yourself book in for a treatment or even decide to learn for yourself or if you have questions then get in touch.

Please note, this is my personal story and it does require will power to make these changes.  Reiki, in my mind made this easier.