"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...
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