I first learned about fascia from either my first rental of Anatomy Trains from the University of Montana library in 2001, or my first introduction of Ida Rolf that same year, or my dear friend Dawn (who is a biodynamic craniosacral therapist and my somatic research partner). I am glad I met the fascial matrix in my body before I met all of the anatomy parts I would study so intensely in the years to come. I never lost sight of the interconnected web that we are, even when I added the titles personal trainer, corrective exercise and performance enhancement specialist.

I recall always being intrigued by systems and complex thought experiments. Living and unseen systems and the relationships in the systems to be specific (to this day I can barely understand the mechanical function of my own car). I was 17 when I remembered, “everything is in relationship to everything else and the wisdom lies in the relating”. That first major injury in my 20’s I eventually came to know as sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

The injury coincided with 15 years of dance training and my first pregnancy. My philosophical and spiritual connection with systems spilled over to my desire to find a way out of pain and immobility. Since then I have been designing bodymind movement systems. The first gift received (and it is a gift that keeps on giving) was Somatic Groundwork, who has been my companion my entire adulthood. The journey has also led to the creation of a creative framework and professional program called Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics.

fascia in movement

Back to fascia. My knowledge about fascia got a huge update when I joined Embodied Biotensegrity in 2018. Chris Clancy, career yoga teacher and teacher trainer, designed the Embodied Biotensegrity platform to bring the most prominent educators of fascia science and biotensegrity together with avid learners from the movement education and body therapy fields. The timing was perfect for me as I had just started the somakinese platform which attracted an international circle of movement teachers and therapists. Together, for more than 2 years, we addressed the discrepancies between classical anatomy and biomechanics with biotensegrity and the current fascial research. Alongside our deep discourse and community embodied practice, we realized the wisdom in our somatic inquiry is largely generated through our fascial system. Presence – process – participation.

While writing this blog post, I remembered writing a list in my iphone notes after listening to a podcast earlier this year. In the podcast the guest was asked, “what is fascia?” I recall feeling their answer was incomplete and lacked dimensionality. I eagerly took to my phone and tapped out this list to answer the question what is fascia:

• our sensory fabric giving us the gift of feeling felt
• our structural container expressing all that we have ever been and are in the moment
• the thing that connects every cell in our body to every other cell
• the thing that separates every part of our body from every other part allowing for differentiation + * spacialization between structures and systems (*thank you Joanne Avison)
• a living field that consciousness arises from
• a tuning system that listens, adapts and responds to vibration from light, sound, touch, electricity, wind and gravity
• a living architecture that deforms and reforms to maintain our tensional integrity as a body

At this point you might be wondering, “if fascia is everywhere in my body as a ubiquitous, continuous tissue then how is fascia in movement particularized?” I am sure there are many answers fascial therapists and movement teachers might offer. My answer: through a process of somatic inquiry and creative movement. Sensing practices bring our attention immediately to our fascial system and shifts the quality of sensory feedback sent to our brain. As our richest sensory organ, our fascial matrix is the way we feel ourselves in relationship . . . to everything.

somatic groundwork practice

Somatic Groundwork is a gentle movement and creative dance practice for deep recovery, improved coordination and embodied pleasure. Somatic Groundwork builds sensing skills from the ground up and the inside out with yielding and unwinding practices as the base. There are many flavors to Somatic Groundwork because the practice is more about how we approach practice rather than what we practice. Here is a video I just recorded that introduces an approach to unwinding by starting with a low lunge. The practice offers a tracking recipe for sensing fascia in movement that you can apply to any posture or form. I call this flavor of unwinding slow flow (see this post for an example of rock and roll Somatic Groundwork unwinding).

fascia as soft matter

There are several properties of fascia that come to mind that help us appreciate why unwinding practices are so vital to our health and felt-sense of movement liberation. In this post I am called to name the property of fascia as soft matter. Most of us have been taught our body functions like a human-made machine. Classical biomechanics applies the rules of machines to describe how our body functions (see this short lecture by Dr. Stephen Levin, founder of biotensegrity). Classical anatomy reduces our body to parts and then adds these parts back together again without adequately weaving relationship back into the picture (listen to this podcast with Joanne Avison on the Liberated Body).

Our bodies are living processes. We are not compression structures or fixed shapes. We are soft matter organisms that are in-formed, constantly re-shaping by the patterns that move through us. Soft matter is easily deformed (undergoes phase changes) by thermal fluctuations and mechanical stress. Consider trying to get ketchup out of a bottle. Even when the bottle is upside down, the ketchup isn’t sure whether to pour out or stay put. Give a hard thump on the base of the bottle (mechanical stress) and it will move more easily. Or if the ketchup is warmed from the refrigerator by sitting on the counter for 30 minutes (thermal fluctuation) the ketchup will pour more readily.

Fascia as soft matter is very sensitive to changes in tension-compression forces and will respond differently if the force is quick and direct or soft and sustained. A soft and sustained quality is met with a receptive response from our body and feels like the melting of tissue under hands or ease in our movement (flow state of fascia). A somatic approach is necessary for a therapeutic intervention as it lowers sympathetic tone and creates a felt-sense of embodied safety and support.

Self-myofascial unwinding through movement and soft-touch manual therapies are good choices for altering fascial fluid dynamics (slow intentional conversation with the body and warming of the tissues through movement or touch). For years my clients and students have expressed the benefits of Somatic Groundwork. They mention things like the reduction and elimination of chronic pain and emotional dis-stress, increase in mental clarity and vitality, and feelings of spaciousness and easy graceful movement.

Our fascial matrix demonstrates behaviors of both liquids and solids (+ any mesophase in between) and self-organization toward stability and minimal energy states. Getting curious about sensing while moving and allowing for a creative dance to unfold in the process is like the tuning of our body instrument to a harmonic state. Sensing into the fascial system and participating with your body’s impulses for movement is a powerful addition to your self-care rituals. Unwinding practices can be done from any position or posture, with attention to any body area, in whatever space you like and for 5 – 20 minutes most days of the week.

The post Sensing Fascia in Movement appeared first on School for Somatic Groundwork.

In our culture and in these times, practices for deep recovery are priceless. Cumulative stress may come from working too much, carrying an excessive emotional load, societal oppressions, financial insecurity, confusion about the future and intergenerational trauma. Some things we have control over and other things are not in our control. To keep staying the path, we need to find our resource wells. These are practices or places that provide a felt-sense of spaciousness, safety and support. Even if for a few minutes or half a day, experiences of “okay” and “enough” remind us of our inherent resilience. Head spirals is a somatic movement practice for deep recovery through spinal unwinding.

systems sensing

Unwinding is a felt-sense term that is more experiential than anything. There is also a growing body of research that reveals how self-guided unwinding effects our neurobiology by eliciting both changes in our tissues and autonomic nervous system. Unwinding practices feel like your inner body is releasing excess tension and strain and giving back a softer, easier feeling and thinking state. Somatic Groundwork unwinding uses several different techniques that each involve systems sensing. One of these systems is the fascial matrix. Another primary system in Somatic Groundwork is that of connecting to ground and gravity and space, our primary system of support.

sensing into fascia

Sensing into fascia is a primary way to create shift in our autonomic nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system has a global effect on our emotional and mental states as well as to the quality of our tissues, or fascial system. An effective way to alter the tone of our nervous system, specifically to calm arousal (heightened activation) and elicit the rest and digest processes of our parasympathetic nervous system, is through sensing fascia. One Somatic Groundwork technique for unwinding is called rock and roll. Rock and roll is part of a yielding process that involves rhythmic rocking and soft body rolling in organic phrases of movement and rest.

Enter head spiral for spinal unwinding. Try this 13 minute practice with me from a bed or on the floor.

https://youtu.be/GVBjgZHkYPs

rock & roll spinal unwinding

With a focus to unwind your spine, a whole body experience unfolds. Somatic Groundwork unwinding is like self-massage therapy with movement. Due to a high density of sensory receptors embedded within the tissues of our fascial system, somatic movement is one of the best pain relievers that is “administered” to our self, by our self. The fascial matrix is a sensory fabric with over 200 million interoceptors and proprioceptors. Interoceptors monitor our inner body processes and proprioceptors monitor the relationship of our body organization with our environment.

Rock and roll techniques bring mindful attention to sensations like weight releasing, rolling points of contact, inner shape changes and push forces. As we track these sensations in movement, we directly participate with both interoceptive and proprioceptive input and alter the quality of information integrating in higher brain centers. What we monitor, we modify. Somatic movement and inquiry teaches sensing skills to help us move and feel better from the inside out.

If you are a movement teacher or therapist and want to weave somatic movement into your craft (through both the art and the science) take a look at our somatic teacher training: Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics.

 

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