Intense fascia release

Hi. I am wondering if anyone might be able to relate to the experience of very strong release of fascia through stretching. I am trying to make sense of what has been for me a revelatory, unsettling, relief providing, and creative process, which is still in progress.

In the course of this process covering some six or seven years I have come to understand my body completely differently. For one, I rediscovered the existence of one. A regular yoga practice focused on strength, stability, and mobility has been very important in this regard and ultimately the engine, in my experience, of transformation. If so, the role of cannabis has been akin to an oil. The effect of cannabis on my body is instantaneous (smoked leaf) and subtle, as small muscles or joint areas appears suddenly for my conscious appreciation and, over time, movement.

My pelvis, rib cage, and spine have developed relationships that I did not even appreciate as missing. Breath is coming back to my lungs, particularly the left side which now seems to have been flattened or choked, likewise my esophagus. Sometimes my voice sounds different in tone and timber.

My present unabashed view is that all the above has been majorly important to my health. My sense of good fortune is real, in contrast to my past habitual ideations (also relevant for me: traumatic childhood / PTSD, injury (chronic, acute, overuse), stress, depression, anxiety).

Along with the physical effect of cannabis is the inseparable one on the mind. Mine becomes very mobile, creative in relation to physical movement, and highly associative. Sometimes these factors combine and I am visiting with a memory I perhaps never recalled, deep in forward bend, and considering the cantilever of my foot which I subtly adjust. This comes with great emotional release. The mind can also tip into hyper drive - which I only knew in retrospect when the first signals of relief started to register. In fact, it seems like a lot of my life has been in a hyper state now.

The intense physical release sometimes creates a feeling of a phantom force in my body which travels from opposite sides and sometimes creates exaggerated errors of proprioception, as if my limb is projected somewhere distant from its actual location, or confusion of right and left sides. Chest opening swivels and neck un-twisting with cracking and popping noises have caused me mild fright.

My life has been shaped many ways by an early learned practice of disassociation, whose relationship to the above dynamics is sometime which causes me worry. I am scared that I am replicating some former practice in the service of my body. Sometimes this seems tinged with shame or regret about being me.

I started this post (my first ever) talking about my physical body and ended somewhere else. I should not be surprised, but somehow the thinking in which body and mind are linked eludes me, or so my ready assumptions constantly betray.

Also among my assumptions is that the above said is notable from any standpoint, other than the fact that I am lucky to find that yoga, stretching, and cannabis can be beneficial. At the same time, I have felt the echoes of the following injuries in the course of my stretching process: intense growing pains and plantar pain in particular in adolescence (I am tall, 6'5"); viral infection of some kind of meningitis (age 15 or 16); hit by lighting (age 17; untreated); lots of sports in youth and adolescence; ankle sprain in mid 20s, untreated; marathon running (mid 30s, early 40s). Also, proximate exposure of acts of violence. I am 46 years old. Sometime I wonder if I have something to share with interested individuals or teacher/ practicioners, at least in terms of validating an idea or intended treatment experience (?). Hopefully the impression I am making is not grandiosity in this regard, just gratitude and interest.

If anyone can relate or offer references, particularly as concerns experiences of intense fascial release - either self accounts, scientific description, psychological aspects, additional effects, etc -- I would be grateful. Thanks for reading.

in flexibilityby Valuable_Permit1612

96%

3.3y

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Environmental_Fox649

3mo

Thanks so much for validating this amazing unwinding. I went to acupuncture for what I 'knew' was carpal tunnel in my right wrist. Something happened after the very first visit, but I didn't quite know what was happening until last week when the guided movements started. I was trying to tell my brother I was 'going back in time' and of course he doesn't believe me.

So far I've unwound for about 60 hours in 7 days and I've relived lots of trauma from wrist and knee sprains to what I always thought were pinched nerves. I'm trying to figure out where I'm at in time, I may have rolled back 25 years (50m) so far!!!

Yes cannabis was involved. What a wonderful plant.

I had knee surgery when I was 22, so I should be reliving that soon...

Valuable_Permit1612

3mo

It sounds like unlocking a wrist has had a lot of effect and that the "time travel" aspect is getting your attention!

I found it interesting to notice to what degree was I being reminded of the injury, as restoration of nerve connections and blood flow proceeded (this to me suggests the long-term nature of impacts on the body); and to what degree was I being reminded of being injured and/or injury writ large, of less determinate origin (is it the loneliness of pain, or the way that pain is isolating, that contributes here?) . As both occur, I wonder how or where physical bruising and emotional hurt overlap or are nearby in the processes of the nervous system.

Thanks for sharing your experience and contributing here to the validation which I sometimes am seeking, too.

Good luck!