Healing Step 1: Connection
Welcome to MFR: A New Perspective on Healing. This podcast is all about physical and emotional healing with myofascial release.
My name is Liana, I’m an expert level MFR therapist. I specialize in pain relief and all things related to authentic healing of physical and emotional injuries and trauma. I help clients from all over the country and abroad via private Telehealth MFR treatments. You can find out more about working with me and healing with myofascial release at bodyfirstmfr.com.
Today’s episode is entitled Healing Step One: Connection. This is the most important and the most commonly missed first step in healing but without connection none of your healing efforts will pay off. Don’t let this happen to you, take the time to learn to connect first and you will be well on your way to healing.
The first step in healing anything at all, physical or emotional, is connection. Everyone wants to skip this step because it’s tough. It is an internal piece so no heavy lifting required but it does mean daring to feel your body and that will make you feel your feelings which sends most people running for the hills (or the pills in this case). But skip connection and any healing you do will be short lived and symptoms will come back either feeling the same as the symptoms you had before or pop up in a new but related way (even if you don’t realize it’s related). Just like a dandelion, pull off the head or pull it by the stem and eventually another dandelion will appear either right there or nearby because the roots were left undealt with.
The same goes for our physical or emotional pains, if we don’t get to the root cause of the issue and heal it, the problem will return (either in exactly the same way or causing a similar but related symptom). If we don’t take the time for this first and most important step of connection we will miss the true nature of how healing and fascia work. Fascia connects everything in your entire body soup to nuts. Everything inside you, bones, organs, tissues, emotions, memories, thoughts, moods, are all connected by and under the influence of your fascia. Ignore it and you won’t be able to rid yourself of pains, problems, depression, anxiety, etc. Respect it and care for your fascia properly and a whole world of healing and changing for the better opens to you.
Now by connection I mean, connecting to your body, or I often call this”getting in your body”. Now this may sound too “out there” for some people but trust me it is not a “woo-woo” thing. Most people live completely disassociated from their bodies, or completely disconnected. It happens when we have surgery, when we have injuries, when we go into shock after an accident, or when we have emotional or physical trauma, we disconnect or disassociate in order to survive the ordeal. It is not at all a sign of weakness, disassociation is a completely natural survival mechanism in all mammals and every single one of us uses it. But then we are meant to come back and reconnect fully to our bodies after the stressful situation is over. But most often we don’t reconnect (without really working at it and addressing our fascia) and end up living kind of out-to-lunch and completely disconnected from our instincts and inner wisdom.
Your smart phone can’t make up for this loss of inner connection. We’re all meant to have an inner ability to google for answers for many of life’s questions about day to day decisions on what to do, how to live and making the right choices for you. The internet can’t tell you what is right for you, only your inner wisdom can tell you that. Without the ability to reconnect after a stressful or traumatic situation you won’t be able to hear the answers to all of life’s questions from within you and you will be more susceptible to being persuaded by marketing or by what others want you to do instead of what you feel is right for you. Most people will walk around quite disconnected for most of their lives.
As we go through multiple trauma, injuries, surgeries, or live in abusive situations or abusive relationships we disconnect more and more until we have completely lost connection to our instincts which live inside our bodies. We have to be connected to our bodies, we have to bring our energy back inside us in order to feel our instincts and have access to that inner wisdom that helps to keep us safe and healthy, or helps us heal if we are ill or in pain or suffering emotionally. We all have that inner guidance of our instincts within us but if you can’t hear yours anymore you need to do something about it if you hope to heal anything or live your best life. You’ll need help and training from a fascia expert like a well qualified myofascial release therapist.
When you go in for MFR treatment with a therapist the biggest thing we do for you that we never even talk about is we connect you to your body. That is the biggest reason why you feel better after treatment, you’re connected to your body. And that inner connection turns off the alarm bells of fight or flight that are always ringing inside you when you are disconnected whether you realize it or not. So you leave treatment and you're all relaxed and calm and you float out on a cloud but then you go back to your regular life and before you know it, typically in a few hours to a few days you’ve disconnected again. This is because you didn’t learn how to connect by yourself, an MFR therapist did it for you. In my opinion this is a waste and a shame, we all need to learn to connect to our bodies for healing on our own so that we can reconnect anytime we need to.
Yes, it can be great to have hands on help healing at times but we can’t just leave it to the job of the therapist to do all your connecting and all your healing for you. That’s codependent and a terrible idea because one day that therapist will not be able to treat you when you need treatment and then you’re just out of luck if you never learned to do any connecting or healing for yourself. You’re the only one who can always be there anytime you need help. It is a personal responsibility to know how to care for ourselves and our bodies properly. That is my favorite thing about virtual MFR treatment, it empowers you with the skills to heal yourself so that you can use them anytime you need to.
Healing isn’t a once a week or a once a month thing, if you want to make real progress or change in your life healing is a daily activity just like if you want good oral health you have to brush and floss every day not once a week or month! Same goes for physical or emotional healing, it’s a way of life, something you want to put a little time and energy into everyday to reverse or prevent issues and symptoms. It gets fun and it’s very addictive so get ready to create some new healthy habits and achieve your health and wellness goals. It all starts with connection!
There are many techniques to help you connect to your body for healing and reconnect to your instincts. Working with a qualified MFR therapist to find the right techniques for you is really important if healing/personal growth is going to be a part of your life.
To work with me on your healing visit me at bodyfirstmfr.com. Empower yourself with the skills to heal and care for your body right and free yourself from relying on anyone else to heal you.
Thank you for joining me today my friends and as always, happy healing!