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Fibromyalgia and Rolfing

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Bassin d'Arcachon France : 5Image by mechkad via Flickr

Releasing Stress Heals Fibromyalgia

Do you have ongoing, non-specific pain? Is this pain worse when you’re tired or stressed? If you answered yes, you may be suffering from Fibromyalgia.

If you google stress and Fibromyalgia, you’ll see that Fibromyalgia is a hot topic. For my Stressed Out blog, I wrote a post explaining Fibromyalgia and its relationship to stress. It’s the most-read post on that blog.

For years, I have told my clients that, as a culture, we live on the Fibromyalgia continuum. Virtually everyone has some of the symptoms. But the subclinical symptoms may only show up sporadically, when you’ve pushed yourself for several days. [Read more…]

Back Pain, Part 2 Using Rolfing to Turn Around Back Pain

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There’s an 80% chance you will see your doc about back pain during your life. In the last article, you learned the distinction between acute and chronic back pain, and how to not cause either. And you learned that breathing is the key to preventing and healing back tension. This article will explore, in greater depths, what is behind chronic back pain and what you can do about it.

As a Rolfer, I tend to treat people after they tried everything else. This in not because other treatments are ineffective – it’s because the tension that is causing the persistent problem is old. After many years of repeated back problems, the entire body gets tighter and more distorted. The original problem might have been from a childhood injury. Over the years, the body has more stress, more injuries and more patterns of compensation that all add to increased tension. At some point, the body exhausts its ability to counteract the original strain pattern. Now you are worse off – you have the original tension plus years of coping with it.

The Often-Overlooked Source of Back Pain

We all know we get shorter as we age. But it’s not our bones shortening—it’s the soft tissue shortening and screwing down. Here is a quick test to evaluate what your low back is up against:

Stand up, and place your fingers on your pelvis.

Push in a little until you feel that lower twelve rib.

Optimally, you should have the space of three finger widths between your pelvis and your lower rib.

Rarely do I find that much space. Two finger widths is great, one is adequate. When you are at no space or having your ribs inside your pelvis, you have a problem.

This is where we lose most of our height. Our discs are like jelly donuts being space fillers between the vertebras allowing the spine to move. They become pancakes from this compression. When the discs compress and the tissue around them tighten, they dehydrate from lack of circulation and movement. This sets up the bulging or ruptured disc that may require surgery. This chronic tension and shortness just makes you more vulnerable to back injury and pain.

Strengthening your back will often give your short-term gain; you’ll have increased movement, and you may develop a new pattern of compensation. Over time, the soft tissue just gets tighter.

We need to go in the other direction. We need to release and lengthen the tissue. Unfortunately at this point, stretching does not work for most people. Stretching these muscles is like stretching a steel cable. We need to make the soft tissue soft again.

What Is Possible

If the body created soft tissue strain, it can usually un-create it. When the correct amount of pressure is applied to the right area, the tissue begins to release. Over time, hydration, subtleness and movement returns. The body begins to unwind as it lengthens out. The space in between the pelvis and the ribs returns.

Once the body attains a level of order and relaxation, the change becomes sustainable. All our bodies prefer pleasure to pain. When we are so used to pain, it can take a while for our bodies to trust that our backs can be as they were when we were younger.

Part of returning this vibrancy to our tissue comes from changing simple behaviors. The first is learning not to protect your back. The natural behavior of holding to avoid or reduce your back pain over time only makes your back tighter. I have seen people where their pain is long gone, the back is loose, but the person still protects out of habit. Noticing how subtlety we hold is huge. A lot of little holding all the time adds up to be significant. A lot of subtle letting go adds up also.

Rolfing is certainly not the only means to releasing chronic tension; it just may be quickest, though. Teaching the entire body to deeply and consistently relax can do a lot. As mentioned in the previous article, learning to breath and dealing with stress can significantly improve chronic pain.

Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 12

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Preventing a healing crisis

Anticipate that your body/mind will detox. Create a network of support using what I mentioned earlier. Be proactive with your communications and your detoxing; don’t wait until you are in a position where you have to do it.

Also, investigate detoxing programs. There are many of these programs available. They may include cleansing herbs, bulking and cleansing agents for the colon, and a whole protocol of how to use them. Using a complete program or working with a holistic health professional to supervise the program can make a difference in your overall health and the effect Rolfing has on your body.

Develop your own ways to release your emotions. It may mean finding a good therapist or a good group that focuses on emotional maturity. One network I have used and recommend is the ManKind Project (MKP). The MKP is an international, non-profit men’s training organization which has a network of local groups.

Others will tell you keeping your body alkaline can prevent illness. Junk food and stress make your body acidic, which allows infections and disease to fester. Again, rest and sleep are in order. You can be doing all the right things, but if you are not resting, you can’t rejuvenate.

Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 11

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Social and emotional support

Social support can be a key to reducing healing crises. Finding people or a group that understands what it is to travel the healing journey may take some work. Many “support groups” focus on an illness. These groups aren’t focused on the process of getting well. I have seen instances when a person in one of these groups who is really committed to getting well becomes ostracized.

Realize that getting well and addressing old issues is, unfortunately, not the norm. That said, there are people and groups that have gone through what you have gone through. One aspect of this site is the forum section that is meant to be a virtual support group. You may have to start your own group. I did.

It bears mentioning that you may go through a period where you feel reclusive. That is normal – allow it. You may also find that you are drifting away from some of your friends. This social healing crisis is a strange one. It like discovering what was once your favorite food is no longer your favorite food. You may find yourself less tolerant of some of your friends’ behaviors.  It is uncomfortable. I can say  however, from my personal and professional experience that in the long run you will have relationships that are even more enjoyable.

Here are some suggestions on where to start your communication with your friends and family to get the energy moving:

  • speak about what you are going through, as best as your can tell the person your experience and listen to them respond
  • communicate your feelings and needs
  • set your boundaries, tell others what is not okay for you. This can be the most difficult thing to do
  • share with them your commitment to being well
  • share with them this post on the process
  • share with them that they may be at the effect of old emotions coming out
    • I call this co-lateral damage – often old anger that was not okay to express as a child will be directed towards your spouse
    • warn them – it is not about them
    • you are releasing old emotions and learning that it is okay to do so
    • the fact they are the target represents your trust in them.  That may not be a significant consolation, but it’s true
    • I have always seen this work out for the best

Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 10

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Support through expressing emotions

I discovered if you could take what was emotional stress stored in the body and convert it back to expressed emotions, healing crises could be avoided or reduced in intensity. To facilitate this I have recommended to clients that they go out and rent a set of movies that represent the five basic emotions: fear, anger, sadness, worry and pretense (false happiness). I have added sexual passion to the list if I believed that was some stored sexual energy. The goal here is to prime your emotional expression.

We are meant to give with our emotions and hold with our bodies, as Swift Deer, a Native American elder/shaman would say. When we can begin to give with our emotions our bodies no longer have to do what they were not designed to do, and we begin to relax.

You can also catalyze the giving of your emotions to avoid a healing crisis by calling an old friend or lover and getting honest with them. If it means making amends, do it – you will feel great afterwards. Or, it maybe it could involve telling this person how much he or she means to you.

For others, going into a reflective space can help. Praying, mediating or doing a ceremony may help move you through a healing crisis. In the midst of the chaos of the crisis, you may find a calm you never experienced. The eye of the storm can bring fabulous insights.

Reducing how you tax your body, and particularly your detoxing systems, will lessen the crisis. Don’t give your body more than it can handle; support it with rest and good food. I have also suggested to clients that they back off on their Rolfing if they are in a healing crisis. That would also hold true for other catalyzing therapies.

It can be helpful to receive therapies that support the body’s elimination and rest – for some it may be colon therapy, for others a massage or an acupuncture treatment.

You can research blood cleansing herbs that assist the body in minimizing the effects of detoxing. Enzymes, principally systemic (proteolytic) enzymes can help break up what the body is attempting to rid itself of. Fasting or eating a raw food diet might assist. My warning here is if you are run down, weak, or thin a fast might not be right for you. If you are considering fasting, please do some research on how to do it right.

There are activities that can support your body in detoxing in a more graceful way. Saunas and steam baths, particularly if you brush your skin, can help your skin to detox. Soaking in an Epson salt bath can help. Lying in the sun can be rejuvenating. Yes, I know that the sun has a bad rap, but that is changing. There is more research out that is saying the sun in moderation is much better for us than once believed.

Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 9

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Support

Now that you understand the concept of the healing crisis, you can know what is occurring and can be familiar with the symptoms. Lets discuss what you can do to support yourself through the process.

Creating the new frame for your reactions, and how this can generate a healing crisis in itself, can be significant. When I take a few minutes to outline what a healing crisis actually is, the client then starts to relax and often gets excited about getting well. It is like some part of them knew that a good thing was happening, but there was no one supporting that belief in their world.

My first suggestion is always to allow – to surrender to the process. This does not mean suffering – it means attempting to accept that your body/mind is healing itself. We live in a society that doesn’t encourage us to slow down. Allowing our body and its health to be the priority can be the most difficult aspect of a healing crisis.

Frequently, my clients come to realize their biggest reason for developing the symptoms that brought themselves to me was how they were tense from always being on the go. Their healing crisis can be their bodies’ attempt to rest their internal gyro.

For us Type-A’s, slowing down or resting is sacrilege. I have struggled with “walking my talk” of slowing down. My head can come up with all the reasons why I need to do something as I continue to deny my body’s voice. For those who are athletes this can mean not training. I know athletes have many reasons why they must train – I have heard them all. I have also seen hundreds of clients come back and tell me that slowing down their workouts or suspending them for a period of time was the best thing they did. I had a few men come back to me after a month of not lifting to tell me they weren’t weaker – they were stronger. With a confused look on their face, they asked how that was possible. It is possible because Rolfing made their structure stronger, their muscles had more circulation and they were more relaxed.

You may prevent a healing crisis if you immediately slow down, rest and support your body. This may mean canceling a few activities, going to bed early, not having those three beers and generally vegging-out.

Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 8

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Emotions

When clients tell me what the biggest benefits to being Rolfed were, they usually say that it’s not that  the symptoms that brought them in are long gone, but that their emotional/stress state is much better. I was naïve as to how much stress impacted my body and its tension level, and how much my unexpressed emotions caused that tension until months after I completed my Rolfing.

A trick to avoiding or lessening healing crises is to express those emotions you haven’t felt or thought you couldn’t express.

This connection between our emotions and our bodies isn’t as “out there” as it was 30 years ago. We are beginning to understand this connection. Rolfing was a crash course in embodying this understanding. Simply put, when we had emotions that we could not express as a child – getting mad at our parents is a common one – we turned that emotion into physical tension. The father of stress research, Hans Selye, M.D in his book The Stress of Life, calls fascia the “organ of stress.” It is where stress goes. It is the primary organ of the body for holding our emotions. The facial network engulfs all muscles and organs of our body – it is every where just as our stress is.

As the fascial system releases, so do the old stored emotions. It is as if someone de-encrypted a hard disc that stored old data. Stored emotions held in the body still need to express what they were unable to completed or express when their trigger first occurred. For example, as kids we could not tell our parents we were mad at them. I have heard from clients how they went through a period where they were irritated or angry at things they had not been angry at before being Rolfed.

The emotional healing crises can be the most perplexing aspect of Rolfing for clients, particularly for us men. People using control as a survival strategy can initially feel a little challenged by having their emotions take over. For some, it can get intense as they travel through what Joseph Campbell called the “Hero’s Journey.” For these fortunate clients, I say this sincerely, since it will prove to be a huge gift to those who experience this journey. It will be unlike anything they have ever experienced. At some point in this journey, you will encounter “The Dark Night of the Soul.” You will feel you are stepping off an edge into the abyss. The void that you are stepping into is the completion of parts of your life, the places you have avoided – consciously or unconsciously.

This step into the void is a leap of faith. I know it may feel as though you are being pushed. Yet, you can step back into the life you have. It will take a conscious decision to allow the process to take you over the edge. I know that it feels like you will die. Carl Jung, MD would claim that your ego was dying or its dominant  control of you was dying. It does not want to lose control – it will fight.

For the chosen few who experience this journey, it will change your life forever. You will never be the same. Rolfing is by no means the only way to catalyze this transformation. I have seen other therapies do this along with spiritual ceremonies, and life crises break open this process.

A special note: no matter how great you may feel after traveling through a healing crisis, allow for some time to integrate the changes into your life. Do not make any important decisions until you are rested.

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