What Makes a New Years Resolution Fail?
What Makes a New Years Resolution Fail? As the New Year is approaching and everyone begins to make their resolutions, lets think about making them today. Why wait? Isn’t any day just as good of a start as another? Why not begin now? Personally I do like to start something new on a Monday never a Friday. Why not sure, but what I do know is that I like to challenge myself to set new goals, dreams or aspirations anytime but certainly never on New Year’s Eve. I have always been one to not color inside of the lines in certain regards and this is one of them. Too much hype in what we are expected to do I suppose. This is a main aspect of Myofascial Release as well. There are no rules except never force, never lead. Setting a resolution on New Years’ eve seems forced to me and I was never able to maintain whatever resolution I had set for myself. This of course would lead to a path of self-disappointment and a sense of failure and definitely form restrictions with in myself and reinforce a dysfunctional belief systems. The main theme is to feel that there is something that no longer serves us, you, me and to make a resolution with one’s self to release it and make room, make space for something new.
I know that as I am so blessed to be an active member of a new way of life both personally and professionally through Myofascial Release. Myofascial Release (MFR) has benefited my life in more than just physical ways but in an entire approach to how I deal with life in general. So I made my first “resolution” last month to resume faithfully participation in not only self-treating but with a physical wellness program. Myofascial Release is not only an inward journey but external as well. The container that carries the core of who I am internally, needs to be physically able to carry such precious cargo, my heart and soul, my essence, my fascial system! I also have realized that the physical exercise that I place upon myself needs to come from wanting to FEEL better and NOT to look better! Hard truth is that I spent years upon years, hours upon countless hours of placing my body and fascia into harms way all in an effort to look at certain way. A way that was a belief system that reinforce aesthetics at any cost and not what was actually good for my body and all its systems. This type of belief system that was not in my best interest nor our childrens but we see time and time again repeat itself. So I am reinforcing a better way, a new belief system to me, for me, for my health and one that suites my fascia the best.
I would wish that maybe everyone make any time, any day, a day of new revelations and resolutions. If Tuesdays are your favorite days of the week then let it begin on Tuesday. If half way on your way to your resolution you realize that its not right, then modify it,change it. That is the beauty of not only the statement but another facet of the Myofascial Release principles. Make the resolution more fitting to becoming a way of life verses an absolute black or white, succeed or fail, right or wrong. Just like healing is not linear but is progressive, so are resolutions. Resolutions should be progressive and because we are not human and not perfect but are all daring to be great, they don’t have to be anything other than supportive verses restrictive and cause further harm to the fascial system of your life.
With love and hope much success and peace now and through all the New Years to come!
Heather Bryan, PTA, LMT
Myofascial Release and Wellness of Tampa Bay
Dr. Gerald Pollack, an expert in fluid dynamics, has discovered a fourth phase of water that is liquid crystalline in nature. Dr. Pollack’s work confirms that this fourth phase of water resides in the human being and is most likely found in the fascial system. Dr. Pollack supports the importance of treating the fluid aspect of the fascial system with hands-on pressure.
After 30 years of research, one of Germany’s leading scientists, Dr. Alfred Pischinger, reports that the fascial system is the environment of every cell of the human body. Of the trillions of cells in a human body, only the fascial system is capable of communicating with all of them. And it communicates at speeds millions of times faster than a human nerve cell. Not to mention all nerve cells are surrounded by fascia!
Myofascial Release is the Broad term but that is similar to lets say “automobile”. Sure we all know and have heard of automobiles but what type of automobile do you drive or prefer to drive. This is the same for Myofascial Release. The preferred method that stands out above the rest is the John Barnes Approach to Myofascial Release. It is the definitive method and provides not only lasting results but the approach is gentle and safe, never forcing, never injuring, never causing harm. One does not learn this method by reading a book or being shown by someone other than John or one of his approved instructors. As John Barnes trained therapist we are taught to find the pain and also look elsewhere for the cause and treat that as well. We treat the whole person and assist them to heal into wholeness. Often and many times a Barnes trained therapist repeats their training as to refine their skills, and keep up to date on the latest finding as well as watch the Barnes method of Myofascial Release truly become an “alternative no more”
The Barnes approach to Myofascial Release is not only the Golden Standard in (MFR) but it is the Golden Missing Piece in all of traditional approaches to healthcare. Fascia is a continuous web that responds to tensions in other areas of the body. It can be difficult to visualize the impact and importance of this beautiful tissue. An easier c
comparison is a bowl of jello with pieces of fruit floating in it. Each piece of fruit within the bowl of jello represents all the various muscles, bones and organs, while the jello represents fascia. Visualize the jello being jiggled or compressed which causes the whole bowl of jello to move and be affected as well. This is just how fascia responds and because of this very fact, we as Barnes trained Myofascial Release Therapist are treating and assisting the entire system to heal. One simply cannot treat only one aspect of the body, one piece without affecting the whole system, the whole person. You are more than parts, you are so much more and deserve to be treated as a whole person, body, mind and spirit.
treats the whole person, not just the parts, not just the symptoms. Traditional healthcare identifies with parts, with pieces, with symptoms and then places “Labels” upon them and then society wants to define you, me, us accordingly. We are more than a label! By definition, a “label” aka a “diagnosis” is a term for a collection of symptoms. Many times symptoms like pain, weakness, fatigue etc are the commonality between the various “Labels”. The label is then determined by the number or type of symptoms that you present with. I don’t know but in my most humble opinion the only label that I have is either my name, my gender and my species. I am not my neck pain, my shoulder pain, my whatever “fill in the blank”. Fascia is unique just like our finger prints. We all have finger prints and there are no two finger prints alike and so is the resulting restriction that occurs when the Fascia becomes injured or in a state of dis-ease and this is where symptoms begin to manifest. We both can have shoulder pain but the cause can arise from two totally different reasons or areas within the body that have responded to an event causing distortion. Please note this is not by any means to disregards any systemic illnesses or disease processes. This is an attempt to bring back a whole person approach to treating each of us. I want us all to broaden the views of our selves and our symptoms to a more global view, a whole system vantage point. It is when we begin to see the bigger picture of ourselves and what is going on within our bodies and begin to trust what we feel on the inside verses what the label describes us as.
I would like to examine the various symptoms that are often felt in the various parts of the body but lets first examine the word Disease. Disease is a given name or label for a collection of symptoms. Many times we have to have a certain number of symptoms in order to qualify to earn the label of a given illness or disease. Did you know that most all diseases or “Label” have the same or very similar symptoms? Each disease, ilness or “Label” then has as a specific variant or two that might distinguish it from the others. As technology advances and the minds and views of the medical community broaden, Fascia and the manner in which the body is treated is the Barnes Approach to Myofascial Release is being accept solution to treatment and is “
Below is just a small comparison of some known symptoms associated with some of the more common Labels, Diseases. In addition, I am not stating that you should not seek out medical advice and intervention, I am just attempting to show how treating the whole person and not just a particular symptoms is going to provide some lasting relief for the whole you. Myofascial release if nothing else provides the body a way to release stresses and strains and bring an ease to the body, mind and spirit. I have looked at the symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, loss of function, joint aches, muscle aches, swelling, fatigue, memory/brain difficulties, bladder and bowel difficulties, stomach difficulties, vertigo, visual difficulties, sleeping difficulties, respiratory difficulties, cardiac issues, emotional changes, and difficulty with movement. Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Polymyalgia, MS, and Lyme all have all if not most of the same symptomologies of each other. Myofascial Release looks beyond the label or the symptom, we look at how you and your body mind and spirit are moving and feeling and by using the techniques taught to us by my mentor and friend, John Barnes, many symptoms melt away or are certainly diminished in severity. Many times I can have any number of the symptoms above but I am without a disease, illness or label, I am simply a grateful therapist assisting others in gently finding and releasing their symptomatic fascial restrictions away.