Trust. What it is to let go and surrender, to open and unfurl. When the body feels trust and safety, it is at home, at rest, in ease and there is a sense of oneness and peace. To feel the center of yourself, what’s real and authentic and move from this source.

With our bodies we develop sensing and moving in a spacious virtually weightless womb space. We uncoil in a central spiral from the umbilicus. From the inside out. Like a fiddle head fern shoots and opens from this spiraled small to bigger circle. We unfold, and fold. Like plants that come together in the coolness of night we nestle into our bud. Closing and gaining strength from this contraction.

And when we are ready, we unfold, from the center outward, we feel the warmth of the sun, we seek the spaciousness of knowing each petal in its own design, and we expand. Opening to our greatest lengths, energized by the contraction to branch and leaf, to blossom into bloom.

In a rhythmic fashion with breath as the navigational guide, we extend on this inspiration, our winds expanding we inhale, as we exhale we float, giving weight to our waters on the expire, exhaling as we sail on our connective tissues, our fascial layers. As we glide, on the life giving oxygen gathered by our lungs, we ride a systemic movement in this body that regulates and enhances our neural plasticity.

By simply following the movement that your breath creates in your body, and breathing more fully into each area of the body that comes to your attention, you can deepen the relationship you have with your body. You can notice the details of your unique human experience, and find peace as you rest even deeper into the awareness that notices. Trust is created when we hold space for ourselves in honest reflection, noticing our sensations, mental activity and feelings from a place of neutrality. This brings about a calm, grounded centered perspective that can help us reside and abide in ease and peace, in the body, mind and spirit.

As you grew up, you’ve had moments when you may have trusted a situation and got hurt, you may have stumbled and fallen, maybe you lost your balance, it was dark and you tripped, you didn’t look down to see the rock, your brakes locked up on your bike and you crashed. From the time you were young taking your first crawl, standing and walking you were experimenting with what is inside of you, and what’s outside. As you developed through even just walking you had trial and error, you had to fall to learn how to get back up. And in this process you learned how to learn with your body. You developed a knowing of what the ground is because you fell with your spongy, porous little body. When you’re little your body was like rubber, you could fall and get right back up, you could feel it, and you bounced back a lot easier, thankfully.

Your body learned as you grew and over time you became an expert at walking, it became automatic. You also stopped falling as much. You learned to navigate, with your body. Everything you do is because you have the ability to do so because of this vessel, this vehicle, this body. You can honor it like a temple, tending to its needs and taking time for care and nurturing or you can get distracted in thoughts, and what’s outside of yourself, not realizing fully... you are your body. That’s ok. Anytime is a good time to start. Usually the best time is now, while you're thinking about it.

When I first got told to breathe into a part of my body, my mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around the concept. I felt like it was a foreign place, how was it even possible to breathe all the way down into the toes. Are these people just lost in imagination land? I was maybe 17 when I remember having full volition of my body and when I tried to connect and communicate with my parts, I was getting an access denied sign. “I don’t know how to do it,” I was getting frustrated.

What if you already knew how to do it? What if you didn’t think about it and just did? What if you let your imagination free in your body? And, I did.

I read a study about a group of randomly selected children who were brought into a study group and almost all the kids tested at genius levels, and then they got stuck behind desks, and sat down for 7-10 hours a day doing homework after school hours. And the kids became average over their school years. Do you remember how long minutes were back when you were 5, and just how long school felt when you had to sit at your desk.

Back when we were geniuses, we were imagining worlds. We were children with playful energy, creative and alive. Do you still feel alive and vital? Athletes visualize racing the race to inform their muscles to have built in muscle memory of imagining the race. This is still possible and we have built up so many constructs of how things should be (societally and culturally, we internalize our anxiety.) It may be hard to imagine awakening your imagination, it may no longer be thriving if the environment of mystery is frightening. It is essential we discontinue subtle subconscious fear based beliefs.

Throughout life your body has stored and healed from trauma. When there is unprocessed trauma, these residual feelings and thoughts can remain held in your fascia. Fascia has a tendency to hold onto unpleasant experiences and memories, particularly those where you felt unsafe or afraid. This can include physical, emotional, mental or spiritual safety. Many of us were not taught or shown how to process complex emotions or mental and behavioral patterns. The crystalline structure of fascia holds on to this information, often this is what I see unfold to be healed, the deeper layers of underlying beliefs that limit and hold us in physical movement patterns that keep recreating the circumstances that have become so familiar in life.

I offer Presence Centered Awareness Therapy as a way to find and remember your way home. I help you learn how to communicate with your body through your imagination, and teach it how to let go, and feel safe again. And then you have access to your own relaxation.

Myofascial Release is a gentle, safe, specialized, highly effective bodywork. I treat symptoms at their source with MFR. I get incredible results and find lasting relief from pain, inflammation, and immobility with MFR. Through the muscular, fascial systems, MFR releases fascial restrictions after an accident or injury. It’s important to get your fascia treated. I treat exclusively with MFR because I get the best results and can utilize what I have practiced.

I treat your symptoms at their source, so you can get out of pain and back to living your best life. Angela Rose is a Myofascial Release Therapist and Injury Specialist at Sol Bodyworks in Grass Valley.