Fascial Meditation For Deep Release
Melt deeply-held tension and cultivate bodymind awareness. Invites gentle massage, body-scan visualisation, and breath practice to bring peace and space to the body. Includes a sprinkling of fascia facts to understand how and where we hold stress.
Transcript
Welcome my name is Flo and this is a fascial meditation for release of deep tension.
We'll begin ideally lying down or you could also take a seat,
Perhaps leaning the back against the wall or a back of a chair.
And if you would like a truly restorative pose you might take a blanket rolled up underneath the neck,
The nape of the neck as you lie down or a cushion or a blanket behind the back of the head.
As you come into your pose for meditation let's take a moment to arrange the body like you're unfolding or spreading a blanket.
When you have found your perfect shape gently bring the hands to rest over the eyes,
Heels of the hands to the apples of the cheeks and the fingers either sealed together like a little cave for the eyes or perhaps cracks of light between the fingers here.
Just notice any temperature difference between the hands and the face.
You might naturally begin to take longer smoother breaths here not forcing anything but just with this contact of hands on face.
Just drawing a longer breath in through the nose or through the mouth if the nose is blocked and sighing a longer breath out through the mouth.
You could keep the hands still as they are if this feels comforting or you might begin to press the hands outwards now so they slide over the hairline or over the scalp.
Do this a few times drawing back the skin of the face and then continue or perhaps you bring the fingertips to the forehead.
You begin to press the fingertips into the skin and upwards over the head.
This might begin to move in different directions so perhaps outwards diagonally perhaps over the temples towards the back of the head.
As you do this become aware of the texture or the feeling of the kind of pathways of tissue underneath the fingers or the hands.
You might have the sense that some of these pathways move in a certain direction or that there are places where the connective tissues feel kind of denser,
More tightly woven.
Take a moment here really tap into the sensation underneath the fingers or hands.
You could keep this massage going for another few minutes or throughout the entire meditation if it's feeling really good.
Well now if it feels like this might be a good time to come into more stillness perhaps you arrange the arms around the body over the head out to the sides or you could have the hands resting on the ribcage or belly.
Remember throughout this meditation that you can keep adjusting for comfort you don't need to wait for an invitation to make that small change which might make the experience all the better.
Now use your next few exhales to really sense into the back line of the body,
The surface contact between the back edge of the body and the ground underneath you whatever texture that is.
You might imagine that the front line of the body is kind of draping back towards the back line.
The front of the shoulders soften backwards imagining that that makes a little imprint in the ground.
Back to the ribs,
Same thing for the back of the pelvis and the feet whatever part of the feet is resting on the ground.
Now you might imagine that you are lying on a sheet of woven fabric so something like a knitted blanket or a kind of netted material.
As this comes into the mind's eye just notice what kind of material you've imagined so perhaps the looseness or the tightness of the weave,
The colour and even the texture of the fibres that you have imagined that they brittle and tightly woven,
Thick,
Thin,
Silky.
Imagining this web of material underneath the entire back body from the back of the skull,
Sweeping down the body to the feet.
And now you might imagine that the weave of this material is becoming kind of looser and wider as you breathe particularly on the exhale and as the weave widens here this makes space for the body to drape in between and the weave of this material becomes only wider but also changes texture to become softer.
Not only softer but maybe silkier so the fibres of this fabric gain a sense of slip and slide as we exhale spreading the back of the body across the ground.
Softness underneath the feet,
Behind the parts of the legs or the bum that naturally touch down to the ground.
More softness and silkiness underneath the back and the spreading of the skin of the back.
More softness underneath the shoulder blades and an invitation to rest the weight of the head fully into the softness underneath.
If it's comfortable you might imagine now that somebody is gathering up the edge of this fabric and wrapping it or draping it around the front body now.
As you imagine the touch down of that fabric draping over the front of the body,
Underneath the collarbones,
Over the shoulders.
You might have more of a sense of slide down and back of the skin of the belly.
If you imagine the slip of this fabric over the fronts of the thighs and the tops of the feet,
Even the toes and the toenails.
You could stay with this image or if it feels comfortable now begin to sense into your skin,
The sensation of the skin on the body.
Parts that are cooler and warmer.
And again only if comfortable you might imagine that instead of that woven fabric outside of the body now,
You have that webbed weave just underneath the surface of the skin.
And as you breathe here,
The webbing underneath the skin of the superficial fascia begins to spread to widen and become more hydrated,
Flexible.
And then sinking your attention deeper beneath the skin to the place around the muscles and the connections with the joints,
Tendons,
Ligaments.
Notice how these connective tissues feel,
Are there areas that might hold more tension,
Density?
Areas where that webbing feels wider,
Smoother,
More fluid.
And now you might imagine the deep fascia,
Still that webbing,
Woven material wrapping around the muscle fibers,
Spanning across the joint spaces and even wrapping around and into the bone space.
And it's really possible to sense into this fascia,
As our fascial bodies contain between 100 to 250 million nerve endings.
It's our fascia,
The richest sensory organ that we have,
Sending signals all the time to the body of where it is in space,
How it's feeling.
As you exhale,
Can you imagine that deep webbing spreading and widening,
Allowing the bones to kind of drop back or clatter back towards the ground or space between the connective tissues now.
Now guide your attention gently to the very back of the mouth,
The palate.
And soften there too.
Soften the tongue and the back of the teeth.
Let there be space between the back teeth.
Begin to spread your attention across the lungs and as you begin to breathe here more consciously,
Notice if the lungs feel freer or longer.
As you inhale,
The lungs unfolding like envelopes.
As you exhale,
The diaphragm flexibly coming to rest upwards underneath the heart.
As you invite the breath a little deeper into the sides of the waist,
Swelling underneath the belly button space.
You might even sense into the fascia at the pelvic floor.
There could be some softening available here and that might allow you to deepen the breath even into the lowest parts of the torso.
You could stay with this natural full breath,
Or if you would like,
Free opportunities for a deeper breath practice now.
Slowly,
And this really might take a good few seconds,
We're going to begin to fill the lungs with the breath.
When the lungs feel full,
You might pause the breath right at the top of the inhale and sip in an extra slow,
Long inhale,
Expanding the breath across the chest and armpits and then whooshing the breath out through the mouth as you exhale whenever you would like.
Two more opportunities to take that slow,
Double filling of the breath.
Moving the breath from the entire lungs and belly with the extra inhale across the chest and shoulders and then release.
Take one more with your breath pace.
You could stay in rest for much longer.
If now feels like a good time to begin to move,
You might spread the breath across the hands and then gently guide the hands back to rest over the eyes.
You might begin to press the hands outwards or fingertips to the foreheads,
Running into the scalp.
You're making soft,
Furose soil or compost.
This might invite longer breaths in through the nose and long sighs out through the mouth.
Movement might evolve from this massage to something more like a wiggle in the fingers or a reach above the head and a stretch and a soften.
And I invite you to feel into what would be good for you now,
Maybe much more rest and quiet as this meditation closes.
Perhaps now calm moving out into the rest of your day.
Thank you for practicing with me.
See you again soon.
