Tension, Fascia and the vagus nerve: unraveling the effects of stress.
How does stress directly impact our bodily systems?
Take a minute to focus inward, can you remember a time when you woke in the morning with a painful ‘knot’ or some serious tension in your neck / shoulders / back or anywhere else that restricted your movement…?? Perhaps you woke up wondering “what happened last night?” Maybe you slept funny, had some intense crazy dreams and tossed and turned all night, maybe you did something new in your workout routine the day before, or you’ve been staring at the computer for too long in a slumped position?
And…
What if we go a little abstract in our thinking and consider this ‘knot’ could be from 1 or more stressful events that have happened through your life?
If you are personally working with me already you will be well aware of how I talk about the relationship between your nervous system and your fascia. I talk often of the impact stress has on all the systems of our body and when taking a more intimate look at our mind / body systems the recognition that beyond the ‘knot’ you feel is the role our fascia plays when experiencing stress. This role the fascia plays within the body is known as ‘Tensegrity’ (Tension & Integrity) and this not only relates to the intricate connections the fascia, muscles, bones, ligaments & tendons have but also the connection between the Autonomic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve.
There's a big reason I talk about the nervous system and the vagus nerve and I myself have learnt through becoming aware of its structure, function & role in regulation that it is imperative to overall mental, emotional, physical & social health & well-being.
Firstly, the vagus nerve is not just one nerve, it’s a bundle of nerves that has a bio-directional communication system between outside environments & your inside environments; the body, mind, brain connections.
The vagus nerves are cranial nerves and innovate from the brain stem through the facial muscles, both sides of the neck, the larynx, the carotid artery, the heart, lungs, diaphragm and into your digestive system.
What is fascia?
Fascia is a form of connective tissue. It’s like a fibrous web that extends into all structures and all systems of the body. We have multiple forms of fascia at different layers through our body. Superficial layers under the skin and deeper layers surrounding the muscles and bones.
Fascia provides a nourishing & lubricating layer around your lungs and intertwines with your pericardium which is the layer of fascia around your heart. It even surrounds your digestive system forming a protective role to allow for sliding and gliding of surrounding tissues over and under these vital organs. Fascia is even found in your endocrine glands and is considered to be its own system.
Your fascia is the largest sensory organ in the body with 250 million nerve endings playing a vital role in the transmitting of hormones & neurotransmitters throughout your body. This is why fascia is considered deeply intertwined in the function of your nervous system.
Essentially, fascia has a huge role in communicating to your brain about what is happening inside your body. These fascial tissues are designed to expand and contract, like all muscles, however if we experience physical injury, emotional trauma and perhaps we go into shock when facing threat & our survival instincts activate to protect us, we can become restricted in movement. Moving into a freeze state (think deer in headlights), developing tonic immobility which is too much tone, we can also go into faint or collapse which is too little tone. If we can’t complete our survival response & we become stuck, we lose the rhythmic expand & contract nature of the fascia. This can lead to ongoing ‘knot’ sensations from unresolved stress cycles.
So what else could be impacting fascia to ‘knot’ up and have an impact on your health?
Lack of movement, emotional stress, physical injury, and unresolved historical trauma.
If we experience chronic pain, stress, and illness, our fascia slowly develops a “fuzz” which is a bit like a thickening that accumulates between tissue layers.
Wonderful tools to maintain the sliding & gliding capacity of healthy fascia is to practice deep breathing, mindful movement, drink lots of water & massage.
Fascia plays a key role in how we physically experience stress and how we heal from events that take us into our survival instincts. When stress arises outside of our tolerance levels, our vagus nerve innovations slow down, even shut off for conservation purposes; remember your internal organ functions are all controlled by the Autonomic Nervous System.
Knowing that these informative systems (The vagus nerve & the fascial systems) communicate between the external physical environments and the internal mind / body connections, could support you in identifying why, when stress arises we can feel tension not only in our muscles & mind but also our internal organs. Eg. GIT upsets, constipation, shallow breathing, rapid heart beat.
Besides helping to keep your skin, skeletal muscles, visceral organs, neurotransmitters and hormones all in balance, the vagus nerve and your fascial system play a key role in stress resilience.
Resilience is much more than grit and determination, looking at resilience as the ability to bounce back from adversity, to develop self knowledge & become more mindful, flexible & healthy, means you can intimately nourish the fascia and your vagus nerve by tuning in and attending to your body’s needs through sensory awareness, conscious breathing & mindful movement.
Perhaps now is a good time to check in and notice how you feel… What is going for you at this moment?
Getting curious about how we feel & sense along with getting to know how the vagus nerve & fascia are communicating, is a way to develop our exploratory self knowledge skills which is known as ✨Embodiment✨
Embodiment is the conscious awareness of the felt sense.
You can awaken the connection between your vagus nerve & your fascia through deeply breathing, moving mindfully & stretching your body and by being aware of the bio-directional communication pathways through the body. This supports awareness of the sensations that will arise from the movement of sliding and gliding between muscles, fascia, organs such as your heart's rhythms. Through tuning in & listening to what happens inside we begin to wake up more sincerely to self.
So if you woke with a ‘knot’ in your shoulder, neck stiffness or pain anywhere, can you start to explore the sensations that are there to gain more insight into why you feel the way you do?!
Over time you develop the insights to notice the ‘knot’ in your shoulder could correspond to a lump in your throat, tension in your chest or heaviness in your belly, you may even start to notice emotions arising such as worry, fear, anger, frustration. And that you may need to take a deep breath in / out and release some of the above.
Embodiment is a practice that takes deep intention and curiosity to explore what is going on in the moment, allowing what we believe should or shouldn’t be; to “just be”, without judgment and offer ourselves compassion for whatever arises.
So, can you connect here to yourself and honestly check-in?
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