If you recently experienced a traumatic injury, you may have lingering pain as your body heals.
However, you might have painful feelings in areas that were not injured.
That is sometimes called referral pain.
And there are several ways to treat it.
Fascial restrictions are one cause of referred pain that are often misdiagnosed, overlooked, or otherwise left untreated.
Our body's amazing facial system.
Fascia (pronounced Fash-ah, rhymes with cash-a), or connective tissue, refers to all of the soft tissue that connects.
Fascia connects structures like bones, tissues like muscles and organs, and even cells to one another.
Our fascia includes tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and aponeuroses.
It can be a large, sheet-like section, or stringy like a fine web.
Our fascia is interconnected throughout our bodies.
This makes up our fascial system, which can be followed continuously, connecting every part of our body with every other part.
When our body experiences injury or trauma, our facial system is affected.
This can happen physically, and also on a psychosomatic level.
Facial restrictions causing injury-related pain.
Imagine a snag in a spider web.
When your body is injured, the same phenomenon happens to your facial system.
Where there is a snag in the matrix, this is called a restriction.
When muscles and fascia are used in repetitive movement patterns, the restrictions worsen over time.
They harden like drying glue.
These are adhesions, commonly called 'knots'.
When treating referral pain, health practitioners often overlook fascia as the source, or cause, of referred pain.
Since fascia is one continuous system throughout the body, it only makes sense that injury to one area may affect connected areas.
Treating facial restrictions.
Myofascial release (MFR) is a natural therapy that can help.
As the name implies, it addresses the muscles and fascia (myofascia), releasing restrictions.
Physical therapist John F.
Barnes advanced the practice of MFR, creating his own approach.
This new Barnes' style is highly effective for relieving referred pain caused by facial restrictions.
The Barnes' MFR therapy includes a slow, gentle hands-on approach.
It may require several sessions before clients feel results.
But after their first session, many clients report: > Feelings of calm and peace > Improved quality of sleep > Easier muscle and joint movement Other effective natural therapies for relieving facial injury include yoga and Thai-yoga massage.
But they may be too aggressive in your first few weeks of healing, so listen to your body's cues and heal gently.