The Science of Fascia: How Simple Movements Can Calm Your Mind & Heal Your Body with Jason van Blerk #620
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee speaks with Jason van Blerk, co-founder of Human Garage, about fascia's role in storing emotions and trauma. They discuss how simple rotational movements and breathing, called Fascial Manoeuvres, can unwind the body, reduce stress, and empower self-healing.
Deep Dive Analysis
19 Topic Outline
Introduction to Fascia and Emotional Storage
Fascia's Role in Storing Emotions and Trauma
Posture, Emotions, and Body Torque Patterns
Redefining Fascia: Biohydraulic Tubes of Water
Rotational Movement vs. Linear Stretching for Fascia Release
The Body as Water and Sand: Vibration and Memory
Human Garage Philosophy: Results First, Science Later
The Power of Belief in Healing and Transformation
Fascia's Influence on Body Alignment and Pain
The Body as a Pressurized System and Connected Zones
Impact of Sitting and Gut Health on Body Flow
Human Garage's Mission: Empowering Self-Healing
Working with Elite Athletes and Performance Enhancement
Scars, Skin Stretching, and Fascial Release
The Body as an Electrical System and Grounding
How Fascial Maneuvers Reduce Stress and Release Emotions
Fascia as a Metasystem and Connection to Meridian Lines
Jason's Personal Journey: From Trauma to Self-Awareness
Human Garage's Founding Story and Funding Model
6 Key Concepts
Fascia
Fascia is a remarkable tissue primarily made of water, existing in a gel-like state, that holds muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and organs. It is believed to transmit electricity, send information, and store memory and emotions, acting as the body's most intelligent organ. When fascia becomes restricted due to lack of movement or dehydration, it can solidify and calcify, leading to tension and dysfunction.
Body as a Pressurized System
The human body can be understood as a pressurized system with internal and external pressures. Dysregulation of this pressure can lead to physical imbalances, such as one foot or chest being larger than the other. Movement, especially rotational movement, helps balance these pressure systems across different body zones (head, torso, legs), which are constantly counterbalancing each other.
Body as an Electrical System
Every cell in the body has a voltage and conducts electricity. Behaviors like walking barefoot on the ground (earthing) can change the body's voltage, restoring it to a natural state by receiving electrons from the earth. Still water (like a bath) and wind can steal electrons, affecting energy levels.
Trauma (Emotional Storage)
Trauma is defined as an event where emotions could not be processed, leading to their storage in the body, particularly in the fascia. These stored emotions can manifest as physical tension, changes in posture, and specific reactions when certain body parts are touched, potentially causing long-term dysfunction.
Counter Rotation
The body is a rotational system, with all parts constantly counter-rotating during natural movements like walking, running, or swinging. Linear movements and flat surfaces can inhibit this natural rotation, leading to dysfunction. Fascial maneuvers emphasize rotational movements combined with breathing to release fascia and restore natural body mechanics.
Collective Conscious Belief
When a group of people collectively believes in the positive outcome of a practice, the effectiveness and speed of results can be significantly enhanced. This phenomenon, similar to the placebo effect, suggests that shared belief can accelerate healing and transformation, making practices more impactful.
7 Questions Answered
Emotions and past experiences, especially unprocessed trauma, are believed to be stored in the body's fascia, a tissue primarily made of water, which has properties that allow it to hold memory and information.
Emotions can change posture (e.g., sadness leading to curling forward), and conversely, adopting certain postures (e.g., standing tall and confident) can influence and reprogram emotions, demonstrating a bidirectional link between the physical body and the mind.
Traditional methods often treat fascia as a dense structure, but if fascia is understood as a water-based gel, it responds differently. Linear stretching or forceful rolling may temporarily release tension, but if the underlying rotational restrictions or emotional patterns in the fascia are not addressed, the body tends to revert to its previous state.
People often feel lighter after fascial maneuvers because the movements help release stored emotions, which are perceived as heavy. Even without conscious awareness of specific emotional releases, the body's physical and energetic state shifts, leading to a feeling of lightness.
Fascial maneuvers help bring the body out of stress by unwinding tension throughout the entire body through rotated positions and specific breathing patterns. This relaxation can improve sensory perception, making the room look and sound different, and food taste better, all within a short period.
A quick exercise is to close your eyes and place your hands on your heart to feel your heartbeat, immediately bringing awareness inward. Regularly practicing fascial maneuvers and intentionally focusing on bodily sensations can also help retrain self-awareness over time.
The Human Garage's mission is to inspire one billion people to heal themselves by providing simple, accessible movement practices called fascial maneuvers, emphasizing self-care and empowerment over lifelong dependency on practitioners.
23 Actionable Insights
1. Perform Daily Fascial Maneuvers
Perform 15 minutes of fascial maneuvers daily, ideally in the morning or before bed, to unwind tension, reduce stress, enhance focus, increase energy, and improve sleep.
2. Use Rotational Movements with Breathing
Engage in simple rotational movements combined with specific breathing patterns to release fascia, balance emotions, and feel more grounded and centered. Avoid linear stretching or forceful rolling, as the body is a rotational system.
3. Dedicate Daily Body Connection Time
Spend time each day feeling and moving your body, such as rolling on the floor, doing breathing exercises, or hip twists, to connect with your physical self and loosen things up.
4. Practice Deep Self-Awareness
Practice deep self-awareness by closing your eyes, holding your breath, eliminating noise, and deeply feeling your body’s sensations to build a new relationship with your body.
5. Perform ‘Hands on Heart’ Exercise
Close your eyes and place your hands on your heart to immediately tune into your heartbeat, increasing self-awareness and mindfulness of your internal state.
6. Adopt Confident Posture
Sit up nice and tall with your chest up to feel stronger and more confident, as adopting a confident posture can directly reprogram your emotions.
7. Walk Barefoot in Nature (Earthing)
Walk barefoot on the ground for at least 30 minutes, especially in nature, to promote natural body rotation, gain electrons from the earth, and restore natural cellular voltage, leading to more energy.
8. Engage in Natural Activities
Prioritize getting out in nature, walking, being in the sun, getting in the ocean, and touching trees to provide your body with optimal conditions for well-being without expensive equipment.
9. Avoid Prolonged Sitting
Minimize sitting in chairs to prevent compression of the diaphragm and pelvic floor, which can disrupt flow and lead to digestive issues and mental fog.
10. Practice ‘Fascial Coffee’ Routine
Perform the 2-minute ‘fascial coffee’ routine by rubbing your body with friction in specific directions to activate flow, feel lighter, tingly, and looser. You can enhance this by rubbing peppermint on your hands.
11. Stretch Scars to Unwind Fascia
Gently pull the skin around scars apart in every direction to unwind constricted fascia, create space, and improve overall body movement, as stretching skin helps prevent dehydration and constriction.
12. Focus on Self-Change
Believe that changing yourself and focusing on your own improvement is the most effective way to make a positive impact on the world around you.
13. Practice Daily Self-Reflection
Regularly ask yourself what you can do to improve and how you might be contributing to situations in your life, fostering a more empowering perspective.
14. Listen to Your Inner Voice
Trust your intuition and inner knowing, especially when feeling unfulfilled or miserable, even if it means going against societal expectations or established paths.
15. Experiment with Diverse Experiences
Actively try out many different activities or career paths, especially at a younger age, to discover what genuinely lights you up and doesn’t feel like work.
16. Live What You Preach
If you aim to inspire others, embody the principles and practices you advocate in your own life, as this means you ’live and breathe what you preach’.
17. Utilize Human Garage App
Access structured fascial maneuver programs (e.g., 15 minutes daily or a 28-day life reset) through the Human Garage app to learn and practice self-healing techniques.
18. Adopt Fetal Position for Release
Lie on your side, curl into a ball, cross your arms, and hug yourself as a fascial maneuver to release emotions and feel different, especially during times of pain or trauma.
19. Use Music to Influence Mood
Be aware that sound and music vibrate the water and ‘sand’ in your body, changing its structure and influencing how you feel; use this to your advantage to shift your mood (e.g., hum, sing, or dance to feel lighter/calmer/happier).
20. Cultivate Body Imbalance Awareness
Pay attention to differences in your body (e.g., one side feeling tighter or moving less freely than the other) by performing bilateral movements to develop self-awareness.
21. Take Bath for Calmness
Use a still-water bath before bed to feel calm and tired, as still water is believed to steal electrons from the body, aiding relaxation and sleep.
22. Stay Hydrated and Move Regularly
Ensure adequate hydration and consistent movement to keep the ‘water in your body moving’ and prevent fascia from solidifying, calcifying, and hardening.
23. For Practitioners: Coaching Program
Healthcare professionals or aspiring coaches can apply to the Human Garage coaching program to learn how to cue and guide people through fascial maneuvers, enhancing their practice by empowering clients with self-healing tools.
9 Key Quotes
If we're 70% water, where is all the memory being stored in the body? I believe it's being stored in our fascia, and our fascia is primarily made of water.
Jason van Blerk
Trauma is an event where you could not process the emotions.
Jason van Blerk
You can also use the physical body to influence the mind. There are two ways. You can't, it's not just one way, it's both.
Jason van Blerk
I believe fascia is the most intelligent organ in our body. And it holds your muscles, your bones, your tendons, your ligaments, and your organs.
Jason van Blerk
My goal is not to understand what's inside the body and how it works. It's how to use it.
Jason van Blerk
We just need a bit more humility to go, there are lots of things out there that work. Sometimes we've got an explanation for them. Sometimes we don't, but that's okay.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Emotions are heavy. Yeah, emotions are heavy, like sadness, you know, if you're holding on to sadness, sometimes you feel like the weight is on your shoulders, you feel like a hundred pounds extra. And then all of a sudden people do these movements and they feel super light and flexible and they can move. And the only thing that I could explain is that I believe that we're moving their emotions.
Jason van Blerk
We are still at the very beginning of understanding fascia.
Dr. Helene Langevin (quoted by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee)
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Jason van Blerk
3 Protocols
Scar Stretching
Jason van Blerk- Place your fingers on either side of the scar.
- Pull the skin apart in every single direction.
- Unwind the fascia in that area to create space.
Fetal Position Maneuver
Jason van Blerk- Lie on your side.
- Crawl into a ball.
- Cross your arms and hug yourself.
Fascial Coffee Routine
Jason van Blerk- Apply a little peppermint to your hands (optional).
- Rub your hands together.
- Go through a two-minute sequence, rubbing your entire body with friction in a specific direction (e.g., down towards fingers on the arm).
- Feel for lightness, tingling, and looseness.