What your body and I-495 / Beltway have in Common: The Traffic of Pain

In order to understand where I am going, you need to grasp some basics about pain and musculoskeletal anatomy. First and foremost every single structure, cell, muscle system, EVERYTHING is encoated in connective tissue. From our heads to our toes is one continuous sheet of connective tissue or fascia. Connective tissue is not simply tendons and ligaments. We are talking about sheets of this stuff that is all interconnected.

The body is like a very complex spider web. And a kink in the works is like a fly landing in that web, pulling the entire web in tension toward the insect. We may feel pain at the site of impact, but the pulling and twisting and compensations create pain elsewhere. "My head feels like it's in a vice!" It is--in a vice of connective tissue.

I won't bore you with anatomy lessons, although I think they are pretty neat myself. Just one other thing though to tie this into the NOVA area. Connective tissue is extremely mentally, emotionally and psychologically responsive. What you experience in your mind is mirrored in your connective tissues and muscles. The tissues constrict and everyone has a very unique pattern of constriction. Some people get stomach aches, some headaches, some back pain, others just strange mysterious pain they can't seem to trace.

Let's take a little scenario here relevant to NOVA--our favorite topic--TRAFFIC!
It's 5:30 and Jay (fictional character) is headed home to Burke from Tysons. Jay doesn't have a Smart Pass for the Express Lane, he has a new baby at home and he needs to respond to ten thousand emails for his government contracting job. Before he even gets on the ramp to I-495 south he's a stress ball. Plus he had a Red Bull that afternoon to fight the afternoon slump. As he is sitting in bumper to bumper traffic trying to make his way around everyone getting on I-66 exit which he does every day, five days a week his shoulders come up, his neck cranes to the left side and his abdomen tightens. These seemingly insignificant movements on their own are enough for his body to handle --no big deal right? However, he does this every day like clockwork, creating a pattern. He has created a memory or a pathway from his brain to his muscles and connective tissue. It is so strong that even the thought of the commute home triggers this neural pathway to constrict well before he gets into his car. The point is that Jay has to realize he has default reactions in order to create NEW healthy neural pathways. Chronic negative stressors lead to heartburn, IBS, fatigue, pain, and INFLAMMATION. Chances are Jay doesn't even see the connection and is therefore unable to change. This brain-to-body pathway is a two way street. Not only does his psychological response create and enforce the pain, but the tension in the muscles sends signals back to the brain reinforcing the pattern. It is a brilliant feedback system that assists us to learn new tasks and behaviors and protects us from harm. Over time these pathways become more rigid and set. Time isn't always a great healer--sometimes it makes us forget how we even got to where we are.

Dr. Janet Travell, physician to JFK who had major pain issues that kept him in crutches, is co-author of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction and she chronicles these pain patterns and how to treat and break them in our bodies. She got JFK off crutches within 48 hours of treating him. This isn't hippie-dippy stuff. She and Simons broke through with new concepts and created a way of providing relief to pain sufferers. I have her text book and I can't tell you how many times it has been useful in my massage sessions.

So what can our fictional character Jay do to get relief? That requires a complicated answer which this blog is partly dedicated to. First and foremost, Jay must become AWARE of his unique patterns. Second, he must be willing and disciplined to form new habits, manage his stress and abandon the old paradigm that he's too old to change. Bull honky.

Massage therapy is a great place to start. Through touch alone you will start to become aware of muscles you never knew you had...connections never realized.  Massage helps clients interrupt pain cycles, assisting their very intelligent, overworked and abused muscles to release tension so they can do the job they were designed to do. Muscles are neglected, taken for granted and forgotten or not even acknowledged they exist. Be good to them and counter the stress with bodywork, exercise, meditation and nutrition. They KNOW what you are thinking and they will become vindictive after years of abuse!!!


You DON'T have to sit in the proverbial Beltway of your body. There are other ways, roads and patterns for you to learn. Feel free to contact me for more information, questions and resources.

Intro: NOVA and the Body & Mind

The past five years of my life have been driven toward recognizing and addressing a deep-seated need for relief from stress caused by the business of Northern Virginia. I am one of those rare natives to the area and I have to admit that I have had the opportunities at my feet for the highest levels of success one could ask for. The area is defined by accomplishment, hard work and political savvy. But, sequestered in the corner is a lacking that neglects the heart and soul. I've had many conversations with natives, tourists, foreign nationals and people from all walks of life and experience. We debate about the lack of community, the traffic, real estate prices, taxes, allergy season, lack of public spaces conducive to socializing, the bar scene, humidity, and last but not least the political atmosphere.  However, the complaints only fuel that negative hue that hangs over many heads. Through distancing myself from Northern Virginia to study massage therapy in Central America, I began to realize how the external world REALLY effects the internal environment of the human being; down to the bone, through muscles, into cell memory and conditioning connective tissue to constrict at the slightest stressor making a person miserable, fatigued and with aches and pains the doctor cannot treat to satisfaction. This was much more complex than I imagined when I first began to scratch the surface...