A Healthy Habit Massage Therapy

12/28/2025

We often speak of surgery as though it were a single chapter with clean edges. The date is circled on the calendar, an incision is made and closed, a problem is addressed and resolved. The before and after are neatly divided by stitches and time. But the body does not experience surgery this way. The body experiences surgery as a shift in its inner terrain, as though a familiar landscape has been altered overnight. The river that once ran freely now curves around new terrain, learning its new shape.

In previous posts, I have talked about the quiet river system that lives beneath the skin, one that most people are never taught to notice unless something interrupts it. The lymphatic system. It does not announce itself with a pulse or rush forward with force. It moves slowly, and patiently, guided by breath, subtle movement, and a sense of safety. It is less like a current and more like a tide, responding to the rhythms of the whole body. When surgery enters this landscape, that tide is changed.

Surgery not only passes through skin and muscle, but it also crosses pathways of flow. Delicate lymphatic vessels may be cut, cauterized, or stunned. Nodes may be disturbed or asked to take on new roles. Fascia, the great connective web that binds and communicates, is opened, shifted, stitched, and often healed into unfamiliar patterns. Nerves that once spoke freely may soften their voice or change their language altogether. The body reorganizes itself around the experience because survival demands adaptation.

Unlike blood vessels, lymphatic vessels are not always repaired or reconnected. The body compensates as it always does, finding alternate routes, creating workarounds, and learning how to carry on. But adaptation does not always come with ease.

Scar tissue, so often treated as a surface concern, tells a much deeper story. A scar is not simply healed skin; it is a place where layers that once glided now hesitate. Where fascia holds more tightly, and where lymph slows, reroutes, or pools. When a familiar pathway is disrupted, the body does not panic. It listens. Like water meeting an obstacle, it softens and begins to trace new lines through the landscape. Swelling that gathers in unexpected places is not a mistake. It is a quiet act of problem-solving, guided by survival and care.

This is why someone can say, even years after a C-section, an appendectomy, breast surgery, orthopedic repair, or abdominal procedure, “I healed, but I was never the same.”

So here is something to think about. The lymphatic system does not exist alone. It is woven deeply into the nervous system. Surgery is not only a mechanical event but also a biological and neurological one. The body remembers the invasion, the anesthesia, the vulnerability, even when the mind has moved on. If the nervous system remains protective, lymphatic vessels remain guarded. Flow slows. Inflammation lingers, and the tissues struggle.

This is why aggressive approaches often fall flat in post-surgical bodies. The system does not need to be forced open; it requires touch that reassures the nervous system that it is no longer under threat.

The good news is this. While scars cannot be erased, function can be restored. Communication can be reestablished, and flow can improve. The body is not broken; it is adaptive, responsive, and profoundly wise. Given the right conditions, the lymphatic system can learn new pathways, rehydrate tissues, and relieve the burden it has been quietly carrying for years.

Healing is not about undoing what was done. It is about listening to what changed. It is about restoring movement to the quiet rivers beneath the skin and honoring the tissues that adapted to protect you. This is where a bodyworker trained in fascia and lymphatic work becomes essential. Not to force the body back into shape, but to understand its language. To recognize where flow has slowed, where fascia is holding history, and where the nervous system is still standing guard. With a skilled, patient, and informed touch, the body is reminded that it no longer has to brace and that it is once again allowed to move toward ease.

12/25/2025

12/21/2025

The Fascia–Lymph–Pain Triangle 🔺

Why Tight Tissue Feels Like Deep Inflammation

Have you ever noticed this?
• Your body feels sore, tight or inflamed
• Scans and blood tests come back “normal”
• Massage helps… but only temporarily
• Stretching feels good, yet the pain keeps returning

This is often where fascia, lymph, and pain signalling intersect.

Let’s unpack this gently 🤍

What Is Fascia, Really? 🧵

Fascia is not just “connective tissue.”

It is a continuous, body-wide network that:
• Wraps muscles, organs, nerves and blood vessels
• Conducts fluid
• Communicates sensory information
• Responds to stress, inflammation and trauma

Think of fascia like a 3-dimensional web holding everything in place — while still allowing movement.

When fascia is healthy, it’s supple and hydrated.
When it’s irritated or restricted, it becomes tight, dense and painful.

Where the Lymphatic System Fits In 🌿

Many lymphatic vessels run within and between fascial layers.

This means:
• Fascia helps guide lymph flow
• Lymph keeps fascia hydrated and mobile

When inflammation, injury, surgery or stress occurs:
• Fascia stiffens
• Lymph flow slows
• Interstitial fluid accumulates

This creates a feedback loop 🔁
Tight fascia → poor lymph drainage → more inflammation → more pain.

Why Pain Feels Deep, Diffuse or “Unexplainable” 😣

Fascia is richly innervated — meaning it has many sensory nerve endings.

When fascia is restricted:
• Pain may feel deep rather than sharp
• It may radiate instead of staying local
• It often feels worse with stress or fatigue
• It may not match imaging findings

This is why people say:

“It hurts everywhere, but nothing is wrong.”

Something is happening — it’s just happening at a tissue level, not a structural one.

How Inflammation Changes Fascia 🔥

Inflammation causes:
• Increased fluid leakage into tissue
• Thickening of fascial layers
• Reduced glide between tissue planes

Over time, fascia loses elasticity and becomes protective — almost like it’s bracing.

This bracing increases:
• Pressure
• Nerve sensitivity
• Pain perception

The body isn’t malfunctioning — it’s adapting.

Why Forcing Stretching or Exercise Can Backfire 🚫

Aggressive stretching or pushing through pain can:
• Trigger further fascial guarding
• Increase inflammatory signalling
• Overstimulate sensitised nerves

This is why some people feel worse after:
• Intense workouts
• Deep aggressive massage
• “No pain, no gain” approaches

The nervous system needs safety before tissues can soften 🫶

What Actually Helps the Fascia–Lymph–Pain Loop 🌿

Supportive approaches often include:
• Gentle lymphatic stimulation
• Slow, mindful movement
• Diaphragmatic breathing 🫁
• Heat and hydration
• Nervous system regulation

When lymph flow improves, fascia often softens — and pain reduces without force.

The Takeaway 🤍

Pain isn’t always coming from damage.
Sometimes it’s coming from tight, inflamed, overloaded tissue.

The fascia–lymph–pain triangle explains why:
• Pain can exist without pathology
• Gentle approaches can be powerful
• Healing often feels slow, but deeply corrective

Your body isn’t weak.
It’s communicating.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health regimen.

12/19/2025

12/17/2025

🌌 The Secret Symphony Between Your Fascia, Emotions, and Lymphatic Flow 🎻

What if your body’s emotional memory wasn’t just stored in your brain — but in your fascia?

Welcome to a revolutionary understanding of how your connective tissue, your feelings, and your fluid flow are in a constant, beautiful dance — and how healing your lymphatic system might just help you heal your heart.

💡 Fascia: The Body’s Hidden Conductor

Fascia is a web-like connective tissue that wraps around every muscle, bone, nerve, and organ. It holds the structure of your body — but it does much more than that.

According to research from Harvard Medical School and the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, fascia has mechanosensory and emotional memory capabilities. Yes — your fascia feels.

When trauma, stress, or suppressed emotion occur, fascia can tighten, harden, and hold. This causes stagnation not only in muscles or joints — but in your lymphatic flow.

💧 Stagnant Emotions = Stagnant Lymph

The lymphatic system relies on the mobility of fascia and muscle contraction to move lymph. If your fascia is restricted from old trauma, surgery, or chronic emotional stress, your lymph slows down, detox backs up, and inflammation can quietly rise.

Imagine unresolved grief from years ago living not just in your heart — but in your hips, chest, and even your gut fascia, causing chronic puffiness, digestive issues, and fatigue.

🧠 The Vagus Nerve Connection

Your vagus nerve, the major highway between brain and body, winds through fascia-rich territories. Emotional restriction in fascial areas — particularly the neck, chest, and diaphragm — can impair vagus function, leading to:
• Anxiety
• Gut imbalances
• Poor sleep
• Lymphatic congestion in the head and neck

When you release fascial tension through manual lymphatic drainage (MLD), myofascial release, breathwork, and somatic therapy, you stimulate both lymphatic movement and emotional processing. This is where true detoxification happens — physically and emotionally.

🌿 The Body Remembers — But It Can Also Release

Fascial and lymphatic therapies are now being recognized not just as physical tools, but as emotional release mechanisms.

One 2022 study in Frontiers in Psychology noted that manual body therapies, particularly fascial and lymphatic work, can unlock “stored emotional pain” and “activate parasympathetic (healing) response.”

🌀 So what does this mean for healing?

If you’re feeling stuck emotionally, tired physically, or puffy and inflamed — the issue might not be just in your gut or your hormones.

It may be in the fascia that hasn’t felt safe enough to let go.

💎 Practical Tips to Support the Fascia-Emotion-Lymph Axis:
1. Dry Brushing – stimulates fascia and superficial lymph capillaries.
2. Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) – softens tight fascia, moves trapped toxins and emotions.
3. Diaphragmatic Breathing – releases the solar plexus and vagus nerve.
4. Myofascial Self-Release – foam rolling with mindfulness.
5. Castor Oil Packs – soften adhesions and release stored trauma.
6. Movement with Emotion – dance, stretch, or cry as you move lymphatically.
7. Somatic Therapy – consider working with trauma-informed practitioners who understand the body-emotion connection.

✨ Final Thought:

You are not “too sensitive.”
Your body just speaks the language of truth — and it speaks it through your fascia and lymph.
Listen, release, and watch the healing ripple through your whole being.

📚 References:
• Schleip, R. (2022). Fascial plasticity – A new neurobiological explanation. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies.
• Porges, S. W. (2021). Polyvagal theory: The transformative power of feeling safe. Norton & Company.
• Harvard Health Publishing. Fascia: The connective tissue that supports our body.
• Frontiers in Psychology (2022). Manual therapies and emotional processing: A somatic-emotional feedback loop.

©️

12/16/2025

12/16/2025

✂️ C-Section Scars & Your Lymphatic System: What Really Happens Beneath the Surface

By Bianca Botha, CLT, RLD, MLDT & CDS

Many mothers are told that once a C-section scar heals on the outside, the body is “all fine” again. But the truth is, deep beneath the skin, your lymphatic system is often still affected. This silent disruption can explain why some women notice puffiness above their scar, heaviness in the legs, or a lingering sense of tightness in the lower abdomen.

🔄 How Lymph Normally Flows in the Abdomen

Your lymphatic system is a vast network of vessels that collect fluid, toxins, and immune cells and transport them through lymph nodes for cleansing. The lower abdomen and pelvis are major drainage hubs:
• Lymph from the legs, pelvic organs, and lower digestive system all passes upward through these channels.
• Smooth flow is essential to prevent swelling, bloating, or toxin buildup.

🚫 What Happens After a C-Section

During a C-section, both lymphatic and blood vessels are cut. While blood vessels repair themselves quite quickly, lymphatic vessels don’t always reconnect neatly. This can cause:
• Lymphatic congestion: Fluid can pool above the scar, leading to puffiness or a “ledge” of tissue.
• Impaired drainage from the legs: Swelling in the thighs, calves, or ankles can be more noticeable after long days of standing.
• Pelvic congestion: Lymph from the uterus, ovaries, and intestines may slow down, contributing to bloating or heaviness.

🧩 The Role of Scar Tissue

Scar tissue and adhesions act like roadblocks for lymph flow:
• Fibrous tissue can “trap” lymphatic fluid, preventing free circulation.
• Tissues and fascia may stick together, creating tightness or pulling sensations.
• Nerves in the area may also be affected, causing numbness or hypersensitivity.

🌐 Systemic Ripple Effects

Because lymph is interconnected, disruption in one area can affect the whole body. Common signs include:
• Swelling in the legs, feet, or lower abdomen
• Bloating and digestive changes
• Feeling of heaviness or fatigue in the lower body
• Persistent tightness or tenderness around the scar

🌱 Supporting Lymph Flow After a C-Section

The good news is that there are safe and effective ways to restore flow:
• Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD): A gentle therapy that helps re-route lymph around blocked areas.
• Scar Mobilisation: Light massage or fascial release can soften adhesions and improve circulation.
• Castor Oil Packs: Applied to the abdomen, they can reduce tension and promote flow.
• Movement & Breathing: Gentle stretching, walking, and diaphragmatic breathing help the abdominal “lymph pump.”

✨ Final Thoughts

A healed scar on the outside doesn’t always mean healed lymphatics on the inside. Understanding how your C-section scar impacts your lymphatic system is the first step to reclaiming lightness, reducing swelling, and restoring balance to your body. With the right care, your lymph can flow freely again, supporting your health and vitality long after birth.

📌 This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health regimen.

12/16/2025

An interesting element of anatomical variability in the pelvis is that, in some individuals, the piriformis muscle can share a common tendon with the obturator internus.

These two muscles are typically depicted as having separate tendons, which is likely the case for most people.

However, research has shown that in some individuals they may share a common tendon, providing a clear example of anatomical variation and prompting consideration of how this might influence movement patterns or predispose certain movement strategies in different bodies.

This also offers an intriguing perspective on the pelvic floor. It has been reliably demonstrated that the pelvic floor has a direct anatomical connection to the obturator internus.

While there is currently no strong evidence to support passive force transfer between the pelvic floor and obturator internus, these findings highlight meaningful fascial connections.

They reinforce the idea that the pelvic floor is not an isolated structure within the pelvis, but part of a broader network of muscular and fascial units.

In some individuals, the piriformis may therefore be more closely related to the pelvic floor via its connection to the obturator internus than previously appreciated.

This serves as yet another reminder of the complexity of human anatomy and the significant variability that exists across the population.

Movement is medicine

Tom

12/14/2025

PARASITE TRUTH: WHY TERRAIN MATTERS MORE THAN FEAR, CLEANSING, OR AVOIDING SUSHI

There is endless fear-based messaging online about parasites — what to avoid, what to fear, what food will “give you worms,” and why you need to do extreme cleanses.
But the real truth is simple:

Parasites don’t thrive in strong terrain. They thrive in weak, stagnant, inflamed terrain — period.

A body that is clean, oxygenated, mineralized, and moving waste efficiently is not an easy host. A body that is congested, acidic, mucus-laden, sugar-fed, and sluggish becomes a perfect environment for parasites to settle and multiply.

Your daily terrain determines everything.

⸻

DAILY PARASITE PREVENTION: BUILD A TERRAIN THEY DON’T WANT

You don’t prevent parasites by living in fear — you prevent them by maintaining a terrain that is inhospitable to them.

Foods that naturally keep parasites away:
• Garlic, onions
• Ginger, cloves, cinnamon
• Pumpkin seeds, papaya seeds
• Pineapple and pomegranate
• Coconut oil
• Raw carrots, beets
• Bitter greens (dandelion, arugula, watercress)

These foods disrupt parasite biofilms, strengthen digestion, improve bile flow, raise oxygenation, and keep the bowels moving — all things parasites hate.

Foods parasites love:
• Sugar
• Refined carbs
• Processed oils
• Heavy mucus-forming foods
• Overcooked, dead foods
• Alcohol
• Chemical-laden junk foods

When the body is fed these regularly, stagnation builds — and parasites thrive in stagnation.

The real preventative lifestyle:
• Stay hydrated and mineralized
• Move daily
• Keep bowels open and regular
• Support the liver
• Reduce mucus and acidity
• Keep circulation strong

Strong terrain = no welcome mat for parasites.

⸻

THE DANGER OF AGGRESSIVE PARASITE CLEANSING

Parasite cleanses can be powerful — but “powerful” does not mean “go hard, go fast, kill everything in sight.”

An aggressive cleanse done too quickly can overwhelm the body.

Why?

When parasites die off rapidly, they release:
• ammonia
• gases
• metabolic toxins
• neurotoxins
• fungal waste
• debris from biofilm

If the liver, lymph, and colon aren’t fully ready to handle that load, toxicity skyrockets.
That’s when people get:
• headaches
• nausea
• rashes
• dizziness
• anxiety
• heart flutters
• flu-like symptoms
• severe fatigue

This isn’t “healing.”
It’s overloading the body because the cleanse was too aggressive.

The biggest mistake people make:

Jumping straight into strong herbs without preparing the terrain.

A proper cleanse ALWAYS goes in this order:

OPEN → SUPPORT → THEN KILL.

Open the bowels.
Support the liver.
Get lymph moving.
Strengthen digestion.
Increase hydration.
Then slowly introduce parasite-clearing herbs.

Skipping these steps can make a person sicker than they were before the cleanse even started.

⸻

FASTING: ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL (AND NATURAL) PREVENTATIVE TOOLS

Fasting doesn’t “kill parasites” directly — it removes the environment they depend on.

Parasites need:
• sugar
• mucus
• stagnation
• undigested food
• slow digestion

Fasting removes all of that.
It oxygenates the terrain, strengthens autophagy, gives the digestive system a break, and frees up energy for detox and repair.

Why fasting works as prevention and cleanup:
• It starves what parasites feed on
• It reduces mucus and acidity
• It resets digestion
• It gets the lymph moving
• It clears waste that parasites cling to
• It strengthens the terrain at a cellular level

Intermittent fasting, 24-hour fasts, or fruit-based mono-meals each serve a role in keeping the terrain clean and uninviting.

The key:
The colon must be moving and hydration must be strong — otherwise toxins loosen but don’t leave.

⸻

THE SUSHI MYTH: FEAR MONGERING VS. TERRAIN REALITY

One of the most common parasite myths is the idea that “you must avoid sushi or you’ll get parasites.”

This is classic fear rhetoric that completely ignores the real issue: terrain.

Japanese people eat sushi regularly — often daily — and do not experience the parasitic horror stories Western posts love to dramatize.

Why sushi itself isn’t the problem:
• High-quality sushi fish is often frozen beforehand, which disrupts many parasite forms
• Traditional Japanese diets include anti-parasitic foods like ginger, wasabi, and fermented sides
• Their overall lifestyle supports digestion, circulation, and terrain strength far more than Western diets

Parasites don’t invade because you ate sushi.
They invade because your terrain was already compromised — congested, stagnant, or weakened — and sushi happened to be the opportunity, not the cause.

The REAL truth:

It’s not “sushi → parasites.”
It’s poor terrain + raw food → easier access.

Strengthen the terrain, support digestion, use common sense with food quality, and enjoying sushi occasionally is perfectly fine.

⸻

THE BOTTOM LINE

Parasites don’t thrive in strong, clean, oxygenated terrain.
They thrive in weak, stagnant, congested terrain.

Daily prevention keeps the body uninviting.
Smart cleansing avoids overwhelming the system.
Fasting resets the terrain and removes the food source.
And sushi isn’t the villain — a weak terrain is.

Keep the terrain strong, and parasites simply don’t have a place to stay 🔥

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