glossary

Fascia is a strong, continuous, system-wide network providing form and function to your entire body. 

According to the Cleveland Clinic "fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every blood vessel, organ, bone, nerve, joint, tendon, and muscle in place." 

Inflammation and a lack of movement can make it tight and stuck, impeding our range of motion, causing pain, changing our posture, and impacting the function of everything it touches.

the gel-like fluid in our fascia that acts like a lubricant to allow our tissues to glide.

under stress, the body signals for HA to thicken by changing its molecular weight - a process called densification - to help protect the body and to conserve energy.

hyaluronic acid is a non-Newtonian fluid with a very cool physical property called thixotropy. Under pressure, this sticky gel can "melt" back into a liquid, restoring glide and releasing entrapment.

hyaluronic acid responds to lack of movement, stress, poor posture, emotions, hormones, sleep, and trauma by becoming thick and sticky.

This can trap other fluids in the fascia (lymph) and tiny nerve endings, signalling pain.

It’s not just a tight muscle; it’s a fascial system that has lost its glide.

The fascial layers get stuck together when the hyaluronic acid becomes gluey and stops gliding.

When tissues get stuck, it chokes off local capillaries, and traps tiny nerves where they pierce the fascia.

The compressed nerve endings send out stress signals of their own, reinforcing the densification.

Science Direct defines it as time-dependent property of certain non-Newtonian to reduce viscosity when subjected to external mechanical forces like shearing, shaking, or - the one we're interested in - pressure.

hyaluronic acid has this property, reducing its viscosity under mechanical stress, restoring fluid glide.

Your bodyweight creates pressure in your muscles between the (un)Block and your bones. 

The gluey hyaluronic acid between the layers of your fascia "melts" because of the mechanical pressure and small amounts of heat at the cellular level.

The temporary restriction of blood flow causes a surge of fresh blood and oxygen to the area, helping to speed up healing.

Holding each unwind position for at least 3 minutes works slowly and deeply (you're in control of depth, always) to unblock stuck fascia and muscle knots.

pain makes your body cringe away or brace, which means it is actively protecting you from a perceived threat.

It creates a biochemical stress response by releasing adrenalin and cortisol, which slows down healing.

It is non-negotiable that our unwind body works sessions be cringe-free

Our nervous system sends messages between our brain and our body, down the spinal cord, through the fascia and into nerves all over our body. 

 It is most well known for signals delivered to our nervous system under stress (fight, flight, freeze. and fawn) and regulation (social, rest, digest).  

Our nervous system controls our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, and even our memories, which vary wildly depending on our state of activation or regulation.

unwind helps our nervous system come back to calm-alive states from stress.

Derived from "soma" the Greek word for body, a fancy way of saying body-based. especially as it relates to your perception or experience of the body. 

The state and position of your body strongly informs the state of your nervous system, your mind, and your body chemistry (think: power pose vs slumping over). 

Somatic practices - like unwind - use your body to help make shifts on purpose.

Our vagus nerve is a cranial nerve. It is the main actor in our parasympathetic nervous system, controlling involuntary functions like our heart rate, digestion, and immune system. 

unwind supports the vagus nerve in several ways, directly and indirectly.

Each unwind session opens with a RESET - a nervous system regulation practice to shift your body from stress mode into rest and recovery - signalling safety to the vagus nerve.

Attunement is noticing what's happening to your body under stress. Simply put: you can't think your body out of nervous system activation. (Tony Robbins agrees, he just calls it using your body for "state change")

Attunement is the process of feeling what's going on and somatic or other practices to work with your body. Not ignoring it, or using your mind to try to force it to calm down.

unwind builds attunement and helps you learn the signals your body sends you every day, all day