The Power of Myofascial Release for Chronic Pain with Rachel Pecora, LMT

Summary:

Rachel is a licensed massage therapist and an advanced John F Barnes myofascial release therapist. She specializes in chronic pain and helps people suffering with neck pain, chronic migraines and other mystery pains.

 Searching for ways to help herself and clients heal from various chronic pain, Rachel found her solution with myofascial release. She is the owner/operator of Northeast Ohio Myofascial Release and hosts the podcast called Return to Ease. 

Rachel Pecora discussed her experience with chronic neck pain after a car accident and how she found relief with Myofascial Release. 

Rachel Pecora found that myofascial release, yoga, acupuncture, and balancing her pelvis were helpful in managing her chronic pain.

She also recommends using softer treatment surfaces, foam rollers, and five inch balls for self-treatment. She suggests stretching the fascia tissue to release anti-inflammatory substances and restructure the connective tissue.

Rachel Pecora discussed how her physical pain was caused by trauma from her childhood, and how she used a combination of physical work, mindset coaching, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, yoga, and other treatments to heal.

She emphasized the importance of acknowledging and forgiving past versions of herself and her family, and grounding herself to bring awareness back to her body.

Rachel discussed her healing journey and how she uses journaling, gratitude, grounding, and micro-actions to help her on her journey. She also discussed her podcast, Return to Ease, which focuses on living with intention and includes daily practices.

Lastly, she encouraged the audience to write down their feelings and make space for the good stuff to take over.

You can check her out here:

website www.neomyofascaialrelease.com

Instagram www.instagram.com/northeastohiomyofascialrelease

Link to podcast https://returntoease.alitu.com/  

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everyone, welcome back to health. Is Pow her, I amm going to introduce you to Rachel Pecora. She is a licensed massage therapist and a advanced John F. Barns Mil facial release therapist. Which is the bomb. And she also specializes in chronic pain and helps people suffering with all kinds of different chronic pain syndromes, including neck pain, chronic migraines, headaches, other, you know, vague pains.

4:46 - Anna Esparham

And she actually kind of got into this finding out how to help herself and her own clients heal from all these different chronic pain syndromes and She found her solution with Myo Facial Release, and she is also the owner of Northeast Ohio Myo Facial Release and she hosts the podcast Return to Ease, so welcome to the show. Rachel Did I pronounce your last name right?

5:10 - Rachel Pecora

Thank you. It's great to be here.

5:14 - Anna Esparham

I just realized that.

5:16 - Rachel Pecora

Yep, par yep.

5:17 - Anna Esparham

It nice, okay, good, very good, so tell us a little bit about how you landed in Milfs or release, everyone always has an origin story, so it'll be good to hear yours.

5:32 - Rachel Pecora

um so i've been a massage therapist licensed massage therapist since two thousand and seven and I got into uh traditional massage therapy to help people with chronic pain my mom always had chronic pain and she would talk about like how massage therapy was helpful to you know relax the muscles and I thought well maybe if I go to school for that I can I can help herr along with some of her her you know, pain problems. So I went to massage therapy school and I think like probably like while you're in massage therapy school, you're signed up for some kind of like list.

6:08 - Rachel Pecora

So you get all these flyers in the mail from different, you know, Ceu providers and things like that. And I would always get these mild, fast release pamphlets in the mail. And I thought, boy, that looks really cool, but you know, I don't know if I'll ever be able to take one of those classes. You know, this just so many years ago now and So anyway, I entered into like the massage therapy world and I started treating uh, people, you know, for chronic pain, just relaxation, whatever the, you know, the thing was.

6:40 - Rachel Pecora

Got into a car accident while I was in massage therapy school and I was rear ended and it was like a really mild car accident. There wasn't even any like damage to my car, but it was enough to like give me some whip lash and you know, I was young and I was like, I'm fine. Like I don't have anything broken. So I, you know, I just went about my day and then, you know, as the afternoon evening set in, I started having some like tightness in my neck and I was like, Oh man, this is, this is something I haven't experienced before.

7:10 - Rachel Pecora

And I was in massage therapy school, so my teachers would, you know, talk about like how you can help yourself and And I was just like, okay, whatever, it's really not that big of a deal, but like over time the tightness and the pain really started to set into my body. And then I, you know, went into the massage therapy industry and I started treating people with chronic pain and I was like, Oh, I can relate to this because now I'm experiencing the same things that they're talking about and they're coming to me for help, but I don't even know how to help myself.

7:43 - Rachel Pecora

And so it was kind of this like frustrating battle of how do I help them, But like I also need help for myself. And so I would study all this stuff and I would research things and I would take like different classes and um. Anything I could get information about, like pain relief. I was like looking into it because I'm thinking, oh, there's gotta be an answer out there. All the while I'm getting these flyers in the mail for these John Barnes classes, and I'm thinking that looks so cool.

8:13 - Rachel Pecora

Like one day I'm gonna take one of those classes. I have no idea what my Fash release is, even though I've gone to school for massage therapy. The like limited discussion about what Fash it even was was, you know, so small. They're still talking. You know, when I went to school they were still calling it packing material and like it wasn't effective in the body, like this doesn't have any effect on the body, it's just, you know, connective tissue. It's like, okay, well that doesn't make sensee, but whatever anyway.

8:41 - Rachel Pecora

I, I got a flyer in the mail a few years ago for a John Barnes Mou facial release class and it was finally like far enough in advance. It wasn't like next weekend that I could like take off of work and I could um s. Gave up money to go because they're not really that cheap. And it was actually like not too far from me, so I didn't have to travel very far. So I thought, I'll just go take this class and you know, I'll just get some more tools to put under my tool belt. I can help people, you know, and bring something back, I'm sure.

9:13 - Rachel Pecora

And I walked into that class not having ever been treated or having that kind of treatment, and I was like, what is this? This is, this is so different than anything, you know, I've tried all these other modalities and I've done all different types of continue education and this is like nothing that I've even come close to experiencing. So I thought that was pretty cool and I'm hearing all these stories of like, like miracles, I guess if you will, as in my mind I'm like, what is this?

9:43 - Rachel Pecora

People are saying that they feel better. How is this possible? So I, you know, I was like really excited and I would go back to my clinic that I worked in, I worked for someone at the time franchise and they would, you know, I was telling all my coworkers. Like I just took this M fast release class. It is so wild and nobody wanted to hear about it, but in my mind, I thought, this is great, I have to keep doing this. So I just kept taking classes and then I started getting treatments and um, once I started taking more classes and getting more treatments, I was able to find that this was actually really helpful.

10:18 - Rachel Pecora

Like I'm starting to find relief with this too. And so now I'm like really excited because if I can find relief for myself, then there's gotta be hope that I could help the people that are coming to me with chronic pain that they've dealt with for years too. So that was pretty, pretty great to, you know, find something that was inspiring for myself and kind of gave me a whole new outlook on what is actually possible for healing and um, you know, what kind of possibilities are out there for people that don't have hope to find a different life, that this is all they know is chronic pain.

10:54 - Rachel Pecora

Because I know it affected me, you know, in my personal life too. Not only just having a having pain all the time in my neck and shoulders, but my relationships were affected as well because, you know, people don't wanna listen to you complain about pain and they don't wanna hear that you have pain or that you don't feel good. Because if they don't understand it, they can't relate to it. Then it's just kind of like annoying and they don't want to talk about it and you know, you need to fix yourself.

11:23 - Rachel Pecora

So okay, yeah, I do need to fix myself. But so my relationship suffered and there was, you know, an internal battle of like something's wrong with me, you know, there's something wrong with me and um, yeah, So finding the Milfs release really helped me peel back layers and layers of things that have happened to me over my lifetime and um, really feel so much better in my body. So now I get to help people, with that experience, I work one on one with clients in, in my office and I, I give them hope for better life and um, you know, part of their journey, on their healing journey.

12:02 - Rachel Pecora

So yeah,

12:04 - Anna Esparham

It's interesting how car accidents or other, you know, physical traumatic injuries. We develop so many adaptations to those injuries. I, I remember I got rear ended once and that's what started my Neck pain too, it's just it, it, that neck pain will flare when I'm under stress. It took me several years to get, but I did Milfs release and I did massage and I did acupuncture and I did Omm. So osteopathic manipulative medicine, which help probably the most for me, and, but it will flare up.

12:42 - Anna Esparham

It's like a weakness now where it will flare up when I'm under like super severe stress.

12:49 - Rachel Pecora

same. I mean, you know, I, I look back on my journey and it's like I had so much pain that it was all I thought about. It consumed my life. Constantly and it was really awful to not be able to have, be present and enjoy my life because that's all I was thinking about. But kind of like what you're saying. I still have moments of discomfort. There's always going to be something that happens to our bodies. We're gonna reinjure ourselves, We're gonna do things that, you know, screw up our body a little bit.

13:22 - Rachel Pecora

But I never have the same kind of pain that I had. It comes and goes and I'll have, you know, like you said, moments of stress and it's like, oh wow, I can really feel this and it, it is that little weak spot in my body. But I've still been able to do things that I never was able to do when I had this severe chronic pain. I've been able to work through it and I know that if I do injure myself or something happens, you know, I, I like to ride a bike. So I'm like biking like long distances and um, lots of miles and I know like it's okay, I'm not gonna be of, I'm not gonna be a ball of mess.

13:58 - Rachel Pecora

I can just get some mouth fash releas. I'll feel better afterwards. So it's like I don't have that fear in my body because I know like what's possible on the other side. So yeah, I still get some, some tightness too, like I think we all do, but um, it is on a completely different level and it's way more manageable and I'm able to like recognize it before it gets out control and like consuming So.

14:17 - Anna Esparham

Can do your own mild facial release in certain.

14:26 - Rachel Pecora

There's like, there's quite a few self treatment things that you can do. I use, oh gosh, I have like a variety of tools and things that I use, I actually have these, let's see if I have one around, I have these balls that I use, let me grab one, I'll show you. So I have these like four or five inch balls, they're like just like a vinyl ball, But they're like inflatable and they are soft but like hard at the same time and they provide like a wonderful resistance to the soft tissue. So I use one of these a lot.

15:10 - Rachel Pecora

This one is a, this is a five inch ball, so it's a little bit bigger.

15:12 - Anna Esparham

Okay, and we just, is it, how do we find, is it that like on Amazon and we just Google like,

15:20 - Rachel Pecora

I order mine wholesale,

15:21 - Anna Esparham

Okay,

15:22 - Rachel Pecora

but you can get them. There's different balls on um. I think. Amazon Yeah, you can get different ones.

15:28 - Anna Esparham

okay, okay.

15:30 - Rachel Pecora

there is lots of different tools out there. I like things that are softer because I find that for my body personally, having a softer treatment surface is better. It's not as jaring to my system, but some people really like, you know, more pressure and that's what they feel. That's helpful for them. But I like to start off easy. I use different film rollers too, but more in, like a static way rather than, you know, your traditional rolling back and forth where it's just like rolling over the tissue over and over.

16:02 - Rachel Pecora

I use them for more like pressure, static pressure releases. So yeah, I do a lott of self treatment. I try to balance my pelvis every day, at least in the morning. Sometimes I do it twice a day. That way I can start with a good foundation and Um, so I incorporate, I mean I incorporate all kinds of things, a little bit of yoga, so a little bit of everything.

16:25 - Anna Esparham

What is balance? The pelvis.

16:30 - Rachel Pecora

I'm sure you're familiar with it, with your background. But so our, you know, our pelvis will kind of get out of alignment and sometimes will have um, maybe like an up slip where the pelvis is higher on one side or the front of the pelvis is rotated more anteriorly or posteriorly. So for me, I happen to have just like an anterior rotation on one side and it's also up slip so it's higher on one side. So I kind of walk on an uneven surface just from tightness in that, on my right hip. So I try to start off by Um, taking that up, slip out and then the rotation so that it kind of is more level and then I have like a level.

17:13 - Rachel Pecora

Pubic bone. And so that I'm at least walking around stable. So I do that before I start exercising and after I started exercising or like before and after I ride my bike for a long distance because that like repetitive motion is, you know, kind of hard on the hips. So Those things help cause when my pelvis is in alignment, then the rest of my body feels better.

17:36 - Anna Esparham

Yeah, it is funny how once your pelvis is out, and then everything else gets thrown out so like my neck and my shoulders, my thoracic and oftentimes it does come from my pelvis, sometimes it does come from a lot of injuries from my ankles which then throws off my pelvis. So some, I mean everything's all connected for sure,

17:56 - Rachel Pecora

All right.

17:57 - Anna Esparham

which I have a couple questions, so two questions, okay, tell us a little bit like some of the techniques on how you balance your pelvis, is it through Mil, facial release or through different stretches or exercises and then two. For the audience out there who may not know. Mil Facial release Can you explain like to the lay person, what is mild facial release?

18:22 - Rachel Pecora

yeah, so um. I balance my P, I'll start with the pelvis part. I balance my pelvis um, with some kind of uh, mobilization techniques that I've learned through mild Fasher release, kind of give some like resistance to My hips, I kind of have like an active resistance against them. I'm kind of like pressing with my heels down to the ground to like shift my pelvis down to kind of guide the, the hip down. And then I do like a squeeze with. I use a yoga blog. Sometimes I use the the five inch ball between but I'll squeeze between my knees to kind of reset that pubic symphysis area because a lot of times that's like out because i've been walking around with a a wonky pelvis and so it kind of clicks back into place and like oh okay now we're now we're set we're good to go um but when my pelvis is balanced and aligned then I have like more strength than my a doctors and so then I I feel that stability because sometimes when I when I don't do it it's like real wobbly and weak feeling um yeah I start with that um I also will treat myself as um with a four or five inch ball and I'll just kind of lay on that on my stomach um and get that good spot that feels kind of like a good hurt inside where it's not tooo painful but like I feel some some resistance and then I just lay on that probably for five ten fifteen minutes depending on how long it takes for it to release sometimes it it takes a long time um but you can do that with a variety of different balls or um Sometimes a foam roller is helpful to get into the, the so as.

20:04 - Rachel Pecora

But I find that treating myself as really helps with a lot of things in my body. So the so as is in the, the abdomen. So I go in like a couple inches lateral of my belly button to find that that sweet spot of a good tender spot, so back to my fast release. The fascia is our connective tissue in our body, so it runs from our head to our toes in one continual sheath, around our or organs and our bones and our muscles and it runs through the muscles and it holds our organs in place and it holds like it holds us up, it gives us our structure, to our body.

20:44 - Rachel Pecora

So typically the fibers should be able to glide over each other in a smooth fashion. But when we have injuries or trauma or surgeries or scars or something like that, the tissues tend to get a little thicker and they start maybe sometimes there's scar tissue there and so they start laying down more collagen fibers and become kind of stuck together, more glued down so the fibers don't glide as easily. And then when the fibers don't gliding as easily, we tend to have some stiffness or achiness.

21:18 - Rachel Pecora

Sometimes that fascia is compressing on nerves or the bones are, you know, being pressed on because it's so tight. We have gravity that's playing into a factor into that, so it's pulling us down even further. And so I like to explain facia as um, kind of like a spider web. So if you are to outs stretch your arms sideways, you may feel a pull from your fingertips all the way up to your chest. That poll that you're feeling is generally your fasci or that you're experiencing, if you look at like a raw piece of chicken, it's that white clear substance that's on the outside that's like real dense and fibrous.

21:58 - Rachel Pecora

That's what That's what our facial looks like in our body too. So plays an important role in our body to keep things moving through the nutrients. And it's it, the facial system touches all the rest of our organs and systems in our body, so it plays an important role. So it's amazing to me that when I was in school they were like, there's no point to this, like, okay, so I'm sorry.

22:22 - Anna Esparham

is so funny. When was that, when was that uh, school like when did you go? Like I'm trying to think, like when they thought that Oh really,

22:31 - Rachel Pecora

it was like two thousand and six it wasn't that long ago.

22:35 - Anna Esparham

oh wow, okay, so it was okay, interesting. Yeah, maybe all the fascia stuff was like right after that. We studied it a lot as acupuncturists. There's been a lot of It was actually Helene Linja Van, who's the Cci director at the National Complementary Centers of Integrative Health and Complementary Medicine, and she actually was the one who did quite a bit of study on how important the fascia is for pain and and also how acupuncture, when you insert the needle in the connective tissue, it actually winds the connective tissue up and stretches those fibroblasts, which are the cells of the connective tissue.

23:16 - Anna Esparham

And so, so when you stretch that tissue or Those cells of the connective tissue of that facia, what happens is it releases all these anti inflammatory substances that actually decrease pain itself and restructure the connective tissue just by stretching it for a few minutes. And so that's why they've studied yoga is also that's how yoga works, is by and myo fascia release as well, by stretching that facia tissue, it actually restructures and regenerates the tissue. So I thought that was super cool.

23:52 - Rachel Pecora

And I, yeah, I totally agree. I think there is a lot of parallels to those therapies and yoga is like one of my Favorite self care things to do I think it's really important for our body. We need that dynamic movement. Everyone can benefit from that in some capacity. And a lot of mil fast releas stretching is similar to some of the yoga, you know, some of the yoga things and I think, and I can't speak on it too specifically, you probably could more, but I think that a lot of times the, some of the acupuncture points that you're working on are along the meridian lines, but they are similar to some of the facial lines that we have in our body.

24:32 - Rachel Pecora

So I always think that's fascinating too, because I've had a lot of acupuncture and that's been helpful for me as well too, you know, incorporate into my healing journey and for all kinds of things.

24:43 - Anna Esparham

I know I should do more acupuncture on myself.

24:45 - Rachel Pecora

I use acupuncture for a lot of different things.

24:45 - Anna Esparham

I kept thinking about that this weekend I was having, I had this like I did, I did some kind of workout and did a new exercise and then my shoulder was like killing me and I was like, I need to do acupuncture myself. I hate needling myself. I do, I cannot. It takes so much energy for me to just start needling myself. It is and I'm fine, I'm fine if any. I don't have any pain or any problems with other people doing it on me. I, people can poke me. I mean I'm, I am. So I have a high pain threshold, but I don't know why I cannot do it on myself.

25:16 - Anna Esparham

I really have to get over that. So it would be so much better if I did that. I wanna do my balance, the pelvis too. In the mornings. I want to have that as my kind of morning ritual. I don't have much of a kind of looking at the fascia and kind of getting all my imbalances, especially my muscle Weaknesses O ca, I do have muscle weaknesses and it does contribute to adaptations and, and mild facial pain elsewhere in my body, so um, I might start incorporating that as well.

25:50 - Rachel Pecora

I can send you some info on what I used to do it, it's easier to just show you. Rather,

25:56 - Anna Esparham

Yes,

25:56 - Rachel Pecora

I can't really explain it,

25:56 - Anna Esparham

totally easy. I know it's so much easier.

25:58 - Rachel Pecora

like no one is going to get it.

25:59 - Anna Esparham

Oh totally, yeah, yeah, we'll have to do something like a collaboration where we can do a video like thing for people that would be fun,

26:08 - Rachel Pecora

Bye.

26:11 - Anna Esparham

tell us because I know. Both of us who have suffered from chronic pain and, and we both use Mfe release and I guess acupuncture too. We both have similar stories. What, what other Because chronic pain, you know, it does take a village. And so what were some other techniques or therapies or life changes or even tiny habits that you incorporated into your life and still continue to? He ill from chronic pain.

26:42 - Rachel Pecora

Through my Myo fast release journey, I found, you know, so I, I had this car accident and I thought that that was always like the start of my chronic pain because that's when I really started like paying attention to it and it started really affecting my life was after that I developed like fibromyalgia and I was like seeing, apologist when I was like 19 years old and they're, you know, they're like, oh, well, you just have fibromyalgia and so like you just have to deal with this and um, yeah, just take some antidepressants and then that's, that's really all we have for you right now.

27:11 - Rachel Pecora

And I was like, I, I don't want to take antidepressants, I'm not gonna do that. So I dealt with fibromyalgia pain for for years and it was awful and um, that also played a part into like depression and anxiety and you know, there's a whole lot of things that go into it. But um, through the myo facial release journey, I found that my My pain was really coming from things that had happened like much longer ago, like when I was a kid. I had some accidents as a kid. I had a pretty significant fall when I was, I don't know, eight or nine or so, maybe ten.

27:50 - Rachel Pecora

I was on a tree swing and my friend and I were, you know, swinging back and forth on this tree, swinging and the rope broke and I came down, you know, mid air on my back and I landed. On my spine and I hit my head and I had like the worst brain pain ever, you know, And I'm, I'm a little kid, so I'm like, I don't know, my head just hurts really badly and you know, I had a concussion. But back in the day there was no protocol for that and I wasn't at home. I was with my friend and I'm sure that my mom didn't, you know, think that there was really anything wrong with me because nothing was broken, I didn't have any, you know, bruising or anything.

28:25 - Rachel Pecora

So we didn't go to the Dr., or really, you know, do anything. But I can remember having pain and headaches for like for a long time after that and um, all kinds of things started after that and I would have like lots of pain as a kid growing up, and my mom would take me to doctors and um, I would be in physical therapy and I'd had Mris and, you know, all sorts of things and nothing was getting, you know, better. And it's like, okay, I guess they just like no one believed me. They just thought it was like growing pains or you know, whatever.

28:57 - Rachel Pecora

And things were always present in my body and there's you know, a history of like just family trauma and just lots of things that happen, right? You know, like the lifetime of stuff and then. So I think that this incident with my car accident just kind of triggered that, you know, all that stuff came back to my body and so I With the M facial release, I started realizing like, yeah, the car accident was a part of this, but like the stuff that started, it was much earlier in my lifetime. So starting to deal with those types of things were helpful and look at them in different lights with different, different mindsets, so.

29:45 - Rachel Pecora

I started doing yoga and um, I had, I've done like hypnotherapy, I've had acupuncture, you know, I've done all these different things. I've worked with um, like mindset coaches, businesss. Coaches. And honestly, the change in my mindset was the biggest part for me and doing a lot of inner mindset work. The physical work, the hands on work is wonderful. I love body work. It's always gonna be my like favorite thing, but it really comes with changing my mindset and really having a good connection to my own body and listening to what's going on.

30:27 - Rachel Pecora

And so those things took a long time, you know, And it really takes years of figuring yourself out and really finding out what, like what is the core behind all of this. And I had different mindsets and different belief systems about things that have happened over my lifetime that probably weren't true. But those are just stories that I carried in my mind about the things that happened to me. And so reframing those stories or looking at them with more tenderness and compassion has been A really big change.

31:00 - Anna Esparham

Was that like going from victimhood to Becoming more empowered or, or tell us a little bit more about where you were in terms of your mindset and then where you're at now.

31:13 - Rachel Pecora

So I think some of it's victimhood, definitely. And then I think some of it's just not having a a good like family background to like teach you other things. Then like what is, you know, brought up in most cultures and societies and families, like most of us deal with the same kind of things. Like the families are just no one's got a great, you know, perfect life. So, there was just a lot of things that you know, my family didn't teach me about and I didn't know that I could think differently.

31:46 - Rachel Pecora

There was no like no one told me I could have a different thought about something. I just thought my thoughts were facts and that there was no change in them and that I couldn't, you know. And now I look at it like, oh, I can change the thoughts that I have about the things and um, I did have like a victim mentality, but I have to give myself compassion for the things that happen. A lot of those things I didn't even want to look at, I didn't even want to acknowledge them, So have to acknowledge them in order to deal with it.

32:18 - Rachel Pecora

And it's the same with body work. You have to feel your way through it to heal it. So it has to be kind of messy and uncomfortable to let it go.

32:29 - Anna Esparham

It is interesting how you do have to feel in order to heal. And it is that is so much easier to say than it sounds. But having all these tools which you did, you know, you had a mindset coach, you did hypnotherapy even along with the physical work, cause also releasing a lot of those somatic emotions from the body while you're dealing with a lot of trauma from the past, you know, even if it's small trauma, I mean, sometimes these things can just sit in our body even like something small, like a teacher says to you, that just kind of derails you for life.

33:03 - Anna Esparham

And I, I remember cause I couldn't speak English super well. I don't know if that's because I grew up in a multicultural household and um, my parents were busy, you know, they were trying to survive, you know, they had to work all the time and you know, maybe that's another reason whyy I didn't, you know, progress super quickly in kindergarten or 1st grade in terms of English and language arts and reading and writing. And so, you know, like a teacher, they would just remember the teachers getting so frustrated with me.

33:36 - Anna Esparham

That I couldn't like progress as fast as the other kids. And, and I think that stuck with me for a, a while. So I mean even something like small as that was just a little traumatic. Just like how you can compare your worth based on what someone set something says about you.

33:46 - Rachel Pecora

None.

33:53 - Anna Esparham

and how you can manifest that into your inner reality when it's really not yours, it's someone else's portrayal of you. And they're going through their own stuff and so we just have to be very careful of that. But yeah, so anyway the side note.

34:08 - Rachel Pecora

No, I think that that's true because, you know, as simple as it, as silly as it might sound like when I had my injury with my, my friend, like she's my best friend, she's still my friend today. We, we've been friends for, you know, 30 years and um, when I got injured with Herr, she thought we would get in trouble, that we were on this rope swinging at her house and that it broke. And so we didn't tell anybody. And so she tried to, you know, like cover it up, like it's okay, it's fine, stop crying, you know, it'll be okay, you know, eventually I stop crying.

34:35 - Rachel Pecora

But you know, in the back of my mind or in my mind, my head is like, Oh my god, it's gonna explode. It hurt so bad, I don't know what's wrong with me. And so I think that that just kind of like that secret, you know, it, it wasn't like nothing went wrong, like we weren't in trouble. Her mom, you know, didn't know about it, I don't think, but I think like no one knowing about it, it like there was no, no one believed me, so it didn't seem real, so it was like the secret in my body. Even though like by the time I realized that that's what would happened or that ha that's what happened I didn't even think I was like that's what this is like it seemed so small but it had such a big impact on my life and it's like wow you know and I look back on other things that come up during body work and different treatments and it's like those were things that I thought weren't really big deals and they actually have the most profound effect on my physical body so you know when I work with people I always like I want to know all the details or I want them to at least think about all those little things that maybe they haven't thought about for twenty thirty years and like those really do affect us more than than we give the credit for so.

35:46 - Anna Esparham

Do you, do you feel like when you talk about compassion, especially, you know, working through all these feelings that we kind of put into our physical body, do you feel there needed to be a lot of forgiveness either for others or for yourself?

36:03 - Rachel Pecora

Oh yeah, definitely, yeah, I think that, you know. We have to forgive past versions of ourselves for only doing what we know how to do. We don't know, we don't know. And so. You know, I used to be, I would be angry with my family for various reasons, you know, for whatever, whatever it maybe it was. And it's like I look back on things now and it's like they were doing the best that they could do, They didn't, they didn't know anything different. So I can't really be upset with what, you know, that's was what they were functioning with and for myself too.

36:40 - Rachel Pecora

You know, I created my own reality with my own thoughts and it's like, okay, I can forgive those, those thoughts that I had. Like, I don't have to still think that and a lot of it. You know, I work a lot with my inner child, I do my own inner healing on just different things. And it's like, okay, I have to have forgiveness for A mind that didn't know any better at the time. There's definitely a lot of forgiveness.

37:06 - Anna Esparham

And I still, I mean, sometimes it takes me of definitely more times than I think, like when I do my inner child meditations or my intuitive healing work, sometimes it takes me several times to really release it all. Because sometimes it's like hidden in different areas or energetic areas of my body and um, so sometimes I have to come back to it and sometimes it'll hit me like out of nowhere, a memory will hit me and I'll just get really tight and tense. My whole body will feel it and I'll and I'll get my heart rate will start to get faster, my breathing kind of shuts down and um, I'm, I'm just like, oh wow, I can't believe I'm still working through this.

37:46 - Anna Esparham

Why is this? I've been, try, I've forgiven this multiple times, but again it just reared its head and you do have to work with it and sit with it, feel it and, and forgive it. And it, how I have learned how to do it. I usually teach this in my medical, intuitive or Intuitive healing sessions with people or in my group coaching programs. For women with a lot of chronic pain. But typically it's about grounding yourself 1st, protecting yourself, using, you know, your source God, cosmic energy, whatever you call it, and um, and then using some kind of separation object so that you don't have to if it, especially if it is a very traumatic event that does trigger you, still you can separate yourself from that in your body.

38:39 - Anna Esparham

And so it's just nice to have a little separation from that. Forgiveness meditation.

38:45 - Rachel Pecora

definitely. I like to. I always like to ground myself too. And I, I work with this, I don't work with. I'm in this like women's group where I do weekly coaching with this women's group. And the women are from like all over the world. And there's a leader, she's like the counselor and she's wonderful and one of the biggest she is always big into like body practices. And one of the biggest things that I've taken away that I do all the time is it's so simple, but I just, I feel my feet on the floor and I feel my butt in the chair or if I'm not touching, if my butt is not touching something, it's just my feet or whatever.

39:24 - Rachel Pecora

But I notice those things while I'm noticing my breath. And she, she's like she drills that into her head and it's so silly, but like it works and it helps me so much to ground and to just if I'm having a moment where I'm like, okay, I'm really triggered right now or or my, you know, maybe my brain is spinning because my neck is tightening or I have a headache or whatever and you know, you kind of start spiraling on different thoughts and I just, okay, think about my feet, what is, what is my feet touching, what is my butt touching, what are my hands touching, you know, just something to draw my body back.

40:00 - Rachel Pecora

B Bring me back. Into my body and take the awareness out of my, my thinking mind. So yeah, it's important that we are grounded for sure.

40:10 - Anna Esparham

There's actually a lott of research now that is trying to look more at grounding yourself, not just even if visualize grounding, it almost is just as important as grounding, like earthing or putting your bare feet in the grass and so,

40:27 - Rachel Pecora

Nickel.

40:27 - Anna Esparham

so yeah, it'd be interesting to see what else comes out of the research, out of grounding because there is some sort of peace with that and and it does change our healing journey, and I think it adds to it very much. So no,

40:45 - Rachel Pecora

Well oh,

40:47 - Anna Esparham

go ahead.

40:48 - Rachel Pecora

Well, I was just gonna say, you know, we're all like energetic being, so we all pick up on, you know, source, whatever your source is. We're all connected, we're all just, you know, an energetic mist in these bodies that we have here. On this earth, and I think that types of things. It helps me to put it into perspective when it's like, okay, I'm part of the rest of this that I'm seeing out here. So yeah, it makes sense that we're all grounded and we can ground because we're connected, you know, energetically.

41:17 - Rachel Pecora

The resource.

41:20 - Anna Esparham

one of my spiritual coaches actually, talked about how grounding is also very protective of you so that no other energies can kind of glom on to you because sometimes we carry, especially as healers and caregivers and practitioners, a lott of times sometimes we might carry other people's energy with us and so it does help ground that out too, super important for us. And tell us a little bit. Rachel About like currently, you know, we're always on a healing journey because we always are gonna deal with stress, we're always gonna deal with, you know, life's traumas.

41:54 - Anna Esparham

Are there, is there anything like currently, do you have a specific routine or ritual or things that you just continue to learn for your healing journey?

42:05 - Rachel Pecora

It's kind of ongoing. I'm connected to my intuition now, based on just kind of the last few years, how my journey has gone. Milfs release has helped me come back into my body to learn how to trust it. And the other things that I've done, you know, modals, yoga, hypnosis, acupuncture, those things always help too. My biggest thing that I do every day is, I always have a gratitude journal. So I always write my gratitude journal. That's really helpful for me to see positive because there's a lot of negative that's out there that we can easily find all the negative things.

42:45 - Rachel Pecora

It's so easy, you can look anything, everything's negative. But it's really helpful to find gratitude in my own body and in my own life. And it helps me really appreciate what I have. So I do that and I also do a lot of like thought downloading where I just like brain dump everything that's going on. If I'm having like a messy moment, it's not always good stuff, It's a lot of times it's not good stuff, but it helps to get it out of my brain because for me I will just keep spinning and spinning and thinking the same thoughts over and over and over again and They might be the same thought showing up in 20 different ways, but it's still the same thought.

43:24 - Rachel Pecora

So if I write it down, at least it's not in my head and I can, you know, look at it differently and then most of the time, once I've just written it down, I don't really have to do a whole lot of work with that, I just kind of like let it go. So um, some people like to verbalize those things if they don't like to write it down. But I'm, I just like tangible things, I'm very tangible. I need like hands on. So um, I like to write it down and I have like so many journals for different things, but yeah, journaling is really big for me.

43:54 - Rachel Pecora

Gratitude, and grounding, you know, really just kind of giving myself a moment. It doesn't have to be 20 min. It can be a minute to just stand in front of the mirror. Sometimes I do it while I brush my teeth, just feel my feet on the ground and, you know, feel my body and just kind of take a couple breaths and just notice where what I'm feeling and just kind of be with that instead of trying to change it. That used to be what I would do all the time. So I have to change whatever I'm feeling and now I just kind of notice it and I accept it.

44:23 - Rachel Pecora

So. That's my daily,

44:25 - Anna Esparham

I like that.

44:26 - Rachel Pecora

pretty much daily stuff.

44:28 - Anna Esparham

I love that, that's so amazing. Journaling is yeah, a big thing for me too and um, all last year I got too busy and and, you know, put it on the side and realized how much I have missed it and so I've definitely gotten back into the habit and it's just been so important as part of my, you know, daily healing routine. I don't know why, it's just so interesting about putting all the feelings and thoughts down on paper just in front of you. It's like almost like a transfer too.

44:58 - Rachel Pecora

Anyway.

45:01 - Anna Esparham

before we wrap up. Rachel is there, is there something like a big takeaway for the audience, that you wanted to talk about before we wrapped up?

45:13 - Rachel Pecora

I think that My big takeaway is to not put so much pressure on the journey of where you're, you know, the where you're going, but just focus on what's in front of you and those little micro things that you do daily really do add up to, your, you know, current journey. I always thought it was gonna be some magic wall that was gonna be waved and then I would magically be healed and all the things would be gone. And I really find that it's doing the things that are most uncomfortable, that get me to where I need to go and just doing them consistently daily.

45:51 - Rachel Pecora

So I like to look at it like exercise. That's kind of like my big thing. You know, you can go to the gym once, but you're not gonna see any results With one time at the gym. You have to go consistently for a long period of time before you see changes. And it's the same with body work and thought work and Your spiritual journey, your healing journey, all of those things are all one. So you just have to do a little micro, micro things to add up to the big things.

46:17 - Anna Esparham

That is big, Ah, I just so resonate with that. That is a huge takeaway. Thanks so much. Rachel Um, where can people find you?

46:29 - Rachel Pecora

so I have a website um it's n neo mile fasci or release dot com um that's where you can read more about me and um if you are in ohio you can work with me one on one I have Instagram, and Facebook. I'm at Northeast Ohio, Myo fast release on both of those. And I have, Returned to Ease podcast on Spotify, Google and Apple.

46:56 - Anna Esparham

Tell us a little bit about your podcast.

46:58 - Rachel Pecora

Yeah, so my podcast is called Return to Ease and I I have it designed to bring in little intentions for people to live with more intention in their lives. So there are some daily practices on there. It talks, we talk a little bit about my healing journey and how that's gotten to me, to where I am today. And I have guests that are, talking about things that help them and just, you know, all the little things that have helped me along the way, the things that I didn't know about before when I started my journey.

47:30 - Rachel Pecora

So I feel like it's helpful to kind of know like what things are even available if you have no idea where to start. So you're actually on my podcast.

47:40 - Anna Esparham

I think it, yeah, it airs this week, I think, right, doesn't it? Yeah, okay, okay, good. I'll, yeah, gotta promote it. So yeah, check out her podcast, she is great. Return to ease I'll put everything in the show notes as well as the podcast details for you guys to link to her. Check her out on Instagram as well, subscribe to Herr Podcast rate and review of course, she is really so grounded in helping people on their healing journey just because she knows cause she's been through it herself.

48:13 - Anna Esparham

And so a lot of us, you know, definitely turn our pain into our purpose so we can help others. So I am so happy you are here today. Rachel What an empowering story. It was so inspiring. I am so excited to learn more about your techniques on balancing the pelvis. I'm super excited. I think I've done that gut smash before. I think one of my physical therapists taught me that. Yeah, the gut smash, Anyway, thanks so much again and um, any last words?

48:46 - Rachel Pecora

Write down your feelings for today and see what happens.

48:49 - Anna Esparham

Oh good, yeah, that's what my life coach taught us every morning is write down our feelings.

48:56 - Rachel Pecora

Set a timer 5 min. That's all you got to do.

48:58 - Anna Esparham

That's it, no,

48:59 - Rachel Pecora

Yeah.

48:59 - Anna Esparham

that's what I said. I said that to my other client and um, we were doing a medical intuitive session and it just that. That's like been the biggest thing for a lot of my clients is intuitively that's what they need. Put it down, put it down and just keep, accepting, acknowledging, giving compassion for giving yourself, because it goes a long way, it's, it's so incredibly healing.

49:21 - Rachel Pecora

Yeah, I think when you make space and you let go of the stuff in your brain, you make space for the good stuff to take over, so allows more in.

49:29 - Anna Esparham

Okay, well, thanks, Rachel, everyone. We will see you in a couple weeks, and for now, take care.