FAT: the unsung sister to your fascinating fascia

For a long time fat, like its companion tissue fascia, has been a tissue quickly disposed of in the dissection lab; but I'm here to tell you that fat is overdue its day in the sun.

I want to place something called a Content Caution here as you, like me, might have an unsettled relationship with this tissue. Please read with care and affection for yourself.

I’ll put my cards on the table here: my fatty layer is a tissue I grew up to dislike; I objectified and judged myself through this tissue as much as any external gaze did. It’s true that fat and I still cohabit life somewhat uncomfortably, however, when I invite fat into my somatic explorations the shifts in our embodied relationship are astonishing.

Whatever your experience of the community of cells that we call fat, that warms, protects, supports, and squirrels away energy for hard times, I offer some ideas for you to explore.

1. WELCOME TO THE FACTS

Fat is vital for the life of our body. It is classified as a loose connective tissue and is made up of adipocytes (fat cells) contained in a delicate matrix of reticular fibres (type of collagen), each cell containing molecules of energy (mainly triglycerides). Fat cells can be colour-classified in three ways: white, brown and beige, each having slightly different functions. However, they all appear yellow due to the presence of a pigment in molecules called carotenoids, which affect the biology of the tissue in different ways in addition to lending it a colour.

We can locate adipose tissue between the dermis (deep layer of skin) and the fascia, surrounding internal organs, and within other abdominal structures, like the greater omentum and the mesentery. Adipocytes also form part of the yellow marrow that lives in the deep caverns of our bones. We can count on fat to provide internal support, protection, and thermo-regulation, and the fine reticular net that is cast through the body holds energy like tiny drops of sunlight in its warp and weft, ready to play its part in our metabolic homeostasis.

Along with this inherent dependability, fat is a dynamic medium; it’s very ‘chatty’. There are multiple endocrine conversations happening simultaneously to regulate tissue formation, storage and energy usage, and it is richly innervated with sympathetic nerve fibers as well as sensory neurons. We should also note the role of fat in our immune system, it has its own community of busy, circulating immune cells (macrophages) which play a role in our inflammatory responses.

The more I research adipose tissue, I find myself captivated by unexpected and hidden qualities that change the way I think and feel about fat and the way I want to invite it more into my conscious movement. I want to celebrate fat as much as its sister tissue, fascia.

1.Chrysanthemums. 2. Lace mesh fabric. 3. The Venus of Laussel

2. RE-IMAGINING FAT

Let your imagination move loosely around the facts of fat and allow it to give rise to spontaneous vocabulary, images, ideas, sounds, music, and stories. On my Pinterest boards, I have gathered images of among other things: textiles, garments, flowers, paintings, sculptures, and ancient figures.

In Spotify, I have two playlists for directing my attention to fat so that it might initiate and support my movement, whether I am improvising or practicing yoga shapes. The first has music that supports me in an inner directed way to the tissue itself, which feels personal, private, indulgent, and unctuous - this is fat expressing itself as itself. The second has more beat and rhythm to support more intentional movement that has a depth of strength quite different to that of muscles, yet complementary. This is fat expressing its dynamic, communicative and energetic nature.

In my journals, I have lists of words, doodles and imagined conversations with the “voice” of my fat. I find working with inner body dialogues is an intuitive pathway to get to know the stories of my tissues and, certainly in the case of my fat, the shadow stories or less integrated aspect of me. (By the way, you’ll see a word cloud below from the snap survey of three words associated with fat that I sent out to subscribers and IG followers.)

These creative methods can be the first steps in nurturing a new embodied relationship with this tissue, particularly if your existing relationship is unsettled or not serving you well.

*Premium subscribers to my Field Notes From the Body have access to my Companion Resource Library which includes my Pinterest boards, Spotify playlists, and guided audio and video practices.

3. MOVEMENT EXPLORATIONS

a) Visualise wearing an inner bodysuit of golden yellow satin. It’s not too close fitting, so that it can billow and glide beneath your skin and fold softly between your organs. Feel into this body suit around your limbs and torso.

b) Think about all words that describe the physiological nature of fat, for example smooth, warm, slip, slide and glide, buttery, undulating etc. Explore swaying - you can be sitting, standing, you could be considering your whole body, or a single limb - and then follow with circling and figure-eight movements, as if you are moving inside your skin. If there are places of hesitation or less clarity, then softly compress the tissues and release to invite these places into movement.

c) The second way is to connect with the dynamic intention of stored vitality. This is the mind of fat externally directed supporting your muscular skeletal system. It has intention and lends force to a shape or a movement. This isn’t so much about purposefulness (that is more likely to come from the embodiment of the lymphatic system) rather almost a sense of joy and surprise in the surge of energy, something set free to be itself in motion, something fulfilling and satisfying.

4. PRANA & APANA

Prāṇa is the yogic concept of a universal animating life force; human beings are called prāṇī in Sanskrit, beings of energy. This primary ocean of energy has several circulating currents and two of these currents are prāṇa and apāna. In simple terms, prāṇa animates movements inward and forward, and apāna movements outward and downward. We are familiar with prāṇa and inhalation and apāna with exhalation; or prāṇa with feeding and apāna with excretion .

The breathing techniques associated with prāṇāyāma are practiced with a view to replenishing and expanding available resources of prāṇa in the body. As a tissue of vitality, consider how adipocytes act as vessels for the storage of prāṇa, and how the two currents of prāṇa and apāna animate the cellular and molecular processes that move through this tissue.

Whenever we experience a sense of stuckness, a lack of energy, lethargy, or the weight of the world in our tissues, it’s possible these currents in our adipose tissue are out of balance or immobile in some way. We might usefully visualise a mobilisation of energy rippling through the surface of a lake of gold as a way to uplift our energy, and of course refresh supplies that may have been stored for some time.

1. Eris. Attic plate, c575–525 BC (Berlin) 2. Subscriber WordCoud. 3 Pinterest, model uncredited.

5. STORY TELLING

One of my teachers, Linda Hartley, speaks about fat as an “exiled” tissue (in the context of Western cultural norms). Words we associate with exile might include unwanted, silenced, homeless, ignored, and absent, and while these might not be my words I choose for my own fat, I recognise them in the world around me; maybe you do too.

Things that are ignored or rejected exist in the shadows and can arise uninvited to be seen and heard, to act in such a way that we do take notice. Interestingly, when material from our shadow arises, it is an opportunity to integrate aspects of ourselves that we have tucked away consciously or unconsciously. This all reminds me of the story of Eris, goddess of discord in Greek Mythology, who had no temples erected in her name.

Eris is the daughter of Nyx the goddess of the night and granddaugher of Chaos - that’s quite a geneaology - and her own offspring include personifications of Pseudea (lies), Neikea (quarrels), Dysnomia (anarchy), and Ate (ruin). It’s no wonder when not invited to a wedding, she decided to stir things up and bring a golden apple to the party that caused a vanity match between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. I won’t spoil the story but the single act of not inviting Eris to the celebrations sparked a series of events that culminated in the the decade long Trojan War.

There is however a lighter shadow of Eris, in that positive change also emerges from the shadow and often begins when the status quo is disrupted. Eris is fearless in this way too and stands for those who have been repressed and whose voices have been denied or diminished.

What might all this mean in the context of fat? Well, this could be the tissue that holds some shadow content for you, or this could be the tissue that embodies aspects of unwantedness. It may be the tissue that expresses unspokenness, or being misunderstood. I invite you to listen tenderly to all that arises as you attend to your fat somatically, even the voice of Eris. Maybe it whispers, maybe it roars, and maybe it heralds an overdue change that is waiting to begin.

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