Pelvic health every day
Being mindful of your pelvic health can seem like a labyrinth, after all we are normally pretty out of touch with down there. Until something goes awry that is, then it’s all we can think about. Navigating new uncomfortable or even painful pelvic floor symptoms can be difficult, we’ve lost the norm and are suddenly so aware of our pelvic floors that it’s difficult to remember how we moved and were before - what was the norm?
We need to get to know our bodies again, and there might be some trauma attached to your symptoms, attached to your body, which might make getting to know your body an even more painful experience.
There are many tips out there, lots of advice and things to consider, movements, breathing and postures to consentrate on. And suddenly our movement patterns are stiff and unnatural, we avoid certain movements and hold our bodies rigidly. What I mean when I say “being mindful of your pelvic health can seem like a labyrinth” is the untangling of these rigid and fearful movement patterns that have come on unconsciously. But now we need to rediscover how we held our bodies before, what is our natural state.
I’m listing just 3 easy every day pelvic floor habits below that will be easy to think about daily and hopefully make you more relaxed and help your body work and do what it’s meant to do.
Use a poo stool. Place a step, a stack of books or a little box under your feet when you sit on the toilet. The aim is to bring your knees above your hips. It helps to align your bowel so that poo can exit better and with less straining. Think about evolution, our bodies have evolved and adjusted over hundreds and thousands of years to poo squatting. Constipation and straining are both tough on the pelvic floor so it’s a good idea to make sure you eat enough finer to keep stools soft and to avoid straining.
Don’t hold your tummy in. Difficult I know, but the increase in pressure will have to go somewhere and it will find your weakest point. And even if you don’t have any pelvic floor symptoms, holding your tummy in can affect your digestion and it may make your breathing shallower as your diaphragm won’t have the space it needs to function.
And that brings us to the third point - relax and breathe! Breathing is obviously so important but oh my isn’t it important! Good diaphragmatic breathing isn’t only essential to our core function (of which the pelvic floor is a part of!), but it also helps to activate our parasympathetic nervous system which brings stress levels down and will help you to calm down from the stresses of life. This is important to your well-being in so many different ways. The combination of stress and pelvic floor is a whole different matter which I will cover more in another blog post, but for now, just breathe. Every cell in your body needs you to breathe in order to function and live.
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