Gentle Pelvic Mindful Movement

I am a GP with a special interest in chronic pelvic pain. This is a very gentle mostly lying mindful movement practice focused on the pelvis. Very relaxing and gives safety signals to the area that can genuinely reduce pain. Suitable for any woman but particularly if suffering from pelvic pain. For photos of the positions see my website.

Transcript

This gentle,

Mindful pelvic yoga was recorded by Adele Stewart,

GP and MBSR teacher.

There's a helpful PDF of photos that go with this recording which I'm happy to email you if you don't have it.

And I'd also like to give thanks to my beautiful yoga teacher Amanda for the inspiration for this recording.

So just coming and laying yourself down on your back on a mat on the ground.

Taking all the time you need to just let the day so far gently sink away.

Coming to invite this relationship with the ground.

So maybe you might like to feel the skull resting back.

Just noticing this relationship of the skull to the ground.

Perhaps even feeling a little bit of softening here in the skull.

You might even notice the softness of the brain resting in the bowl of the skull.

Maybe feeling the eyes.

Noticing if there's tension there.

Can you invite your eyeballs to rest in the eye sockets.

Just softening and letting go.

And you might notice the jaw.

Maybe some subtle tension there.

You might invite some softness in the jaws,

Maybe even smiling a little.

Noticing the softness and wetness of the inside of the mouth.

Tongue,

Palate.

Inside of the lips.

Noticing the spine now.

This beautiful river of a spine flowing from the skull all the way down to the sacrum and the tailbone.

You might feel the vertebra firstly in the neck.

Then you might notice the vertebra,

The spine behind the chest.

Then behind the waist.

Noticing the shoulder blades and their relationship to the ground.

Perhaps softening and spreading the shoulder blades out a bit.

Noticing how the arms and shoulders and hands feel.

Are you carrying a lot of tension and tightness from the day?

Perhaps there's some subtle tension in the hands or wrists or arms.

Can you invite a release,

A letting go of the shoulders,

The elbows,

The wrists,

The hands?

Perhaps having that sense of your hands gently cupping something really soft like little baby's hands.

Coming back to the spine now.

Noticing the lower spine,

The vertebra there.

Really noticing the connection of the sacrum with the ground.

Is it possible for that sacrum to give way,

Give way into the ground?

Coming to the front of your body now,

Noticing the quality of your heart and lungs.

Perhaps you can bring that little smile from the lips into the heart.

Noticing the digestive system now.

Starting from the mouth,

Travelling down the esophagus,

Down into the stomach.

And then further down into the intestines.

Can you have a sense of the beautiful softness and sponginess of the organs?

Coming into the bowl of the pelvis now.

Can you feel the organs within the pelvic bowl?

Again,

Beautiful,

Soft and spongy.

The bladder,

The uterus,

The ovaries.

And the intestines flowing down,

Their relationship to the hips.

And even the rectum and the anus.

Can you notice the soft quality of the rectum here?

And its relationship to the sacrum and tailbone.

Noticing the genitals.

Is there a way you can notice the softness,

The sponginess of all these parts?

Now feeling the buttocks and the hips.

You may even be able to invite the bones of the pelvis to soften and spread a little here.

Allowing the buttocks to spread.

Giving you some space in the hips.

Can you invite your thighs to let go and soften just a little bit more?

Noticing the relationship of the thighs and the knees.

Can there be a little more spaciousness in the knees?

Noticing the lower legs,

The calves.

Can you invite the heels to really rest on the ground?

Can you soften your feet and toes just a little more?

Perhaps you want to scrunch up the toes and then relax them.

Could your feet have the quality of little babies feet?

That lovely soft plump feeling.

Feeling the weight of gravity inviting the whole body to yield and rest.

Just being with this body lying on the earth.

Is it possible to be with this body with some love even?

Maybe you can even fill every cell of this body with love.

Or if that's too difficult,

Can there just be a little bit of kindness?

A little bit of gentleness for this body.

Maybe even having the attitude towards this body that you might have towards a baby.

Curiosity.

Softness.

Kindness.

Gentleness.

Can you invite a sense of being really present with your body right here,

Right now?

You might choose to have that relationship with the body anchored in the breath.

The flow of the inhale and the exhale.

Or maybe noticing the general body sensations.

Whatever might assist you to really land into this body.

Noticing the contact of the body with the ground.

The flow of sensations.

The breath.

When you're ready,

Just maybe gently placing your hand on your lower belly.

I invite you to bend your knees and place your feet on the ground.

I'm going to do a little bit of gentle,

Slow breathing now.

As you're breathing in,

Notice your belly gently expanding.

As you breathe out,

Notice the belly gently condensing in.

Notice if perhaps the breath is slowing down a little.

Seeing if you can make the out breath just that little bit longer than the in breath.

Also if it takes a count of three or four to breathe in.

Perhaps see if your breath out can last for about a count of five or six.

Just letting go of the counting now.

Noticing the quality of the breath.

No need to change it or manipulate it.

Noticing if there's smoothness or roughness.

Is the in breath different to the out breath?

Noticing now the length of the natural in breath and the natural out breath.

Noticing the depth of the breath.

Is it shallow or deep?

No need to control the breath at all.

Just noticing with that gentle kindness exactly how the breath is right now.

And again,

Letting the breath go now and noticing the whole body and its relationship to the earth.

Just once again inviting this body to let go.

Can this whole body soften and release just a little more?

Just gently bringing the knees in towards the belly now.

Putting both hands on your knees.

Rolling gently from side to side.

Maybe just really tiny little movements.

Or perhaps you might really enjoy doing some bigger rolling movements.

Either way,

Just gently from side to side.

Noticing the movement of your whole body,

Maybe even your skull here as you gently roll from side to side.

Then when you're ready,

Just coming to rest on your back again.

And inviting your knees to bend and your feet to rest on the ground.

You might choose to have your hands gently resting on your pelvis here.

Otherwise on your belly or just lying by your side.

Making the choice that feels right now.

Noticing the touch of your hands.

And particularly if you have your hands on your pelvis.

Can you allow this touch to be nice and gentle,

Just so full of kindness.

Is there any way you can offer this body,

This pelvis,

Love and kindness?

Bringing your attention to the breath in the belly here.

Feeling the belly expand on the in-breath and fall back to the spine on the out-breath.

Now just inviting the movement of the breath to invite the pelvis to move a little here.

So as the belly condenses,

Can you invite the pelvis to gently rock upwards here?

The lower spine to flatten and lengthen a little.

And the tailbone to curl up a bit.

And then reversing that movement so that the pelvis rocks downwards on the breath in.

And the lower spine arches up a little and the tailbone points downwards.

Breathing out as the pelvis rocks up,

Breathing in as the pelvis rocks downwards.

You might really have the quality of resting in waves in the ocean here.

So your breath and the movement of your spine and pelvis might be wave-like.

As you invite this beautiful,

Gentle wave-like movement,

Maybe you might be aware of the movements in the rest of the spine.

The wave-like movement flowing all the way through right up to the skull.

You might notice movement in the spine,

Behind the chest,

The shoulders,

The neck,

The jaw.

Can you invite the whole body into this wave-like movement?

As you invite this wave-like movement,

What do you notice?

Is it a beautiful feeling of flow or is it a little sticky in places?

Is there some numb areas where you don't feel anything?

Letting go of this wave-like movement of the spine and pelvis,

Just coming to rest the body again with the knees bent,

The feet on the floor.

Breathing in a nourishing breath here now and letting the breath out with a nice sigh.

And again,

Breathing in that nourishing breath and letting the breath out with an audible sigh.

With your knees pointing up,

Your feet on the ground,

Noticing the contact of the sacrum with the ground.

Perhaps even walking the feet forward and back a little to find that perfect place where the sacrum is beautifully balanced and perfectly in contact with the ground.

Now placing the hands on the right knee and pulling this knee up towards the body,

Taking the thigh away from the body as we breathe in,

Filling the belly up and bringing the thigh towards the body with the out breath.

Noticing,

Almost forcing that out breath out.

As you breathe in,

The arms straighten and as you breathe out,

The arms bend.

Just that gentle flowing movement with the right leg.

Breathing in,

Flowing it away and breathing out,

Resting it again.

Letting go of this flowing movement now and we're going to take a deep nourishing breath in and press the knees into the hands and actually retaining the breath in here.

And as you breathe out,

Letting the leg fall back into the body.

So we're going to do this again,

Breathing in,

Retaining the breath as we press the knees into the hands and then breathing out,

Letting the leg fall into the body.

And one more time.

Maybe even sighing the breath out this time as you bring that leg into the body.

Just gently resting that right foot down on the floor once you've finished.

And just inviting you now to really push down into the right heel,

Push it quite firmly into the ground and then releasing,

Inviting the whole right heel to really relax and rest.

And once more,

Perhaps with the breath,

So holding the breath in as we press the heel down and releasing the breath as we soften and relax.

Noticing the effects on the pelvis as we do this.

So breathing in,

Pressing the heel down,

Breathing out,

Inviting that heel to release and relax.

You might even want to move the heel a little from side to side and biting just that bit more softening.

We're going to move to the left knee now.

So wrapping the hands around the left knee,

Breathing in as the left knee moves away from the body,

Breathing out as the left knee comes into the body.

Again with this wave like movement,

Breathing in as the knee goes out from the body,

Breathing out as the knee comes into the body.

Perhaps noticing sensations in the hip or the sit bone.

Once you've done that,

Say three times,

Moving into retaining the breath and pushing the knee away with the hands cuffed around the knee and on the out breath,

Letting that knee fall in and rest towards the body.

So feeling the fullness of the in breath and retaining the in breath here and then as we breathe out,

Letting the knee fall towards the body.

And just one more time.

And placing the left foot down on the ground now,

Noticing the quality of the left foot on the ground.

Perhaps it might even feel like it's kissing the earth.

Two or three times,

Pressing that left heel into the ground on the in breath and then releasing on the out breath.

Noticing the relaxation and softness in the heel on the release and maybe wiggling the heel a bit from side to side.

So we're going to come back to the right leg now and do the thread the needle pose.

So we're going to take the right ankle onto the left knee.

Really inviting an opening here into the right side of the pelvis.

And if it feels good for you,

You might like to place your hands behind your thigh,

This threading the needle bit.

You might even want to curl the head and tailbone in a little bit.

And you might even want to rock from side to side.

Really tuning into the feeling sense of that right buttock,

The right sit bone,

The right pelvis,

The right hip,

The right thigh.

Perhaps really feeling like you're breathing into this whole right side of the pelvis.

Really noticing the flavour and tone of any sensations here.

Noticing if it feels pleasant or unpleasant.

And when you're ready,

Just gently releasing that right leg down,

Noticing the quality of the right foot touching the ground.

Maybe even wiggling the toes a little bit or spreading them out,

Really feeling space between the toes.

Maybe inviting the toes to lengthen.

Feeling the pad under the big toe and the little toe.

Feeling into the inner arch of the right foot and the outer arch of the right foot.

And when you're ready,

Bringing attention to the left leg and getting your left foot and ankle to rest on the right knee.

So we're feeling this opening in the left side of the pelvis.

Feeling into the left hip and if it feels right,

Threading your hands through here.

Taking your hands around your right thigh.

You might want to really curl the head and the tail in here again.

And perhaps rocking a little from side to side.

Really noticing the sensations here,

Right through this left side of the hip and pelvis and leg.

Perhaps being really conscious of the breath here.

Inviting the breath to flow all the way through this left leg and left hip,

Buttock and pelvis.

Perhaps noticing if there's any curiosity about the sensations here.

Just having a real kind and gentle investigation of the tone and quality of the sensations.

No need to judge.

And when you're ready,

Gently unwrapping your left leg and feeling the touch of the left foot to the earth.

Noticing the quality of this touch.

Feeling the left toes.

Again,

Maybe wiggling them,

Scrunching them,

Feeling the space between them.

Inviting the bones of the toes to lengthen.

Feeling the inner arch of the left foot.

The relationship of the toes to the heel.

The outer arch of the left foot.

The relationship of the toes to the heels.

Placing both hands on the knees now and circling the knees around.

So that the sacrum moves like an eddy in the river.

This lovely spiraling motion.

And then going back in a different direction.

Noticing any difference in the two sides.

Perhaps one side might be a little more spacious and fluid.

And another side might feel a bit tacky or sticky.

Noticing any difference between the two halves of the pelvis.

The two halves of the sacrum.

So we're going to do a movement now of breathing in and extending the legs long.

Perhaps reaching up to the ceiling.

Or perhaps reaching forwards which is actually stronger.

So breathing in,

Extending the legs.

Reaching the legs out.

And breathing out,

Condensing those knees and thighs in towards the body.

Doing this a few more times.

Breathing in,

Extending the legs nearly straight.

At whichever angle feels right.

And breathing out,

Bringing those knees and thighs in towards the body.

Taking your time,

Noticing the effect on the breath.

Noticing the relationship of the thighs.

The balls at the top of the thighs are in the hip sockets.

And just one more time.

And resting with the knees and thighs gently brought in towards the body.

So putting the big toes together now.

And having the knees out in a bit of a frog position.

And with the hands on the knees,

Circling the knees in together and then out to the sides.

Doing this a few times one way and then circling around the other way.

And then keeping those big toes together,

Now inviting the outside arches of the feet to rest down in the ground.

And coming into a resting frog leg position.

With the soles of the feet together and the knees falling outwards.

If this feels too strong then by all means have the knees resting into each other instead.

Whatever your resting posture is here,

Just noticing the movement of the breath.

The effect of the breath on the body.

Perhaps you might even want to try putting your arms above your head resting on the ground behind you.

With the hands in the elbow creases.

And when you're ready just gently inviting your arms to be more downwards on a slight angle out from the body.

And we'll move on to this beautiful flower pose.

So coming into this movement,

So we're hugging the inner thighs and knees in on the breath out.

And then breathing in we're opening out.

So as you breathe out,

Hugging those inner thighs and knees in and as you breathe in,

Opening out into the frog leg position.

One more time.

Hugging thighs and knees in as we breathe out.

And then breathing in and relaxing those knees out.

And now we're going to add in some movement of the arms.

So we're rolling the arms out along the ground as we open up.

And then rolling the arms back in as we close our knees.

Hugging the backs of the hands as little fingers right into the side of the body.

An invitation here is for the shoulders to roll in.

So really condensing in through the collarbone through the front of the chest as you breathe out.

Feeling the upper arms rolling over the ground and as you breathe in,

Rolling your arms right out.

Really feeling the thumbs pressing into the ground and inviting those shoulder blades to hug into each other as you open out.

So condensing in on the out breath and expanding and opening out on the in breath.

And continuing this movement in a nice flowing motion like a flower opening and closing.

Expanding and opening out on the in breath,

Contracting and closing in on the out breath.

You may even want to add a little bit of curling in of the head and the tailbone as you're contracting.

And lengthening the head and tailbone as you open out.

Flowing fluid expansion and a flowing fluid curling in.

Smooth.

Expansive on the in breath,

Curling in on the out breath.

Noticing,

Are you feeling flowing and fluid like a flower or is there some raggedy jagged bits?

Just noticing.

Might be different on different days.

And then letting this go,

Resting back into the frog position.

Really seeing if you can invite some opening in the pelvis and the chest here.

Maybe again having the arms back behind you crossed over with your hands in the elbow creases.

Really resting.

Checking in what the body needs from you right now.

Now gently placing your hands on the front of the pelvis on each side.

Can those hands be so gentle and kind as they touch the pelvis?

Going into a little bit of a twist here.

Taking both knees over to the left.

Noticing sensations.

Noticing breath in the belly,

Pelvis,

Pubic bone,

Sacrum.

Expansion and contraction of the breath.

And then gently bringing the knees up and having a gentle twist to the right side.

Just as far as the knees want to go.

Again,

Noticing all the sensations in the area.

Noticing the effect of the breath.

Gently unfurling.

Perhaps putting the hands over the knees.

Doing some gentle circles here.

Really massaging and nourishing the sacrum.

Then coming back to the resting position.

Perhaps the frog legs position.

Or perhaps if that's not comfortable,

Having the feet about hip width apart and the knees leaning gently in towards each other.

Can you really invite a relationship between the pelvis and the organs of the body that it holds ever so gently?

Taking your time now to come into a hands and knees position.

Notice the difference after having been lying on the ground for quite some time.

Maybe let your wrists have a little bit of moving and softening here.

Maybe even pouring the ground a bit like a cat.

Really finding that resting quality in the hands and wrists.

When you're ready,

Bringing the forearms down and resting the sit bones down to the heels.

The forearms can be on the ground or if that's uncomfortable,

You can place one fist on top of the other and rest the forearms on the fists.

Staying a while in this variant of child's pose.

Really feeling the sensation of the body resting.

Coming up now into the tabletop position.

Breathing in,

Coming into cow pose.

With the belly dropping down and the chest and the heart opening.

Almost like shining the light of the heart out.

Really feeling the lengthening through the spine.

Breathing out,

Coming into angry cat pose with the back arched up and the tailbone curled under.

It's possible to work with the connection between the head and the tail here.

Flowing back and forth between these positions.

Breathing in cow pose,

Breathing out cat pose.

In cow pose,

Out cat pose.

A few more times,

Nice and slowly,

Seeing if there's any satisfaction or even pleasure in this movement.

And then coming back to rest in child's pose.

You might take particular attention,

Noticing the sacrum here.

Noticing the thighs and the knees.

Perhaps really enjoying this resting posture.

Really noticing the breath here.

As best you can,

Opening up,

Being as spacious as you can.

Noticing the whole body.

Now for those of you that know downward dog,

You might like to go into some downward dog here.

By tucking the toes under and lifting that pelvis up towards the ceiling.

Or for those of you who would prefer,

You could try puppy pose.

Tucking the toes under,

Actively stretching the arms out in front with the forehead on the ground.

But the buttocks lifted up.

The knees at a right angle.

And whether you're in dog pose or puppy pose here,

Really exploring the relationship of the pelvis with the thighs here.

And also the stretch in the shoulders and the underarms.

Maybe noticing any difference in the right side and the left side of the pelvis and the upper body.

Maybe you can feel the organs held gently within the pelvis.

Maybe some of the organs are maybe a bit more alive here after the practice.

And now coming back to rest in child's pose again.

Perhaps this time you might like to put your arms by your side and really curl in really tightly.

Like a little baby.

Beautifully wrapped.

Perfectly comfortable and safe and nurtured.

And now very gently unfurling yourself.

And we're going to come onto the front of the body.

Just coming to lie the whole of the body in contact with the mat.

And then bringing the arms by the sides of the body and placing the head to one side.

And taking some nourishing breaths here.

And then coming to turn the head to the different side.

Noticing the temple resting into the ground.

Maybe taking some slightly deeper breaths.

Noticing the resting quality in this different position.

Placing the forehead now on the floor and the forearms on the floor with the hands roughly at the level of the sides of the head.

Really hugging the sides of the arms into the body here.

Moving into cobra pose.

Feeling the front of the pelvis really resting into the ground.

Toenails contacting the ground.

Breathing in,

Lifting the upper body up just to the level of the belly button.

On the in breath.

And then gently resting down on the out breath.

Resting the furrow down and nuzzling it down on the out breath.

Repeating this movement several times in a sort of sinuous flowing movement.

Lifting the upper body up with the breath in and gently resting it down on the breath out.

And this next time when you come up,

Really see if you can notice the resting of the pelvis and the lovely stretch in the spine.

Coming back to rest the front of the body to the ground with the arms by the side and the head in a comfortable position.

Noticing how the whole body feels.

Now if it feels alright for you.

Just bending the knees and gently kicking the heels into the buttocks slowly one at a time.

Perhaps feeling the pelvis gently swaying from side to side.

And now you might even like instead to sway the feet from side to side.

Softly,

Gently.

Maybe even circling the heels around a little.

This lovely kind gentle soft movement from side to side.

And when you're ready,

Coming back and lying on your back.

Maybe doing a little rolling from side to side to release the body.

You might even like to have the feet a bit wider than hip width apart with the knees bent.

Doing some nice windscreen wiper type movements of the knees with the feet on the floor.

Both knees going to the right and then both knees going to the left.

And maybe you might like to stay in the twist for a little while.

And then repeating on the other side.

Noticing the feet,

The pelvis,

The feeling of the twist.

And now coming into that final rest,

Lying on the back with the legs a little apart and flat on the floor.

Of course you can have your feet on the floor and your knees pointing up if that's more comfortable.

Having the arms a little bit away from the body,

Really releasing and letting go.

Just noticing what's your relationship to rest right now.

Is there lots of ease?

Does it feel really pleasant?

Perhaps you have to really look for the rest or work for it.

Maybe there's even a bit of an unpleasantness about it.

Just noticing the quality of rest.

Feeling the release.

Feeling the softness.

Feeling the breath as we breathe in and out.

Perhaps releasing the body a little more on the breath out.

Just noticing the state of mind right now.

Is there peace?

Calmness?

Perhaps there's a little tightness,

Contraction.

Perhaps softness,

Relaxation.

Maybe thinking,

Planning.

Maybe a sense of spaciousness.

There's no need to change any of this.

Just noticing.

Once again,

Noticing this whole body,

Including the pelvis.

Including the breath.

Including the relationship of the body with the ground.

And if you've got the time or the inclination,

Please feel free to stay in this resting posture as long as you wish.

But otherwise,

You might want to roll on your side for a little while.

Really curling up.

And then bringing yourself slowly up into a seated posture.

Just taking a little mental snapshot of how the body,

Mind and heart feels just now.

And if there is some sense of ease and spaciousness.

Really spending a moment to appreciate that.

Really savour it.

And if not,

Can you accept that that's just how it is right now?

And perhaps you can offer yourself some congratulations for spending this time nourishing yourself with this gentle pelvic yoga practice.

Being the.

Reviews

Thank you so much, I have found pelvic pain has been largely ignored by the general medical fraternity, having been told that sometimes you just have to live with pain isn't helpful... Thankfully awareness is growning and I am so grateful to have found your exercises to add to my healing process. I'll be sharing your site with my specialist physiotherapist! Just wonderful thank you.