Hi there,
Dr.
Adele Stewart with a sitting pelvic floor relaxation exercise.
So this is quite good to do on something like a dining room chair where you can have your feet flat on the floor,
Your buttocks in the chair and having your back kind of arise reasonably erect from the lower body but not too rigid.
I'm starting with some general contraction and relaxation of muscles just because you can you can feel the relaxation better if you can track the muscles first.
So starting off with contracting the muscles in your feet,
Maybe pointing the feet hard and contracting the calf muscles really really hard and then release.
And now going back to contracting the feet and you can either have them pointed as I said before or you can have them sort of cocked back if that works better for you.
Tightening the the calf muscles,
Tightening the muscles around the knees and the thighs and the buttocks,
Holding tight tight tight and then release.
Really feeling that release as you do it.
And now starting again with the feet,
The legs,
The buttocks,
Adding your belly,
Your back,
Your chest muscles,
Your shoulders,
And again release,
Noticing the whole body.
And finally starting with the feet again,
Feet,
Legs,
Buttocks,
Belly,
Back,
Chest,
Shoulders,
Right down your arms,
Biceps,
Clenching the fists,
Add in the face now,
Screwing up the face tight,
Tight as you can and release.
Just noticing the effect of the short what we call progressive muscular relaxation.
Just check that you're sitting reasonably comfortably but not slouching and see if you can really have the sense of relaxing and softening your legs,
Your bottom and your belly.
Don't worry too much if that's not possible.
So the next step is to see how it is to kind of pull up your back passage as if you were trying to stop gas,
Kind of pulling it upwards and forwards towards your pubic bone,
Imagining a diagonal line.
Just doing this as much as feels comfortable,
More so you can feel the contrast when you release,
Let it all down.
And again,
Pulling up that back passage reasonably tightly if that's comfortable,
But we don't want to be causing pain here,
Pulling it upwards,
Forwards towards the pubic bone and release,
Perhaps thinking of releasing all the muscle fibers in the pelvic floor and perhaps sensing the sit bones spreading as you relax,
Relax,
Relax all the way down.
For some people,
It's really helpful to add in some breath to these relaxations.
So again,
Just maybe having a few breaths and noticing if you can the belly and bottom becoming soft.
You might even want to place your hands on your lower belly,
Particularly when you're first doing this exercise.
Taking a deep breath in and feeling those hands rise and breathing out,
Feeling the belly sink in.
You can do this through your nose or some people like to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth,
Experiment with what feels right for you.
But just a few times,
Breathing in,
Feeling the hands rise,
Breathe out,
Feeling the belly sink in,
That soft belly,
Filling up the belly like a balloon on the breath in,
Allowing that belly balloon to deflate on the breath out.
As the breath comes in,
The belly expands.
As the breath goes out,
The belly deflates.
Just this belly breathing on its own can be a really helpful thing for people who suffer from anxiety,
Anyone who has breathing problems,
Giving the nervous system safety and soothing messages.
Now,
If you're ready,
You can this time imagine as you breathe in that the expanding balloon of your belly is gently pushing apart those sit bones and putting some gentle downward pressure on your pelvic floor,
Kind of softening and releasing those pelvic floor muscles as you breathe in.
And then when you breathe out,
The balloon deflates and the pelvic floor gently contracts a little,
Or perhaps again,
Sensing your back passage being pulled up towards your pubic bone.
If you can,
Try to stay sitting upright so that with the in-breath,
The gravity kind of helps that expanding balloon push the sit bones apart and the pelvic floor softly downward.
Breathing out,
Contracting the pelvic floor gently again,
Notice the sit bones come together.
And breathing in as you feel that belly balloon,
You may even be able to feel a bit of pressure coming down kind of feeling between the legs.
And that's the cue to see if you can soften and relax the pelvic floor even more.
I sometimes find using my hands to emulate a balloon as I'm doing it in front of me can help.
As you breathe in,
The expanding balloon presses down,
Softens and relaxes that pelvic floor,
Separates those sit bones.
And as you breathe out,
The balloon deflates,
Perhaps pulling in that back passage towards the pubic bone,
Or just a little contraction in the pelvic floor.
Once you get the hang of this,
You can practice this in all kinds of places that people wouldn't even know that you were practicing.
Just remembering that metaphor of that beautiful balloon pressing down,
Softening and relaxing as it expands,
Separating those sit bones and deflating,
Little contraction,
Little pull in of the back passage as you breathe out.
As you breathe out.
If that balloon metaphor works for you,
You may want to stick with that.
But there's some other lovely metaphors that various people have come up with that might help with that pelvic floor relaxation.
Just have a listen and see what might resonate.
And contact me if you've got any good metaphors to share.
I particularly like the ones set in nature.
I noticed they feel particularly soothing to my system.
So how about dropping a pebble in a still pond,
Watching the concentric circles coming out in the pond?
How about butter or wax gently melting?
How about a rose blooming?
And then there's the metaphor of flowers that close at night and open during the day when they're kind of warmed and softened in the sun and light.
Common one that's used is a lift going up to the top floor and down to the basement.
And another one that can be helpful is the warm sand on a trampoline,
Sort of almost softens and nice and heavy.
Happy practicing.
Always love any feedback.
Thanks everyone.
