Calming Pelvic Floor Breathing

Join me in this 10 minute relaxing practice in which we explore the pelvic floor with the breath. We start with an explanation of the area of the pelvic floor and its effects o the breath. Then we dive into exploring this area along with the belly/diaphragmatic breath. This can be extremely relaxing and even a little spacey. A really powerful tool to bring into your other movement and meditation practices.

Transcript

Welcome to our pelvic floor breathing practice.

There's a lot of talk lately in the wellness community about the pelvic floor and different issues that can arise there.

There can be issues of tightness or weakness and today in our practice we're really not aiming to fix any of that.

We're just aiming to bring a bit more awareness into that area and that group of muscles can help us to breathe a little bit better,

To facilitate a fuller,

Deeper,

Slower,

More relaxed breath.

This can have a ton of lovely benefits so I invite you to try this practice out and maybe even bring it into your daily breathing or meditation practice.

We're going to start by finding a comfortable position so some folks like to sit,

Others might prefer to lay on their backs with their knees bent,

Feet on the floor,

Maybe throwing a pillow under the head or under the knees.

Take a moment to relax and settle in and while you're doing that I'll just give you a brief overview of the pelvic floor.

It's a very basic overview here but you can essentially think of the pelvic floor as a group of muscles that are kind of a hammock between the pubic bone,

The tail bone and the sit bones.

If you're familiar with the diaphragm you'll know that the diaphragm is a kind of dome shaped muscle just at the base of the rib cage and as we breathe in the lungs expand and it presses the diaphragm down and you'll feel the belly lift and rise and expand and you could almost think of this pelvic floor as a kind of bowl at the base of your abdomen almost like a second diaphragm and when you breathe in and that belly expands it doesn't just expand the front and the side it also expands downwards and it will gently press that pelvic floor down and as you exhale the lungs contract,

The belly moves in,

The diaphragm moves up and so does the pelvic floor,

It gently lifts and this happens every time we breathe.

It doesn't require any effort and sometimes from the stress of the day we can kind of shorten our breath and we'll be breathing just from the lungs just in the chest and what we're aiming to do a lot of time in our yoga and meditation and breath work practices is to bring the breath a little lower,

Let it be a little fuller and a great way to do this is by thinking about the belly and the pelvic floor,

The whole abdomen breathing with you and take a few moments here as you settle,

You've probably settled by now and just let the whole body soften and relax,

Let your shoulders start to melt,

Soften the face,

The palms,

You might even like to rest your hands on your belly or chest and see if you could just feel yourself breathing as you are in this moment,

Can you feel rather than think,

Feel where the breath goes without changing it at all,

Maybe the breath naturally starts to slow as we do that and see if you could bring the breath in through the nose and allow the belly to expand kind of freely here and see if you can feel the breath in through the nose and allow the belly to expand kind of freely here and feel how it gently releases,

Contracts on the exhale you could think of the belly like a balloon and as you inhale it expands 360 so the sides,

The back of the body and the base as well where that pelvic floor is,

It lowers down as you inhale and as you exhale it'll soften and the pelvic floor rises as the belly contracts see if you could really tune in to the base,

That bowl at the base of the belly,

The abdomen slow and steady breath through the nose thinking of the balloon of the belly and it can be a difficult area to feel,

To tune in to,

It won't be easy to feel,

To tune in to,

It won't be as clear likely as the sensation maybe in the chest or the belly it won't be as clear likely as the sensation maybe in the chest or the belly but try to visualize that but try to visualize that hammock,

That bowl shape,

That soft hammock of muscles between the pubic between the pubic bone,

Tailbone and sit bones and as you start to tune into that more you might even start to connect to that feeling in the belly almost like a vacuum pulling the breath in as the belly expands and as you start to tune into that more you might even start to connect to that feeling in the belly almost like a vacuum pulling the breath in as the belly expands as it deflates and the pelvic floor rises you'll feel the air softly moving out as it deflates and the pelvic floor rises you'll feel the air softly moving out more on the inside of the body than the outside this can be difficult so know if you're having a hard time finding it that is normal it's okay you can try again inhaling the lungs fill,

Diaphragm flattens a little as the belly expands like a balloon pelvic floor drops exhaling pelvic floor lifts as the belly contracts condenses that dome shape of the diaphragm moves up lungs contract you'll start to find that flow we'll breathe here like this for a few moments together you can stay passive all happens naturally as we breathe no effort required nothing you need to change or fix if you can't find it that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you it just means it's a difficult area to feel into and that's okay and take about three more of your own slow breaths here and give yourself some time to come out of it and sometimes those practices can leave you feeling a little spacey maybe relaxed and if you want you could bring one or both hands over your heart and see if you could feel your heartbeat maybe it's really subtle too send gratitude to your body for all the hard work it does all day every day and send gratitude to yourself for carving out this time in your day to practice to breathe to send some love to your body thank you so much for practicing with me take care and stay well peace

Reviews

Loved this so much! Put me in a very peaceful state

Compassionate and helpful for calling the pelvic floor.

I love everything about this meditation. Thank you

Gentle and skillful, helpful for recovery from pelvic surgery.

Loved this. Really great supplement to pelvic floor physiotherapy as I recover from a hysterectomy.

Awesome to practice with you —— fellow Ontarian! It would be great to practice together in person some day!

That was wonderful

Lovely, calming start of the day ✨️🙏🏻✨️

After acar accident a few months ago. I have been suffering with a sire tailbone. I have been advised to exercise my pelvic floor to support my tailbone. You explained how it works perfectly and I feel doing this type of breathing will support me in exercising and hopefully will support my tailbone to get better. Thanks.

This is just what I need right now, seeing pelvic floor therapist and your helping too.Thankyou

Great meditation to relax your “lower bowl” as the teacher calls it. This made a difference for me when I compared how relaxed I felt after versus before listening. I like her voice and simple, easy-to-follow prompts.

VERY helpful and relaxing! Thank you. 🙏

Just what I was looking for!

I have PFD and Im having a bad flare up. Because of your meditation I feel a lot less pressure in my PF. Thank you 🌻