360 Degree Breathing Into Ease - Pelvic Floor Relaxation

This gentle 10-minute guided breathing practice is designed to help you reconnect with your breath, relax your body, and invite a sense of ease into your pelvic floor.
Using a technique called 360-degree breathing, we'll explore breathing into the ribs, lower belly, back, and pelvic floor, encouraging gentle expansion and softening.
This practice may be particularly helpful for those experiencing pelvic floor tension, pelvic pain, or difficulty relaxing the pelvic floor muscles.
There's no need to force your breath, and there should be no sensation of straining or pushing during this practice. I invite you to listen to your body, and approach this practice with curiosity, allowing the body to soften and settle at its own pace.
Music by LullabiesByNature.
Photo by Jonas Kaiser.

Transcript

Welcome. Today I'm going to guide you through a breathing practice called 360 degree breathing that's intended to create a more flexible and mobile pelvic floor, As well as gain expansion through the entire abdominal cavity, Meaning that we're expanding through the belly, Through the ribcage, The back, And the pelvic floor. Essentially anyone can benefit from this breathing exercise because it just helps us get more expansion into an area that in our stressful lives we often don't intentionally expand. So we're going to get started in a comfortable position. I would recommend that if this is your first time doing this exercise, You lay down either on the floor or on a fairly firm surface with your knees bent. But if that's not a comfortable position for you, Sitting upright in a chair with your back against the chair can also be a great way to feel this exercise. If you've practiced this breathing technique before and you have a good idea of how to expand into these different parts of your body, Really you can apply this to any shape. But if you're learning, I would suggest getting a little bit of support under or behind your back. So let's get started. Once you're in your comfortable or supported position. If you're comfortable doing so, You might choose to close your eyes or soften your gaze just to really allow yourself to focus in on sensation here. You might place a hand on your low belly and maybe a hand on your chest. And initially, Just notice where you're breathing. Notice how your breath is moving your body. Perhaps you feel both of your hands moving up and down. Perhaps you feel one of them. Perhaps neither? Or maybe you feel movement in one or the other or both, And that movement is big or that movement is small. You're just noticing. I'd encourage you to experiment with what it might feel like to make the inhales a little bit longer and make the exhales a little bit longer. Also get curious about how it might feel to really draw that breath further down into your lower abdomen. Feeling your lower hand rise and fall while the hand on your chest perhaps only moves a little bit. With every inhale, Think about expanding into that low belly. Every exhale, Let the rest of your body soften into the support beneath you. Let your jaw relax. Let your shoulders relax. Let your hips relax. Let your belly relax. If you feel like you've got a good handle on this, You might begin to shift your hands onto the sides of your lower ribcage. As we continue to breathe nice and deeply into that lower belly. I would also encourage you to imagine breathing outwards to the sides into your hands, Creating an expansion in a different plane. We're not forcing, We're not pushing The movement might be subtle, And that's okay. Spend a few breaths here expanding into these two areas, Using your hands where you feel they're most helpful to give you feedback. Now again, You can stay here and continue practicing this. Or if you'd like, You can shift your attention into your low or your mid-back. Your hands for this part of the exercise can rest wherever they're comfortable or wherever they feel most helpful. If you have support behind you, Like a bed, The floor, Or a chair Use that as feedback. As you breathe into that lower back or mid-back space. This part of the exercise is often quite subtle. So again, We're not forcing, We're just imagining, Breathing into that low or mid-back space. And often that's enough to start to create that subtle expansion. Continue breathing into the low belly, The sides of the ribs, And the back. Nice and slow, Relaxed, Smooth inhales. Softening the entire body with each exhale. Now the last part of this 360 degree breathing is bringing the pelvic floor into the mix. I would encourage you if you have never had any feedback about how your pelvic floor is doing or what's going on down there, I would always encourage you to check in with a pelvic floor physio. So as you continue breathing into that lower belly, Ribs, And into the backside of your body. You're going to bring your attention to the pelvic floor space. And I want you to imagine breathing into that space. As you breathe in, That area expands downwards. As you breathe out, That area just relaxes and recoils slightly. There's nothing you have to do there. Breathing in, Down into that pelvic floor space. No pushing or straining. Breathing out, Relaxing. It can be helpful to imagine a flower opening as you inhale. And closing as you exhale. I will leave you here to continue for as long as you would like. Wishing you all the best. Take care.