Pelvic floor breath visualization practice with Lindy Rivers.
To begin,
Bring some awareness to your pelvis.
You might want to start with bringing your hands to the top crest of your pelvic bowl.
And then let your fingers kind of trace downward until you come to the front rim of the pelvis or your pubic symphysis,
Aware of the front of the pelvis.
And then let one hand reach back to kind of feel your sacrum,
Maybe cup it gently with your hand.
And then let the hand continue downward until you feel your tailbone.
And then feel both at the same time,
Your pubic symphysis and your tailbone,
Noticing the front and the back of your pelvis.
And then allow your hands to come underneath each of your sits bones,
Feeling both the left and the right sits bone.
And becoming aware of this diamond at the base of your body,
The pubic symphysis in front,
The tailbone in the back,
Your sits bones on either side.
There the home of the pelvic floor,
The root of your body.
And once you bring your awareness there,
Come into either a comfortable seated or lying down position.
If you're coming into a lying down position,
You may want to put the bolster underneath your knees,
A blanket underneath your head.
If you're seated,
Making sure that you're seated upright,
So your weight's evenly on your sits bone,
Your spine is elongated,
There's an ease in your low back.
And once you're in this comfortable position,
Just begin by noticing your breath,
Allowing yourself to connect to the natural ebb and flow of your breath.
And as you begin to connect to the breath,
Know that you don't need to change it or shift it in any way,
Simply being present to noticing.
Allowing yourself to just be present to whether or not the breath is fast or slow,
If it's easy and smooth or tight and jagged.
Noticing and acknowledging where your breath is right now.
And continuing to just simply be aware of the inhale and the exhale.
And if it's feeling comfortable and safe to do so,
Begin to invite your breath to get a little bit softer.
Notice how it feels to have a slightly softer breath.
And then allowing the invitation for the breath to get a little bit slower.
Then begin to invite the breath to get a little bit longer.
Just notice how it feels in your own body to have this softer,
Slower,
Longer breath.
Feeling the fullness of your inhale and exhale.
Allowing this to truly be an invitation.
Not forcing the breath to do anything it's not ready to do or wants to do.
But just simply exploring the possibility of this longer,
Slower,
Softer breath.
And begin to notice where the breath is in the body.
Notice more the sensation of breathing.
Perhaps begin to notice where the body is expanding naturally on the inhale.
And where it is gently recoiling on the exhale.
You may begin to bring some just gentle awareness to your rib cage.
If it's helpful to you,
You might even bring a hand gently to the rib cage.
And begin to notice how the ribs move in coordination with the breath.
So feeling the ribs gently expand on the inhale and recoil on the exhale.
Perhaps beginning to notice how the ribs wrap entirely around the torso.
So that when you inhale the breath expands to the front,
Side,
And back.
Full awareness breathing into the rib cage.
Noticing the gentle rhythmic movement of the breath in your ribs.
Full awareness of the breath in the ribs.
You are welcome to stay right here continuing to notice the breath in the ribs.
Perhaps you allow your awareness to begin to descend.
Notice moving into the belly,
Beginning to feel how the breath moves within the abdomen.
So beginning to feel the belly expanding as you inhale and recoiling as you exhale.
You may almost feel like the belly is rising on the inhale and descending on the exhale.
So full awareness of breath in the belly.
Feeling the rhythmic movement of breath in the belly.
Breath continues to be long and slow and soft.
And again you can stay right here.
Perhaps your breath and your awareness begins to move to the pelvis.
In your mind's eye become aware again of those four points.
The pubic symphysis in front,
The tailbone in the back,
The sits bones on the left and the right.
And begin to visualize your own pelvic floor.
That collection of muscles that helps to support you.
And see if you can begin to imagine that each time you inhale that diamond at the base of the body just gets a little bit bigger.
And as you exhale it recoils and goes back to its original shape that you imagined.
So visualizing that pelvic floor diamond,
Receiving the breath,
Getting a little bit bigger.
And then gently allowing it to get a little bit smaller.
So inhale the pelvic floor receives the breath.
Exhale the pelvic floor gently helps to release the breath.
Inhale pelvic floor expanding.
Exhale recoiling.
And allowing yourself to stay here simply playing with that visualization of the pelvic floor gently receiving the breath on the inhale and gently releasing the breath on the exhale.
Getting bigger on the inhale,
Diamond back to its original shape on the exhale.
Exploring that visualization as you continue to allow for that slow,
Soft,
Long breath.
Pelvic floor relaxing,
Lengthening with each and every breath.
Gentle awareness of the movement of the pelvic floor with the breath.
Full awareness of breath in the pelvis without trying to force it in any way or form.
Breathing deep,
Relaxation and ease in the pelvis.
Pelvic floor expanding on the inhale and recoiling on the exhale.
And gently allowing yourself to release from this breath awareness.
Gently bring your hands to your pelvis,
Your low belly.
And as your hands rest here,
Take a moment to just gently thank your pelvis for all the ways that it supports and nourishes you.
Notice if there's anything else that you want to gently say to your own pelvis.
And then allowing yourself to end this practice and move gently and kindly through the rest of your day.
