HEALING THE CENTER: a little story about the pelvic floor, an overview, and a mini practice
There are many reasons to love your pelvic floor. But a few days ago, my gratitude was pretty basic: I didn’t pee in public!
I was changing buses and had to pee bad. When I got off my first bus, my second was already leaving. I had 15 minutes. So, I did what any good yogi would do: I decided to hunt down a place with caffeine, protein, and a bathroom. But no. I went in a coffee shop. No bathroom. I went in a tea shop and got a 5-minute dissertation on chai but left abruptly when I interrupted as politely as possible to say: “yeah! That one! Where is your restroom.?”
No restroom. So. “So sorry. I promise to come back and be a better listener and drink tea.”
Finally I run up the escalators at Macy’s, getting caught a few times between the. Slowest. Tourists. Ever.
Wondering if I will have time to grab and buy new leggings if my mission fails and considering how to teach well from a distance in a small studio- maybe I could just yell down from the balcony and wave my arms from time to time? Maybe no one would know I was secretly pee-saturated? Maybe I could take my leggings off and use paper towels as a fashionable alternative?
But. I made it. Just in time. And was so very grateful to my pelvic floor for holding me together even while sprinting through downtown Seattle with a bursting bladder. I also made my bus, thanks to the strength and speed and balance my pelvic floor gives me, and I taught my class the ordinary way, in the same room with the students, with my leggings on and everything.
People will often confide in me that their pelvic floor changes with pregnancy, birth, age, trauma. And yes, it does. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t possess the same resilience as the rest of you.
While I’ve been fortunate to have had a lifelong yoga practice that has given my pelvic floor the strength and flexibility that make up resilience, it’s also a part of me that has experienced all those things. I experienced sexual trauma as a child, gave birth twice, one birth gave me an extensive tear) and I am 49. I have had to heal multiple times for many reasons.
I also had an abdominal separation (diastasis) for 13 years. I was able to help other women heal theirs but couldn’t heal mine until about 5 years ago.
A few things happened at that point.
1. I discovered the core connection running through the midline of the whole body
2. I had a huge emotional shift in which I pulled lost bits of myself out of a codependent, abusive situation.
And rather suddenly- within a few months- I ended up with a different strength than I had ever had. My diastasis healed- the muscles deep in my belly were suddenly solid where there had been a literal hole, I found myself in asana shapes I had never been able to do, and I was able to take the scary but necessary actions needed to move my life forward.
With the many challenges we experience as humans, there can be a tendency to compartmentalize, and then attempt to address ourselves as a bunch of separate pieces instead of as a cohesive whole being. Midline, core, and center issues are no different.
When we are able to embody ourselves as whole by integrating what we may perceive as fragmented, we give ourselves the experience of wholeness that is the essence of healing.
“Centering “is a powerful tool. Learning to draw on the body’s deep center can give us a direct line to our emotional center. As we simultaneously strengthen the midline and release our armored outsides, we uncover a new kind of strength that comes out of both the softness of receptivity and the self- trust to make choices.
In yoga, we seek “abs of water” rather than “abs of steel.“ True strength is not rigid but fluid. It supports and sustains range of motion- inner and outer- without destabilizing. This kind of strength supports the movement we need to balance and dance through our lives confidently and gracefully. Plus: well, sex! – is really really enhanced by this fluid strength.
PRACTICE:
One basic, simple way to find this sense of deep core is to lie down on your back or sit in a chair with support behind your back. Find the last rib in your back. Press this towards the surface your back is on. Notice the way the side belly muscles draw to the center.
Then release.
Next, bring a block or a ball between your inner thighs. Press the prop with your legs, and try to draw it towards the floor. You will be creating a micro- internal rotation of your thighs. The sit bones will widen a bit and drop, creating space for your tailbone.
Then Release.
Now try both at once: Press the last rib down. Keep it there and squeeze the prop between your legs towards the floor.
You will have your lovely low back curve, which helps you adapt to being upright in gravity, while finding the subtle inner engagement of the midline.
Release and repeat as much as feels right.
For more, join me at Limber for Healing the Center, Wednesdays 1pm to 215pm October 23- November 13 at Limber Yoga.
$80 for all 4, $25/ one
Info and Registration: https://www.limberyoga.com/healing-the-center.html