ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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 Guest post by Tracy Mattox The “mom body” goes through a lot during pregnancy. I’m not talking about how you physically look, but how your internal organs and muscles change during and after pregnancy. The birthing process and pregnancy are both rough on the pelvic floor, those wonderful muscles that support your organs “down there.” Every person who goes through the process of childbirth, whether vaginally or through cesarian section, puts their pelvic floor through a lot. It takes months to recover and the muscles will never be the same again. There are many whose muscles don’t tighten back up or who experience tearing or prolapse. Some require surgery and others decide to live with it, and many women don’t realize there are exercises that can help. A Weak Pelvic Floor A weak pelvic floor is one that either holds tension and can’t release it, which causes pain, or is loose and can cause a feeling of pressure and incontinence. There are lots of exercises that can help improve muscle tone and potentially relieve symptoms. Physical therapy is wonderful if you have access to it. While yoga is not a treatment plan, this article describes how Goddess Pose can be modified to either stretch or strengthen your pelvic floor. Goddess Pose In traditional Goddess Pose, you spread the legs apart by about 3.5 feet and squat down. The toes point outward about 45 degrees and the spine remains straight. It’s a pretty classic yoga pose. When focusing on the pelvic floor, you don’t need to squat down very far, just be sure that you pull the tailbone back toward the head and stick out your booty as you squat. If you have a mom body, this posture can improve your pelvic floor health.  Goddess Pose to relax the pelvic floor The act of holding the posture with the spine in a natural position helps to release tension in the muscles. Breathe deeply, allowing the air to raise the chest. The inhale should expand the rib cage and allow the belly to relax and pop out slightly. Proper breathing is the most important thing you can do for your pelvic floor, and this posture is great for learning that. When you breathe in, the pelvic floor drops and relaxes. When you exhale, the pelvic floor naturally moves upward. The act of breathing while holding Goddess Pose does wonders for the muscles “down there.”  Goddess Pose to strengthen the pelvic floor The act of moving upward and out of the squat in Goddess Pose helps to tone the muscles of the pelvic floor. To maximize the benefits, you can treat this posture like a traditional Hatha pose, where every breath has a motion tied to it. As you squat downard you can breathe in and allow the belly to expand, which relaxes the pelvic floor. As you come out of the squat you can exhale slowly to allow the pelvic floor to rise up. Coming up you straighten the legs, tuck the tailbone slightly under you and return to standing. You can even squeeze the butt at the top to further activate the pelvic floor. My own mom body loves this posture to help with my prolapse. Your Mom Body Needs You to be Careful There are a lot of different techniques in yoga to build strength in the pelvic floor, but you need to be careful with how you do it. Some people think that kegels are the solution to all problems. In yoga for the pelvic floor we “lift the perineum” instead of doing kegels. Here’s the problem. Those with tight pelvic floors may cause more harm than good in using this technique. People with loose muscles may also run into problems because doing too many of these lifts can weaken the muscles even further. It’s important to learn what your body needs. It’s amazing how subtle changes in regular yoga class can help improve the health of your pelvic floor, and this article highlights just one modified posture. I hope you found this information useful, and that you give yoga for the pelvic floor a try. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you might be surprised by how much a regular yoga practice can help you.  Tracy Mattox is a mother of two who lives with her family in California. She’s a full time chemist with a passion for writing children’s books and coaching middle school sports, and has loved yoga since high school. Tracy developed pelvic organ prolapse after delivering baby #2 and after a decade of frustration she reclaimed her active life by turning to yoga. She is now a certified instructor with specialized training and teaches online yoga for the pelvic floor to help others become more active. She offers videos on-demand and live-streamed weekend classes on her website. Check out https://www.yogabelowthebelt.com to learn more.
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 Guest post by Meredith Kramer How funky is your chicken? How loose is your goose? This cute little ditty made famous by Buffy the Vampire Slayer is bound to make you shake your pom poms, but that's not why we're here. Or is it? Can we be funky and loose? Or are we staid and as the kids say, "tight"? "Hold on loosely, but don't let go…" sang .38 Special in the early 80s. This Muzak song that's played at the supermarket still rings true, all these years later. Even though this' technically almost before my time, I am now, and will forever be, a child of the 80s. My cassettes, including my MIXED TAPES, still live in my closet, 'natch. Moving on... In yoga we talk about the Yamas and the Niyamas, which are a pretty well-laid-out path to live by. These are moral codes: some do's and don'ts, if you will. Granted, you probably still need your scythe to cut through the thicket of modern life, but it's a good place to start. The Yamas are moral disciplines; your "don'ts", so to speak. They are as follows: Ahimsa (don't cause harm), Satya (don't lie), Asteya (don't steal), Brahmacharya (don't waste your energy), and Aparygraha (don't grasp or cling to any ole thing). The Niyamas are your "do's," but those'll keep for another time.* (see the endnote) To reiterate, Aparygraha is to not be possessive, to not be grasping, to not be greedy. A tough sell in modern times. The 80s were the Me Decade, after all. And g-d bless capitalism! And still some of the best music ever recorded. Fight me! The lyric and song are quite catchy, but there's more there than meets the eye. Whatever you believe - be it the Golden Rule, that only YOU can prevent forest fires, or in putting your supermarket shopping cart aaaaaall the way back inside the store, or at least returning it to the corral in an orderly fashion, it is important to not be tethered so tightly to whatever it is that you live by that you cannot entertain other options. He goes on to sing: "If you cling too tightly/You're gonna lose control." While it may seem the suggestion is to demagnetize one's moral compass, it's far more nuanced than that. Who here has complained that their partner does XYZ (ha! or doesn't,) but also absolutely loses it when someone says that they themselves do XYZ (or doesn't)?! What's good for the goose is good for the gander, huh? Who here is not a hypocrite? Show of hands? I'll wait…Either way, perhaps some Svadhyaya (self-study) is in order. The backstory of the song actually underscores the fact that holding on too tightly will surely make one lose control. The writer/s were talking about their own relationships. I'm going to interpret it yogically, but it's still neat to have my theory verified-ish. "You see it all around you/Good lovin' gone bad And usually it's too late when you/Realize what you had" What may start out as a following of said road map (the Yamas & Niyamas, for those of you who have lost the thread) can quickly become indoctrination, or dogma, or edicts: the company line. One must be a good disciple! What if we hold on loosely to our principals, but don't let go? If we grasp too tightly, we may lose control. When newbies come to Yoga (not yoga class where we make shapes and do some breathing here in the West, but the 8-limbed path), they may get punch drunk on the philosophy and contemplate renunciation, craving more, more, more. (Or really less, less, less…) This is understandable, and common, but no good. How can we hold on loosely to our beliefs, and keep them, but not BE them? "Your baby needs someone to believe in/And a whole lot of space to breathe in". We all need SOMEthing to believe in, but room to maneuver, and a roadmap to navigate the whole messy shebang. Incidentally, there are a lot of repeated themes here: geese, supermarket Muzak, and cheekiness. While I was never a cheerleader (it's just not me, but they're so cool!) it sure is fun to play with their incantations. And who doesn't need some encouragement once in a while? *This is a gross oversimplification, and I take any and all responsibility for perhaps bastardizing these amazing teachings. However, this is so that more of us can understand the philosophy, and dooooo something with it. I do not purport myself to be a scholar in anywayshapeorform. Whew! Thanks for reading. If this resonated with you, please feel free to comment below or drop me an email. Until our mats unfurl again, be well.  Meredith Kramer has been practicing yoga since 2000 and completed her latest certification through the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires, Massachusetts. She practices too many styles of Yoga to count. Everyone is welcome her classes where she cultivates a sense of play and exploration. Every body and everybody will find their version of the pose.
When not on the mat, you can find Meredith doing karaoke, or devouring a novel whole. She is also a high school Spanish teacher. Visit her website and sign up for her blog at: https://yogabymeredith27.com |
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October 2024
AuthorBETH GIBBS started her yoga practice in 1968, four months after her son was born and she’s been practicing ever since. She currently teaches all levels therapeutic yoga classes for adults, and specialty classes for seniors in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Beth is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists and is guest faculty at the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy. She writes for the blogs, Yoga for Healthy Aging, and Accessible Yoga. Her master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA is in Yoga Therapy and Mind/Body Health. Categories |
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